Booting from USB ...

[prickly]

Does anyone have any advice / real world experience in running a fitpc from a USB Jump Drive?

I assume that disabling the swap file is a good idea (so that there are less writes to the drive) ... although I think that this should be less of an issue with linux?

If the life of the drive is an issue I guess the answer is to clone the USB Drive and have a working spare available? Or is it simply better to just purchase a regular drive?

I am currently looking at either Ubuntu Server or CentOS Server ...

[ender]

Since the Fit-PC2 already has space for 2,5" drive, I suggest you simply buy one of those - you should be able to get an 80GB drive for around 30€, which although is somewhat more expensive than the cheapest USB keys, it also gives you much more usable space.

[rbordel]

One issue I discovered was that if you have an internal hard drive and attempt to use an USB hard drive (as opposed to flash), the fit-pc's power supply may not be sufficient to power the PC and both drives simultaneously.

I ended up using a notebook to temporarily provide auxiliary power to the external drive while I performed an install.

[irads]

The insufficient power is unlikely to be of the fit-PC2 power supply, but of the power delivered through USB to the external disk. It is recommended to use USB cable with extra USB plug for additional power for connecting external hard disk.