Surf in the surf

[Keith Hart]

Sureley this technology could be applied to putting computers on RIBs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3812357.stm

Keith Hart

[codprawn]

There is no way a hard drive would be able to take the hammering a Rib would be able to dish out - the G force would kill it in seconds.

Having said that it is quite possible to run a Laptop purely from RAM w2ith no hdd present - just make a bootable cd/dvd with everything you require on it - you could save data to a usb ram stick - just remember when the power goes off you will lose it all except what was saved to the usb stick.

To be honest hard drives are really old fashioned tehnology that has been pushed a long way - I am sure people like Bell or Eddison would have grasped the technology as soon as they looked inside one - some magnetic disks spinning at high speed with a mechanical arm moving heads back and fore - I ask you!!!

[roohairy]

Codprawn - I know this has nothing to do with Ribs, but I didn't start the topic! Do you know of any software to make a Ramdiisc, Want to use an old PC I have as a firewall with no HDD. Can the Ramdrive that a windows 9x startup disk creates be forced to create a larger size drive?

[roohairy]

Keith, is this smaller than yours?

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by roohairy

Can the Ramdrive that a windows 9x startup disk creates be forced to create a larger size drive?

Roo, you should be able to do this... I haven't tried it on Win 9x, only on Win 3.1 so that was many years ago, and this is working from memory...
Look for the config file that loads up the ramdrive.sys driver. IIRC it's config.sys file (use notepad as it's a text file) and you should be able to set a parameter. I'll try to look for an old W98 disk later and be a bit more specific. The tricky bit is getting it to use upper memory...

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by roohairy

Codprawn - I know this has nothing to do with Ribs, but I didn't start the topic! Do you know of any software to make a Ramdiisc, Want to use an old PC I have as a firewall with no HDD. Can the Ramdrive that a windows 9x startup disk creates be forced to create a larger size drive?

try XMSDSK -have a look at this

http://www.simtel.net/product.php?ur...duct_page=4825

Goes up to 2gb if you have enough ram!!!

The best and easiest option would be to use a Linux bootable floppy that contains a firewall

http://www.confederatelinux.com/linux/floppy.htm

There are various available - see which suits you best

Please note - getting it to work ok using a Microsoft solution is NOT easy!!!!

[Keith Hart]

It is
Keith Hart

[Alex Brown]

Don't forget that once you've taken ages to fill 2gig of ram with info, the battery will typically die and you have to start all over again

I like the bootable linux idea myself, got to be worth a try I think with one of our old hard disk dead laptops at work......

The next trick is to get the mobile phone to sustain an internet connection whilst offshore. With any luck, I'll have the laptop with me and internet-connected whilst we're pootling around in the Irish Sea over the next couple of days.

-Alex

[james00042]

Hi People.

Have you looked at using compact flash instead of a hard disk? As CF has no moving parts it should be good for crashing through waves.

Providing you make sure the CF is conencted to the IDE port you should be able to boot from it.

Most CF readers are connected via the USB port, but a quick googleloogle and i found this place that sells IDE versions.

mini itx warehouse

[roohairy]

Thanks for all the ideas, going to have a play when I get a chance.

[ashbypower]

Check this out!!
http://www.edombmrugged.com/lt450s.html