Is a 32 gig USB 2.0 Flash drive spacious enough to use as an emergency boot drive?

[Robert M]

Is a 32 gig USB 2.0 Flash drive spacious enough to use as an emergency boot drive?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking... I’d like to use a flash drive as an emergency boot drive. The drive will have the basic OS (Disk Utility, Mail, TextEdit, Safari, etc), a disk repair app like TechTool Pro, DiskWarrior and Drive Genius and maybe one or two other useful productivity apps.

Is 32 gigs large enough for an OS 10.6.x or OS 10.7.x installation and the aforementioned apps?

I’m also thinking of using a similarly configured flash drive for use as a boot drive to run some apps that don’t work under OS 10.6.x and 10.7.x. Same quesiton... Would a 32 gig drive do the trick?

I know there are 64 gig drives for under $70 but in this case, cost is a factor and I don’t want to go with standard hard disk drives due to cost and storage (no place to keep them on my desk. Flash drives are much smaller than even portable drives.). If 32 gig drives will do the trick, then I’m set since I can get them for less than $25 each. If not, I’ll have to go with a 64 gig drive now and grab another one at a later time.

I know the flash drives aren’t going to be speedy since they are USB 2.0 but I think they’ll do the job. What do you think?

Thanks,

Robert

[Jimmypoo]

I’ve done it with an 8GB drive and 10.6. DMG is 3.6GB

[Jimmypoo]

Remember those apps are small. It’s the boot disk that makes them big. When they all share the same “DVD”
they only add about 100MB to the mix. DiskWarrior is only 8.5MB.

[adamant]

Have you ever seen the inside of Snoopy's house?

[MGS_forgot_password]

Low-end MacBook Airs come with 64 gig SSDs.

I think 32 gigs will be plenty.

[tortoise]

Speed of flash drives is not a constant and some are faster than others, I use Mushkin enhanced Mulholland 8GB flash drives with a small 10.6 install and entire suite of various troubleshooting utilities. Friend of mine tried the same thing with cheap flash drive from Frys and it was so slow as to be unusable, he asked me about it and after switching to the Mushkin model he was amazed at the difference. Google search shows prices are reasonable for something that works.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&tok=fWrVuZkytCdIkyMy53LIMw&cp=19&gs_id=2g&xhr=t&q=mushkin+enhanced+mulholland&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=mushkin+enhanced+mu&aq=0&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=f20844cc91153529&biw=1205&bih=683

[JoeH]

I set up an emergency boot drive on a 16 GB SDHC card to use with my iMac. It still has over 7 GB of free space.

[anonymouse1]

16 GB is more than enough.

Be sure you get a _fast_ flash drive--many of them are slow. I've been happy with the Mushkin Mullholand; good reports on some of the Patriot models. Or you could put a small SSD into a 2.5" USB case, if that's not too clunky.....

[anonymouse1]

This one looks good, but a little spendy:

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-JetFlash...slickdeals&tag=slickdeals

[tenders]

I've booted OS X off of a Class 10 SD card when configuring Dell Mini 9s. It's infuriatingly slow for general use, but for emergency boot purposes it's actually OK.