>Hmmmm... So, why do hard drives need to have heads, etc.? Why not just make hard drives from memory? Cost? WHy?

The downsides are discussed here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

Cost, performance, and longevity. Under constant use I've had one start to experience write failures after about 8 months.


>
>>>Why do you need a flash drive to get the performance? Can't it just use a portion of the hard drive?
>>
>>There are a couple of reasons that come to mind, Jay...
>>
>>1) Using the HD, you'd just be adding more traffic/contention to an already critical component;
>>
>>2) Flash drives to not have head movement and rotational latency, which are big factors when a HD is used.
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>>I've been using Vista for about a month now, and (knock on wood) it's been great. (either that, or I've been extremely lucky).
>>>>
>>>>My new laptop has 2 GB of memory, but I recently learned of the ReadyBoost feature in Vista. I found a 2GB ReadyBoost flash drive at a local store for about $30, so I grabbed it. My laptop was pretty speedy before, but it's even faster now - I can actually tell the difference with the naked eye when I load several apps. So if you're a Vista user and don't mind giving up one of your ports, give it a try.
>>>>
>>>>Kevin