Why is USB stick discouraged as boot medium for openmediavault

Question

I have read at http://wiki.openmediavault.org/index.php?title=Installation that USB sticks are not recommended as boot devices.

I thought that such a systems are optimized to limit system disk accessing after booting and therefore a USB stick could be used.

Or did I misunderstand and they distinguish between USB stick and USB thumb drive?

So what type of system disk should I use, if I prefer something that does not spin and heat up and is cheap and consumes low energy - like a USB thumb drive / USB memory stick?

Solution

I believe the issue is that commodity USB sticks tend to have a relatively short lifetime when subjected to the rigors of being a boot disk. You could always try it, but they often die after just a few months. In general it is a good idea to go for a faster, higher quality drive for better chances of it lasting.

A small SSD would be your best bet. Or you can try USB, but keep backups.

Comments

[mit]

Excessive I/O lets an USB or SD memory device wear out fast, but I guess openmediavault does only access it on boot and you boot this machine only once in ages.