can you run f@h console off a usb thumb drive?
DanG
I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
At work, I try to use F@H as part of the burn in that I put new systems through, and depending on the speed of a system, sometimes they are part way though a wu when I need to pack them up and I hate losing half of a 50 pointer, so I thought that I'd be able to set up console on the thumb drive because they work just as a normal drive with read and write capabilities. That way I can get a machine to go as far as time permits and then get another to finish it off at a later time.
possible?
possible?
0
Comments
Holy crap! 16mb keychains are only a few bucks. That's an amazing idea!
And since keychains usually automount, I can't see why using an autorun.inf file like on a CD-ROM couldn't auto-launch the client.
/me goes to put F@H on his keychain.
They only Auto-Unmount on XP by default, you need to change the Device manager settings for Windows 2000 to get it to auto unmount and to not use Delayed Write Caching, otherwise you will lose the WU when you unplug it (I bring that up as if you don't have admin priveledges then you can't change any device settings in Device Manager).
Not sure about 98 and 95 as they require a driver for it to work.
Everything else would work though.
NS
The machine the work is transferred to will have to have a user id, which it will automatically get across the net from Stanford the first time that it starts the client. Then, it shouldn't have any problems with work that is transferred from another machine. I actually transferred some WU's earlier this year from my laptop while at work with a machine the Operator's Rep had on the job that had net access. I would copy the data files and queue via floppy's to and from his machine and actually do the work on my laptop.
With a USB thumb drive, it would greatly simplify moving the files in that you would have the entire folder set up and run on the pen drive and you wouldn't have anything actually installed on the computer in question except for a user id enty in the registry.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=637014
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=625404
Lots of motherboards allow you to boot from Pen Drives, so what is stopping you from putting Windows 95 on the pen drives and using them as removable hard-drives/operating systems......
Suppose there is no point with you being able to get Hard-drives so cheap though.
NS
thumb folding would be sweet
http://distributed.org.ru/?udmon.faq-fah
The cost is what rules this decision actually, there ARE coming on the market 1 GIG flash RAM drives, but they are not as tiny or as cheap as the older microdrive technology.
In theory, for a burnin only, there is no reason a large 18 day Gromacs WU cannot be used and the client and WU and folders burned to CD and then copied to HD with whole tree transplanted that way including work directory(once transplanted, simply remove the read-only attribute for the whole transplanted subtree). Let the box ASK for online when done, you will know when done that way.
I have a P4 box that does these in about 1.0-1.6 days or less, it is a SLOW P4 box(also varies by project, most of the newer Gromacs projects that are betas from Project number 320 to 378 will satisfy this(some are smaller), and if you reset the machine ID and possibly UID within the folding team you choose with a config run after copy you can even turn them in as many dupes of gen and project subvariant are accepted and correllated to get good result predictions for the next betas and the finals that then result from the betas and the drilldowns from those also. Burn result to CD if you do not want the boxes online as burnin often happens before all security patching and AV software install is done, then send from an online box.
The microdrive is fully dynamically RW at full speed, that is its advantage, the CD is duplicable, and when I predelivery test a box one test is CD-RW or combo drive USE for at least one each of data and audio CDs. I am quite sure you can store a bunch of WUs and a full client work area tree on a CD-RW media also if desired, though it will burn slower.
All these take drivers to RW, usually. Therefore, for a burnin you might want to transfer stuff from a temporarily inserted HD, which is by far the least expensive of all choices, then transfer back. This avoids possible driver conflicts making a good box look flaky also. I think the time to install and validate drivers would be more than the time to install a Cold-IDE swap bay for a HD in a matching tray.
It screws in with four screws in a full size 5-1/4" bay in about 2-3 min max if you use a ratcheting screwdriver as I do (Home Depot, stubby, about $4.00-- time includes front facia plate removal(first thing) and grabbing the metal filler plate with a needle nose vise grip and rocking\twisting off after taking a large mechanics straight tip screwdriver and starting it, or an easy bend down for the bendable ones that form a front shelf for 5-1/4" drives when bent).
Lessee, 40 GB Caviars were $56.00 when I last bought on NewEgg, Cold-SWAP IDE kit was about $25.00 plus ship (drives were free ground ship, kit was an ATA 66\100\133 kit). Drives were bulks, kits had screws and etc and needed no drivers at all. No-brainer, to me, HD wins.
John. (who also images preinstalls of OEM XP from HD sometimes, though he DOES use COA keys to validly run the installer itself completely).
John.
Ageek, don't you think microdrives and 1+ gigs of storage is a bit excessive for a "lite" stealthy folding client??