Boot from SD card Reader?

Any of " require re-activation if the hardware is considerably different" would negate it's existence, ne spas ?

Hi there

OK that's fine too - but you see what I mean - the OS has to basically load a driver if the device isn't recognized at BIOS power on.

IMO having a small Linux OS to load the drivers and then boot is fine but essentially a "Get around".

You'd still need to run this OS from an EXTERNAL device before the system would boot from say an INTERNAL Card reader so you'd still have to initially plug in a USB stick or other device to get this to boot from an internal SD card. (If you didn't do this and used this program on an internal HDD then it's also "cheating").

With say no HDD in a laptop and just the INTERNAL SD card present can this program boot the computer -- I somehow don't think so. With an HDD in place - then yes it can. I can boot a Linux system from /dev/mmcblk01 (internal sd card) if the bootstrap is read first from the HDD in the laptop - but that's not what I think we are trying to do. !!

What I want someone to do is REMOVE the HDD from a laptop and with ONLY the internal SD card available BOOT the laptop with NO EXTERNAL USB DEVICES connected.

Cheers
jimbo

Once upon a time, bootstrap had to be loaded on HDD (old MFM and BFI drives) before DOS would recognize it. So you would have to boot to it's utility diskette, make a bootstrap on HDD and only than to be able to use it.

badrobot said:

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

OK that's fine too - but you see what I mean - the OS has to basically load a driver if the device isn't recognized at BIOS power on.

IMO having a small Linux OS to load the drivers and then boot is fine but essentially a "Get around".


You'd still need to run this OS from an EXTERNAL device before the system would boot from say an INTERNAL Card reader so you'd still have to initially plug in a USB stick or other device to get this to boot from an internal SD card. (If you didn't do this and used this program on an internal HDD then it's also "cheating").

With say no HDD in a laptop and just the INTERNAL SD card present can this program boot the computer -- I somehow don't think so. With an HDD in place - then yes it can. I can boot a Linux system from /dev/mmcblk01 (internal sd card) if the bootstrap is read first from the HDD in the laptop - but that's not what I think we are trying to do. !!

What I want someone to do is REMOVE the HDD from a laptop and with ONLY the internal SD card available BOOT the laptop with NO EXTERNAL USB DEVICES connected.

Cheers
jimbo

Even if it works, I don't understand why one would ever want to boot from SD card. It's a slow and painful task to run an OS on SD card. I am not even use a 7200rpm spinner anymore. The best solution for Windows portability is an 8" tablet with micro-HDMI to HDMI cable (if there is an available bigger screen).

Hi there

My best "Portable Windows" is my SP3 -- so I sort of "semi agree" with you there.

I wouldn't also use an SD card for running an OS - an external SSD drive (quite portable) makes for me the best solution - and with a Windows to Go system on it it's also a totally useful windows system that runs almost as fast as a native windows even if plugged into a USB2 port via a USB2==> Sata connector. With a Windows to Go system I can run different language versions of Office etc if I'm on a clients site etc etc.

Even running a Linux system and then bringing up a standard version of Windows as a VM can run really great from an external SSD (which are cheap enough these days anyway) so the whole SD thing is a bit of a waste of time - but it WAS an interesting technical challenge,

Now what *Could* be interesting is to see if you could create a Windows to Go or a Linux system to boot up from a MOBILE PHONE connected as a USB device to your PC.

As the phone is an ACTIVE device it *should* be able to interact with the computer BIOS .

Any takers on this one !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Superfly said:

I don't think it's entirely a waste of time - take the scenario where you are on the move - in some remote place - nothing but your notebook with a single SSD which suddenly goes nuts and can't boot - would be nice to restore from SD...

Hi there

You can do this relatively easily -- if you have say a usb stick you can boot a Linux system up (absolutely no prob booting Linux from a USB stick) and then restore an image existing on an INTERNAL SD card (even a micro SDHC card which fits into those SD adapters).

Most Linuxes recognize the internal SD card as something like /dev/mmcblk01. Now use the DD command to restore a stored image on the card to your internal HDD. There are zillions of live Linux distros out there so you don't even need to create / install one.

Another solution is a stand alone restore program that you boot from the USB stick which can read / write to an internal SD card -- Acronis can - but I'm not sure about Free Macrium. A Linux based recovery program should be able to read / write to the SD card.

Note you still need the USB stick to boot the original program but the internal SD card will be fine for holding the recovery images -- you'll probably need the 32 GB micro sd card though. Note this DOES work but it's not the fastest method as I/O on an internal SD card is quite slow.

So if you don't mind just having a USB stick for your boot program you can even store the images on a micro SD card on your phone if need be. !!!

Cheers
jimbo