[tlug] shutting off the HD on a laptop

[David Riggs <dariggs@example.com>]

Is it possible to turn the hard drive off, thus saving battery and 
noise, and run off main and say, a flash card in the PCMCIA slot of a 
laptop? I am working on setting up a Thinkpad 50e, and would also do it 
on my Toshiba 1415-S173 if I could. I used to do this on Powerbooks, 
running everything off a RAM disk, and it was really nice. I could get 
along without X if necessary, as I just want to be able to take notes 
and such while on the go and get as much time out of the battery as I can.

David Riggs, Kyoto

Debian Sarge (2.4 now but probably 2.6 if I ever need to)