USB Drive

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Paul Earland
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Joined: Wed 16 Jan 2013, 19:51

USB Drive

#1 Post by Paul Earland »

Hello. Sorry if this is and odd question, but wondered what was the best USB memory size for linux Puppy. Sure I read somewhere that too much memory can cause some problems. Was looking at 16GB only because this was the only size in stock for the type I was looking for.

Thanks.

Master_wrong
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#2 Post by Master_wrong »

Sure I read somewhere that too much memory can cause some problems.
I never heard that.
i use 4GB btw and it enough for me for anything that i need. if i still need more space, just plug another, 8gb, surely that is more than enough.
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p310don
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#3 Post by p310don »

There is no problem with the size of the memory stick. 16g works well.

The only consideration is that most memory sticks and other flash media are formatted to FAT32. In that filesystem, the biggest file you can put on the drive is 4gig. In everyday life, that won't present a problem, but, if you ever need to have a single file larger than 4g (DVD ISO eg) then you may need to format it to a different file system.

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duke93535
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#4 Post by duke93535 »

The antique bios on my Gigabit mother board, which is the newest we have, is limited to only loading 4Gb partitions of USB flash memory.

My dad’s has a little bit older As Rock board and it sees anything we have used. Just be aware that some bios have limitations.

duke

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greengeek
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#5 Post by greengeek »

I have both a 16GB and a 32GB usb stick permanently plugged in to my laptop to give me more storage capacity and I have had no problems in any puppy.

I have tried a variety of different partition setups and tend to have a 4-8GB FAT32 partition on most sticks so that I can easily transfer files to a MAC or Win machine if necessary, and then I use the rest of the stick for an ext2 or ext3 partition (and also a 512MB linux swap partition)

If you are referring to problems caused by size of the pupsave personal save file the biggest I have run is just over one gig, but I do remember reading about someone who was running an 8gig savefile. That sounds risky to me but I really don't know the practical limits - it probably depends on the version of Puppy you run.

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OscarTalks
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Re: USB Drive

#6 Post by OscarTalks »

Paul Earland wrote:Sure I read somewhere that too much memory can cause some problems. Was looking at 16GB..
When I first started using Puppy I ran Live CD with save-file in a USB flash drive for several months and I did find that with some machines and using a 16GB stick Puppy would not find the save-file on about 2 out of 3 boots.

I only had 2 of these which I bought together so I remember thinking they may have been from a slightly dodgy batch. I recall that if I shrank the partition down to around 8GB it worked OK, but beyond that I didn't test the possibility that 16GB may be over the top in terms of capacity.

Most of the time I used other flash drives of 4GB or 8GB for the save-file and the 16GB ones work flawlessly otherwise as storage.
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Flash
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#7 Post by Flash »

duke93535 wrote:The antique bios on my Gigabit mother board, which is the newest we have, is limited to only loading 4Gb partitions of USB flash memory.

My dad’s has a little bit older As Rock board and it sees anything we have used. Just be aware that some bios have limitations.

duke
Hm, I think the 4 GB limit is a feature of FAT32 filesystems. 4 GB is the largest file that a FAT32 filesystem can handle. On the other hand, I suppose it could also be a BIOS limit. You might try reformatting the USB flash memory to NTFS or ext2, then see if the BIOS will see the whole thing.

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James C
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#8 Post by James C »

My new 16 gb flash drive.......formatted FAT32. Haven't noticed any trouble using it in my old hardware.
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RetroTechGuy
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Re: USB Drive

#9 Post by RetroTechGuy »

Paul Earland wrote:Hello. Sorry if this is and odd question, but wondered what was the best USB memory size for linux Puppy. Sure I read somewhere that too much memory can cause some problems. Was looking at 16GB only because this was the only size in stock for the type I was looking for.

Thanks.
I'm thinking that you are mixing USB flash drive size with save file size.

In the old days (I don't know that it is still true), there was a recommendation to keep a frugal save file below 1.7 GB (or something like that).

I've been using puppy for some time now, and I use a 512 MB save file. I can't think of a really good reason to go bigger than 1GB save file (keep in mind that you can save downloaded files outside your save file).

That being said, I ran Puppy on a 2GB USB for quite some time. A 4GB is plenty. And if you have a 16GB, go for it.

I have accessed a 2 TB drive from Puppy, so size is not an issue.
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Monsie
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USB Drive

#10 Post by Monsie »

Paul,

Most flash drives are packaged with fat 32. If you use GParted then you can re-format the drive partition as ext 2 or ext 3 This will eliminate the 4gb file size limitation of fat 32. While Puppy can handle fat 32 okay, you will probably get better performance from ext 2 or 3.

When I first started running Puppy, I used a 2 gb flash drive. After six months, I switched to a 4gb flash drive because as Puppy "grew" on me, I ran out of space. For most people, 4gb is sufficient, and anything more is a bonus. Like RetroTechGuy said:
That being said, I ran Puppy on a 2GB USB for quite some time. A 4GB is plenty. And if you have a 16GB, go for it.
All in all though, it really depends on how you use Puppy. If you are going to get into compiling software, trying large packages such as OpenOffice, and/or archiving a lot of files, then I found that 4gb of space was not enough for me.

Lastly, I have found that the price of usb flash drives is dropping considerably. Last September, I bought two 16 gb flash drives OVERPRICED for $9.00 each where I live. :) I really don't think there is a problem with having too much space. :wink:

Hope this helps,
Monsie
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Burn_IT
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#11 Post by Burn_IT »

The trick is to save as much as you can OUTSIDE the Puppy save file. It is also safer in that as far as the media is concerned Puppy (frugal) is mainly just one huge file and any damage to that is far more likely than if you have many smaller files.
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RetroTechGuy
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#12 Post by RetroTechGuy »

Burn_IT wrote:The trick is to save as much as you can OUTSIDE the Puppy save file. It is also safer in that as far as the media is concerned Puppy (frugal) is mainly just one huge file and any damage to that is far more likely than if you have many smaller files.
And the other advantage is, if you run multiple OS (e.g. Windows and Linux), both systems can access all of the files stored outside the save file.

As I said, I run a 512MB save file. I currently have 3 green bars (greater than 1/2 of it free). I store nearly/all of my stuff outside, in various drive partitions (/mnt/home/ is a good candidate -- that is the location of your save file, so when you navigate to it, you will see your container from the "outside").
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