# which kind of disk for a light system?

## hujuice

In front of my sofa, instead of the popular tv, I've a computer aimed to be a so-called "media center".

It is a totally recycled machine, from old parts, except the screen and a little hi-fi amplifier/speaker system.

I've there a very slow and noisy and oversized IDE disk and I could be very happy to find a cheap solution to substitute it.

Consider this:

```
$ df -h

File system                  Dim. Usati Dispon. Uso% Montato su

rootfs                       5,1G  289M    4,8G   6% /

/dev/root                    5,1G  289M    4,8G   6% /

rc-svcdir                    1,0M   88K    936K   9% /lib64/rc/init.d

cgroup_root                   10M     0     10M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup

udev                          10M  224K    9,8M   3% /dev

shm                         1005M     0   1005M   0% /dev/shm

/dev/mapper/media-usr1       8,0G  3,8G    4,3G  47% /usr

/dev/mapper/media-var1       1,0G  474M    551M  47% /var

none                         1,0G   94M    931M  10% /var/tmp

none                         512M     0    512M   0% /tmp

/dev/mapper/media-usrlocal1  512M   37M    476M   8% /usr/local

/dev/mapper/media-opt1       1,5G  189M    1,4G  13% /opt

/dev/mapper/media-home1      1,0G  535M    490M  53% /home

/dev/mapper/media-mass        12G   33M     12G   1% /mass

head:/usr/portage             15G   11G    4,6G  70% /usr/portage

head:/archivio               466G  315G    151G  68% /archivio
```

So, I need 6-8 Gb.

What's the best?

I feel crazy to find or buy a huge SATA disk or an expensive SSD.

I'm oriented to a pocket flash-disk, but I dislike it, because the leaning out (how many *days* before I give it a kick?) and the slow writings.

Does somebody have other ideas?

Regards,

HUjuice

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## NeddySeagoon

hujuice,

If you have another Linux system, root over NFS is good. 

You put a copy of your HDD into a folder on on anther system and serve the kernel using tftp to the meda centre and mount root and everything else over NFS.

There is no need for a disk at all in the media centre. There is  Gentoo diskless howto document.

I run a media server in the garage and a diskless and fanless media player under the TV.

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## gorkypl

You can consider a 8GB SD/CF card connected through an adapter to IDE interface, just try to tweak the system to avoid unnecessary R/W cycles (minimize swap, mount /tmp in RAM etc).

Also a 2.5" second-hand laptop disk could be a good alternative.

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## hujuice

I like both ideas.

But (why I'm so stupid?  :Laughing:  ) a diskless solution could be the best.

That's what I want. I light solution, easy to manage.

What's easier than a system where I can have access when the media-center is off?

I will run there.

Thanks a lot!

HUjuice

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## NeddySeagoon

hujuice,

As you say, access when the media centre is off is ideal. Unfortunately my host and client have different CPUs, so I need to build on the media centre system.

I can still ssh into it to do that.

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## roarinelk

NFSroot is a pain; I suggest you use iscsi instead.

The CF card idea is great: I have a similar kind of system which boots a 

very stripped down Gentoo installation off a 4GB CF card, connected via a ide-to-CF adapter.

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## NeddySeagoon

roarinelk,

NFS root over nfs version3 just works.  Version 4 is proving to be a pain.

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