How to NOT use your hard drive...?

[JDSkydiver]

OK:

Ive heard that you can "boot up" &  run simple programs (like a picture viewer/slideshow) without using your hard drive.  I read it on a site of someone who built a laptop picture frame slideshow viewer.

They said not using the hard drive is much quieter, and can be done without use of a hard drive if you do not have one.

Is this true, and can it be easily done?  I would like to take a VERY OLD laptop and make a digital picture frame, using a CD for the "hard drive".   I could make a new Boot CD with new pictures when I want to update the pics.

Thanks in advance!

JDSkydiver

[n3rrd]

The computer is booting off of the CD, or the network, and then basically running a slideshow from a file on another computers HDD.  As far as I knew, you can't get Windows to boot like that using only a CD.  There are distros of Linux that run directly from the CD (although program load times are horrible... think PS2, with heavier compression) such as Knoppix.

Iono how he did it, but why not send him a PM?

[crashwg]

You should get yourself one of those compact flash to IDE adapters.  They're silent and you can fit a stripped down version of windows on one of the bigger ones available.

[n3rrd]

CompactFlash (flash media in general) isn't the most reliable storage media around at the moment.  Granted, it is getting better... everything takes time.

That solution is particularly nice if you are going for one of the Nano-ITX mobos (to say, build a computer inside of an NES, http://www.junkmachine.com), cause it doesn't take up quite as much room as a 2.5" HDD (laptop).

[tristan]

You could boot from a CD running DOS and launch a program over the network or from the CD with no real problems. Pulling the image files off the CD, however, would probably make more noise than a hard drive.

The only problem that you may run into if it's "very old" is that it may not boot from CD, or have sufficient power to run a wireless network card. You could still boot from a floppy, load the CD drivers, then launch the software.

[krick]

Here's some links you might find interesting...

Windows 98 on a CD
http://www.lachiesadicristo.it/w98cd/page1.htm

Windows 95 in 4.47mb
http://osfocus.net/article.asp?PostID=1

Advance CD (bootable MAME CD)
http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/cd-readme.html

[SOAPboy]

Dos
Stipped USB drive (so it fits inside)
Dos Picture Slideshow app
Autoexec.bat edited to run said picture slideshow app..

im sure theres one floating around for dos somewhere..