An alternative to the Hard Drive?

Sorry, should have said a large THUMB usb drive.

Why not use an iPaq ? Some models have USB or Bluetooth.

There are solid state hard drive available - for exactly the reasons you out line. They are called SSD drives a few manufactures are now making them .... but being pretty new technology they are not cheap.

apcmag.com/4996/hard_drives_go_solid_state

But you better be ready to exercise your wallet pretty seriously!

Cheers

Mark

Are you planning to use the laptop while moving?
If not, should be OK. Most laptop HDs park the heads when off.
(my old PC used to have manual park head command, but windows seems to have solved the problem.)
Just mount it on a bit of foam rubber , or carry it on the seat when travelling to minimise those hard shock loads.

If you are planning to use while travelling, laptops are a bit better than desktops.

Not sure how you would set up BIOS and the boot.ini file to find the usb port to find the boot files? The USB port drivers normally load as part of the windows boot.

You can however boot off the CDrom drive no problems. Windows is setup to do this from BIOS.

Not sure if I have helped. Interesting problem.

PS - at one stage 20 years ago when I was working 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off in Sydney (over 6 months), and taking my computer with me in the car each time, the hard disk used to fall over every 2nd trip due to vibration. Oil change on the car co-incided with a full format and reload of the OS/software/data files from backups. Using 50mm of sponge rubber under the computer meant it only had to be done every 3 months. Now its every 2 years with the laptop whether it needs it or not.

Most recent PC's and laptops will allow you to boot the machine from a USB port (set it as option in the BIOS). This means that if you have a large enough USB drive you can run a complete operating system (windows, linux) off the USB port and never bother with the hard drive.

Never actually tried it myself but I belive many universities do this now for computers in libraries and pc pool areas. It means less maintenance of desktops and virus infections and the like. Each student carries all their work and programs on a USB drive, walks up, plugs in and boots up.

I am sure a Google search would yield a few "how to" guides to get this working. If you have more than one USB port then you could use 1 drive for operating system and software and another (or several) for mapping data. Depending on size of maps etc you could have 1 x 1Gb drive of maps for each state for example. 1 Gig USB drives are around for only 40 or 50 bucks each now.

If you get it going then I would love to hear how you went. Give us an update here on the forum.

Cheers
Muddy

As a follow on.

I do run ozexplorer on my PDA, and have the full NATMAP 1:250k and a few other maps on an SD card.
Also a few programmes. Seems to fit fine on a 2gb card with a little to spare.

But then that doesn't include an operating system. WIN OS maybe 1gb more if really cut down, our about 2gb more if a small version?

To think I used to fit everything on a 760k 5.25" floppy!

Loved those 8" floppies (1mb) for Unix system 7.

If you wanna have all your info on the flash drive, the only downside would be losing the darn thing! I keep my usb in my wallet to try avoid this. I dunno if you could fit a 16gb usb in your wallet tho...

Do like I do carry two HDD's for the laptop a 2.5" disk drive costs only a couple hundred for a huge ones - get a 2.5" caddy (hdd USB holder) mount one in this - load laptop with everything then ghost the two drives. Remove the USB HDD and keep in safe place. If primary fails remove it and plug in the one from USB - Easy and cheap.

Having said all this in the 6 years I have been 4WD with a laptop running everyday I have only replaced one disk and this happened when I was using the laptop at a client site to copy data from a server. I have never lost a drive whilst out in the bush ever and we give the laptop hell.

Fizz,

Contact: www.amtex.com.au

These guys are specialists in this field.

Absolutely no business affiliation, just a very happy customer.

David

The solid state hard drive mentioned above is the go for this.

Another thing you can do since you have an IBM (Lenovo)...
You should have software installed called "Thinkvantage Active Protection System".
What this does is pauses the hard disk platters from spinning whilst it detects shock or movement. There are varying levels of sensitivity.
If you don't have this software installed, download it using either the software update utility, or from IBM/lenovo's website.
Here is the link: Site Link

Of course this will just delay a failure, by a fair amount though. Keep a regular backup of your stuff just in case.

Laptop harddrives are remarkably vibration and shock resistant compared to their bigger brothers.
I wouldn't be too concerned.

Laptop hard drives seem to be more prone to failure than their bigger brothers, even in laptops that never move off a docking station.

I suspect it's related to heat - some laptop designs are bad at removing heat.

My suggestion is to make sure you have plenty of ventilation around the laptop when using it while driving. I took one to the High Country once and put it on the passenger seat with sheepskin cover and it eventually froze (boiled?) due to the heat buildup. I should have known better...but it booted up again after cooling off.

Issuing the head park command before shutting down - now those were the days. How I loved my first 400Gb HP SCSI drive. I needed a new substation in the neighborhood and the noises were insane....

OS re-install from floppies in about 15 minutes .....

apart from the fact that some processors are not designed to be used in laptops, they still are. my supplier only sells the correct type.
unless i have been lucky with my last laptop, it has survived without incident in the 4wd every working day and holidays since i stopped travelling with them in a vertical position behind the drivers seat .
i was shown the damage done to my last ones through bouncing around.
i now lay them flat.
and yes, i do remember having to "park" the laptop in the old days.

Fizz,

Why go to the dark side - www.macgpspro.com/ is well regarded, or use OziExplorer via Virtual PC

Tim

Thanks all!

There seem to be plenty of people whose HDs haven't died, and it turns out my HD does have IBM's disc protection system (Thanks Ivan). So I think I'll go with something like David's setup, and hope I don't have to conduct a funeral. (We are planning Painted Desert > Anne Beadell > Connie Sue > Old Gunbarrel > Simpson)

I can grind off the little lug that puts the thing to sleep when the screen is closed, so it will run whilst shut, and get an 8" touch screen (as discussed in post No 39647) to mount near the dash (Troopy). Have discussed this with the guy at www.bitdistribution.com.au - he says it will work.

If anyone knows any just reason why the above mightn't work, speak now or forever hold your peace!

Tim, having bought the PC, I put my iBook on permanent loan to my son, but I'll never part with the iMacG5! Thanks.

Thanks again to all the helpful repliers.
Fizz