Chrome OS off SD Card

I don't know whether to post this here or somewhere else, I suppose if it needs to be anywhere else a mod will move it..

Anyway, I'm looking into getting a used Dell Latitude D430 to use as a 'Chromebook' for internet surfing while in bed, now that I have my desktop.

The one I'm looking at doesn't have a HDD, but it doesn't matter because everything is 'on the cloud' anyway. The OS has to be on the laptop though, anyway, is it possible to install Chrome OS on an SD card and run it off that?

TIA,

Joel.

 

from my experience you cannot boot off an sd card reader built into a laptop, now I don't know if it has changed in recent models. you can however boot off an sd card reader adapter that you plug into a usb port something like those sd card reader keychains, or something like this Amazon.com: Kingston 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Flash Memory Card Reader FCR-HS219/1: Electronics or this http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-DataTraveler-Generation2-DT100G2-8GBZ/dp/B0044XTJ4C/. Good luck.

 

Thanks. I figured you could do it off a USB or external reader, bummer you can't with an internal one.. Would make life a little easier.. Oh well. Maybe I'll just have to buy a HDD, they are a little expensive though, given they are a 1.8" drive.

 

Get a SD-> 1.8 SATA inch adapter.

 

That seems like a good idea, cheap too.

 

You can boot off an SD card in the SD card slot on many (most?) modern laptops; I've done it before on my X120e.

That said, an SD card may not be the best solution here, since it doesn't spread the writes across the entire card and can "wear out" over time. Perhaps a relatively inexpensive 32-40GB SSD could be a good option.

 

Or a 32-40gb ( or less since you will be utilizing the cloud) USB flash stick and write Chrome OS to 'persistence' mode, done.

When you want to run ChromeOS simply insert the USB flash stick and run it off that, it will save anything that you actually do save to the OS and you can boot it from any computer ( if the BIOS is set up correctly)

 

My only concern is I don't want to spend lots of money as it will barely get any use, only internet stuff while in bed or something. It might just be worth buying one that has a HDD.

 

I couldn't get a hexxeh build of chrome OS to work on my laptop.

Does it only run on ATOM's?

 

Why not just dual boot with Lubuntu or some such on a small secondary partition? Set Chrome browser to auto start and you have a much more functional desktop that boots pretty damn fast and requires no SD card.

 

Because as I said in my OP it doesn't have a HDD and I was trying to not have to buy one.. the 1.8" ZIF drives aren't that cheap.

 

How about a usb drive like this?

Intenso 3500460 8GB Micro USB Flash Pen Drive: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
Nice and small and can defo boot off it.

 

You could run Lubuntu with a persistent install off of an 8gb sd card.

 

I think I can help in this department.

Most new notebooks can boot from SD cards if their internal interface attaches via USB - meaning that inside the computer the external SD card slot is actually connected to the motherboard via USB. It is essentially the same as adding a USB card reader to your system but is conveniently packed inside the case. I'm not sure if those that interface via PCI support the boot function. I know that the card reader in my ThinkPad X220 does not.

I often boot from SD cards on some of my systems. Especially those in which the SD card retracts completely within the case as I can leave it there and boot form it when desired. There are some downfalls to using the SD cards but I won't go into those here. If you are willing to spend the money, SanDisk makes the "Extreme Pro" series which - on top of having very fast transfer rates - supports ECC and, more importantly, has the best random read/write under 4k (This is important as operating systems write tiny bits of data very frequently for general system tasks).

Feel free to respond if I could be of any more help or if you have any questions. Hope that helps.

-Abe

Addendum: I forgot to mention that if you do decide to go with the SD card for boot and your system does support it, I suggest using "unetbootin" to create the disk. Cheers.