On 8/5/08, Anand Shankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Whats the difference between a USB Storage Device [Pen Drive] and a > regular harddisk, in so far as they present themselves to an Operating > System and BIOS? > > The question springs from a fact that I was told: When we install an > OS on the PenDrive, the concept of MBR is not what it is for a Hard > disk. What it is then?? Is it different when we use a regular harddisk > attached to a USB port, through an external casing?
MBR is defined as the 0th sector of a hard disk (or any other storage media, which can be partitioned, which means CD/DVD don't contain MBR). Wikipedia contains a good article on MBR[1], which as far as I can see is correct. As a user of an OS booting from USB flash drive, I find it no different than HDDs, except for the performance. What I can do on HDD, I can do it on USB disk also. And even if it is exposed through IDE-to-USB adapter, I don't think (thinks, because I never booted from one) there'll be any difference. References: [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record Ashish -- Ashish Shukla आशीष शुक्ल http://wahjava.wordpress.com/ ·-- ·- ···· ·--- ·- ···- ·- ·--·-· --· -- ·- ·· ·-·· ·-·-·- -·-· --- -- _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
