USB flash as swap partition

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

I have old PC (openSUSE 11.1 gnome) with only 256mb (PC2100) RAM and I can’t find where to buy some additional that fits my motherboard :frowning:

So, I am wondering, could I buy a lets say 2GB flash drive and mount it as SWAP partition (I have a usb2.0 controller installed). If so, could you give me some tips/links about how to do this?

p.s. I found some topics talking, that USB flash drives has very limited read/write life time. Does this still apply to new flash drives?

p.p.s or maybe it is better to install whole OS into bigger USB?

thanks in advance :slight_smile:

2

Why not just get a bigger hard drive? Hard drives are cheap nowadays.
I managed to get ram from fleabay and you could probabley get a 2nd hand hdd there as well.
If you want low power consumption, you are better off getting an adaptor and using a compact flash card. It installs as a hdd.
If you use the usb flash, you will have to get the usb support running on boot.

3

I have never thought about this, is there a difference between USB flash and adapter and CF/SD etc cards?

4

I would recommend you to buy a bigger harddrive, too,
because i’m wondering if the read / write access is
fast enough with an USB flash as Swap partition…

5

Yes. The CF card will be recognised as a hdd if you use a CF-IDE adaptor. It also works a lot faster and is more robust for multiple read-write. I use a 2GB one in my smoothwall firewall pc with no other hdd.
The SD cards use a different io system and will need a usb reader. With the price compared to usb drives, they are probably cheaper to use with a usb reader than usb drives. You still need the usb support though.
Why do you want to go this route?