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Is it safe to run an operating system from an USB flash drive?

Is it safe to run an operating system from an USB flash drive?

I've got a laptop that has a broken harddisk controller. Replacing the motherboard is quite expensive. I thought about buying a flash drive and installing & running the system from it.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 259
Total answers/comments: 2
Guest [Entry]

"There is nothing unusual about running an operating system from a USB flash drive; many Linux distros are optimised for this very purpose.

In fact there is a laptop being sold without any internal storage - you can boot a variety of operating systems from USB keys.

Meet the Gdium Liberty:

'Broken' like yours, by design.

The short answer: yes, it is safe to run an operating system from a USB flash drive.

As for your worries about the life expectany of flash memory, this has been discussed ad nauseam. The interwebs are full with more or less conclusive discussions regarding the matter."
Guest [Entry]

It's fine, especially if you disable swap, I've got several bootable USB sticks I use. However, as soon as you lose that stick, you've given someone your entire OS, and all of the data on it...