SD Card as a pseudo hard drive?

[Macko939]

Hey guys.

 

I got a hp stream laptop and it's great for what I need it (mainly work when I have no access to my desktop) but there's 1 problem.

 

It has 32GB eMMC storage that's soldered to the motherboard so I can't realistically upgrade it, and it's not quite enough.

 

The laptop also has a SD card reader which gave me an idea.

 

Would a SD card work as a HDD replacement? I would run windows and all the essential stuff on my laptop's storage, but I'd also want to run certain programs (like visual studio or GIMP for example) from the SD card.

 

Are there any reasons why it wouldn't work? Is it even a good idea to try it? I'd probably go for a 128GB card.

[ProjectBox153]

It would work fine. You'd just have to choose a directory on the SD Card when you're installing programs. It may not be the fastest, but it should work. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

It would work, but it may not work as well as you want it to. If anything, you should use the SD card for expansion storage rather than system storage.

 

(Before anyone says "you can't run (or run very well) an OS off an SD card!", the Raspberry Pi would like to have a word with you)

[scighera2]

Just now, Macko939 said:

Hey guys.

 

I got a hp stream laptop and it's great for what I need it (mainly work when I have no access to my desktop) but there's 1 problem.

 

It has 32GB eMMC storage that's soldered to the motherboard so I can't realistically upgrade it, and it's not quite enough.

 

The laptop also has a SD card reader which gave me an idea.

 

Would a SD card work as a HDD replacement? I would run windows and all the essential stuff on my laptop's storage, but I'd also want to run certain programs (like visual studio or GIMP for example) from the SD card.

 

Are there any reasons why it wouldn't work? Is it even a good idea to try it? I'd probably go for a 128GB card.

It could work, but the problem would be things like transfer time. I'm not sure that an SD slot has a good enough bandwidth to load things very fast. Maybe if you want to store pictures or papers, sure. But if you're planning on installing a game or video onto the SD card, then you'll probably have super long load times.

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 minutes ago, scighera2 said:

It could work, but the problem would be things like transfer time. I'm not sure that an SD slot has a good enough bandwidth to load things very fast. Maybe if you want to store pictures or papers, sure. But if you're planning on installing a game or video onto the SD card, then you'll probably have super long load times.

There are SD cards rated for 100MB/s+.

 

Most of the problem with SD card transfer times is the reader they're on is slow.

[scighera2]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

There are SD cards rated for 100MB/s+.

 

Most of the problem with SD card transfer times is the reader they're on is slow.

That's what I said I thought. The SD card slot on the actual computer has too slow of a bandwidth to comfortably run intensive programs such as games from it.

[Mira Yurizaki]

12 minutes ago, scighera2 said:

That's what I said I thought. The SD card slot on the actual computer has too slow of a bandwidth to comfortably run intensive programs such as games from it.

Ah, got it. :3