[OT] Looking For OS X Troubleshooting Suggestions

[Kay C Lan]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 1:09 AM, Paul Hibbert <lc at pbh.on-rev.com> wrote:

>
> I'm also pretty sure you can install a copy of your OS on a USB memory
> stick, you may need a reasonable size stick, but they are not too expensive
> now and it should help you determine where the error lies, you'll also see
> how fast the OS boots and runs with a solid state drive too.
>
> Whilst the option to use a thumb drive might work for you, the suggestion
that it will be fast is completely erroneous. USB memory sticks are NOT
Solid State Drives and are not only slower, but slower than mechanical
drives.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/USB-Drives-Corsair-Patriot,review-1337.html

My own benchmarking* of a SanDisk 32 GB was an average of 11MB/s read speed.

Even the above articles 20MB/s read speeds is nothing to write home about.
I've benchmarked* old 40GB 5400rpm 2.5 drives via USB 2.0 that achieve
28MB/s. Modern (1+ TB) 7200 rpm external drives average 64MB/s via FW800
and 84MB/s via an ExpressCard SATA adapter. Via USB 2.0 I still only get 28
MB/s so this may be a limit of USB 2.0, or it may be the external HD case I
was using.

My experience of using a thumb drive as a boot disc is like using a DVD.
Slow as molasses. If you've got one lying around doing nothing, OK it might
be useful, but don't waste your money buying one for this purpose, put it
towards a fast replacement HD.

* using DriveGenius 2 or 3.