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How cool would it be if you could carry a card the size of a quarter that had a full operating system on it? Oh wait, you CAN now.
Apple, in a tech support document, states that the new SD card slots on the MacBook Pro line of laptops will support full fledged OS booting. In fact, they even recommend that you keep a bootable copy of OS X on an SD card, presumably 16GB or 32GB, to troubleshoot your computer when it dies. However, there are a vast amount of possibilities for booting off an SD card.
First, because Apple claims that the SD card slot will support 240 Mbit/s, it will be much faster to boot off of an SD card versus a DVD or CD when installing operating systems. Second, the SD card is always re-writeable, which means it is more flexible than a DVD or CD. OS installs, then, as well as any other program that you need to boot into, will become much easier to manage and use. Furthermore, because SDHC cards can go up to 32GB (currently, perhaps they will grow larger), which is enough to store an entire operating system, files, and settings, you can potentially use the SD card as a portable bootable system that you take between different macs. Unfortunately, Windows tends to fail when booting from external media, since the OS starts and stops the drivers for the media itself, which leads to problems, but this could work for Linux currently, and future versions of Windows may offer solutions as well. The only problem is, losing an SD card is far easier than losing a laptop.
benet
November 10, 2009 at 7:15pm
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kevkevallen
June 14, 2009 at 3:31pm
Yes you can boot from an SD card, and thats totally awesome, don't get me wrong, but why would you want to?
I would rather have a 16- or 32-gig SDHC backup of the important stuff. ie: my documents, photos, videos, and application settings than my OS... My OS is on a DVD somewhere in its original Leopard box tucked away in a closet with all the other DVD's and boxes that my applications have come in.But then again, thats just me... maybe there is someone out there who would want their entire OS on a SDHC card to carry with them.
Quayzar
June 15, 2009 at 6:24pm
I agree that makes sense but my important documents take up more than 32 gb but I rarely ever need more than 16 gb to run Windows. I instead back up to an external HD at home via Time Machine. Usually a once a day backup is all I need but then again couldn't you have two SD cards one for backup and one for an OS.
Quayzar
June 14, 2009 at 8:58am
I was really wanting this feature for Boot camp but I forgot that Windows still doesn't know about modern drivers and booting. It's kind of sad that the majority of 64-bit computers still operate with a 16-bit bios. Thanks Microsoft for staying true to your roots by never advancing past them. Yeah who needs more than 128k anyway?
Dave in Kauai
June 14, 2009 at 8:57am
Does this offer any advantage over a thumb drive? Those things are dirt cheap and come in their own chocolate-y protective coating.
