Any way to remove USB Key

[doglover]

Hi. Thanks for your hard work on this project.
Once the embedded system is booted from the USB, is there any acceptable way to remove the key or must it stay in place?
Thanks,
IMF

[raulfg3]

I never see this question.

what do you want to remove the boot disk?

You need to atach it before to boot every time.

[armandh]

It needs to stay in place to receive any configuration changes you make and
to "be there" for the next boot, not "somewhere" reused by accident.

it is not being ON that wears the flash memory it is the number of write operations.
some users seek to mount the usb flash inside the case to avoid it's removal.
my 3 NAS [below] use small PATA and SATA flash that have a wear leveling feature.
the older active NAS has been up a half year, since the last time I rerouted the power.

the worst thing one can do is try to use an inexpensive USB flash drive for virtual memory.
SWAP partitions are constantly written to, the sort of thing the RAM is designed for.
the sort of thing that will kill flash drives quickly.

an interesting thing I discovered testing a salvaged 2Gb Hdd [from a xerographic printer]
used as a boot device for embedded N4F it can be spun down [install but do not mount]
it will spin up for a config change save and after 5 minutes spin down again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvguvOwi ... e=youtu.be
.