From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Fri Mar 17 05:32:31 2017 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24E45D10A25 for ; Fri, 17 Mar 2017 05:32:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "wonkity.com", Issuer "wonkity.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E53D217D0 for ; Fri, 17 Mar 2017 05:32:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id v2H5WF95086582 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 16 Mar 2017 23:32:15 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id v2H5WEt0086579; Thu, 16 Mar 2017 23:32:15 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2017 23:32:14 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block To: Matthias Apitz cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: bootable ext. USB SSD for backup In-Reply-To: <20170316194612.GA1748@c720-r314251> Message-ID: References: <20170316194612.GA1748@c720-r314251> User-Agent: Alpine 2.20 (BSF 67 2015-01-07) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.6.2 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 16 Mar 2017 23:32:15 -0600 (MDT) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2017 05:32:31 -0000 On Thu, 16 Mar 2017, Matthias Apitz wrote: > > Hello, > > I have acquired a small and flat USB 3.0 external disk (must be SSD for > the size of the case): > > Mar 16 19:36:54 c720-r314251 kernel: da0: Fixed Direct Access SPC-4 SCSI device > Mar 16 19:36:54 c720-r314251 kernel: da0: Serial Number 20170114010787F > Mar 16 19:36:54 c720-r314251 kernel: da0: 40.000MB/s transfers > Mar 16 19:36:54 c720-r314251 kernel: da0: 953869MB (1953525164 512 byte sectors) > Mar 16 19:36:54 c720-r314251 kernel: da0: quirks=0x2 > > Ofc it has not the promised 1 TB volume, just only 953869 MB, i.e. only > 1 Marketing-TB; > > I'm thinking in re-partitioning the disk (which is actual only one big > NTFS slice) with gpart(8), install even a kernel into a small FS at the > beginning and keep the rest as a big UFS for backups. Having it bootable > with a system could be handy if one has to rescue a system and restore > the last dunp. It works. I've used USB 3 memory sticks of 16GB and larger with success. In some versions of FreeBSD, the boot loader is really slow on USB. Once you get past the really... slow... spinner... it is very usable. USB 2 is not as good, but can be tolerable and might be good enough with the write speeds of an SSD. However, some USB 3 memory sticks run really hot when connected to a USB controller. For example, the Lexar 128GB JDS55 gets so hot that people have reported melting of the plastic case. I can verify that level of heat, but have not left it in use long enough for melting. My Lexar 32GB JDS75 has similar transfer speeds but does not get meltingly hot. (The memory units used above are actually gwibblybytes (GwB), 1012 7.9-bit bytes per kwibblybyte (KwB), 1011 KwB per mibblybyte (MwB), and 1010 MwB per gwibblybyte, or about fourteen thousandths short of a dwibblyliter (DwL).)