Sorry, I held this back but I forgot something and wanted to have it somewhat complete.
I've been considering upgrading my Zee S3 to a RBpi 3 processor and at the same time switching from booting from the MicroSD card to a USB device.
Why, few of reasons. You can boot to anything from most USB stick however booting from an SSD or a real hard drive can be an issue as it's all dependent on the drive. Another thing is that USB sticks are MUCH more resistance to being damaged by sudden power loss than a MicroUSB. They, for the same size, tend to cost the same or a bit less.
Since you likely don't want to have a big USB sticks hanging out the side so I'd pickup one of these USB Fit Drives which take-up almost no space at all. See Picture below. I'd got ahead and get the USB 3.0 versions so if a new pi comes out with USB 3.0 it will take advantage of it. Also, it's faster to load from most computers.
There are two ways to boot from a USB drive. One still requires you to have a MicroSD card to start and the other bypasses the MicroSD card all together.
For both way the USB it will use the same images you would normally put on a MicroSD card.
Method one:
This way starts the boot with a MicroSD card but continues it from the USB device. It's a good place to start as you can make sure your USB drive is working. Note, this only works with Raspberry twos, threes and I think even ones.
Boot Raspbian from a USB drive.
Method two:
This second way totally gets rid of MicroSD card requirement. I requires the setting of a One Time Programmable Flag and only works with the RBpi three and above.
If you want to give this a try and have a spare RBpi 3 you want to dedicate to this here are the instructions from the Raspberry Pi foundation on how to do it.
NOTE: Beware that this method is permanent, once done you can't go back to booting from the SD card, however as I read the information from the Raspberry Pi foundation instructions it seems to hint that if an MicroSD card is inserted it will still boot from it. I've not been able to confirm this anywhere so I'd still figure that making this change will kill MicroSD card booting. If I can confirm I will post it here.
I haven't tried with method yet but hope soon. I just through I'd post this incase anyone else wanted to give it a try.
I've been considering upgrading my Zee S3 to a RBpi 3 processor and at the same time switching from booting from the MicroSD card to a USB device.
Why, few of reasons. You can boot to anything from most USB stick however booting from an SSD or a real hard drive can be an issue as it's all dependent on the drive. Another thing is that USB sticks are MUCH more resistance to being damaged by sudden power loss than a MicroUSB. They, for the same size, tend to cost the same or a bit less.
Since you likely don't want to have a big USB sticks hanging out the side so I'd pickup one of these USB Fit Drives which take-up almost no space at all. See Picture below. I'd got ahead and get the USB 3.0 versions so if a new pi comes out with USB 3.0 it will take advantage of it. Also, it's faster to load from most computers.
There are two ways to boot from a USB drive. One still requires you to have a MicroSD card to start and the other bypasses the MicroSD card all together.
For both way the USB it will use the same images you would normally put on a MicroSD card.
Method one:
This way starts the boot with a MicroSD card but continues it from the USB device. It's a good place to start as you can make sure your USB drive is working. Note, this only works with Raspberry twos, threes and I think even ones.
Boot Raspbian from a USB drive.
Method two:
This second way totally gets rid of MicroSD card requirement. I requires the setting of a One Time Programmable Flag and only works with the RBpi three and above.
If you want to give this a try and have a spare RBpi 3 you want to dedicate to this here are the instructions from the Raspberry Pi foundation on how to do it.
NOTE: Beware that this method is permanent, once done you can't go back to booting from the SD card, however as I read the information from the Raspberry Pi foundation instructions it seems to hint that if an MicroSD card is inserted it will still boot from it. I've not been able to confirm this anywhere so I'd still figure that making this change will kill MicroSD card booting. If I can confirm I will post it here.
I haven't tried with method yet but hope soon. I just through I'd post this incase anyone else wanted to give it a try.
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