Hello Samnmy,
You should have a performance gain with the write cache enabled for the HDD. It really depends on the usage for if you will notice anything though. I would recommend to run HD Tune on the HDD with write cache enable and disabled to get some hard numbers to get a better idea.
Hope this helps,
Shawn
Should I do this step on a solid state drive?
Casey
Hello Casey,
I would just leave it set to how it is by default. You can give it a try though with the write cache enabled and disabled to see how it runs for you, but it was faster with my SSD with it still enabled.
does anyone know a command line to turn on or off the 2 Write-cache options?
What I noticed with the having the cache enabled vs disabled using HD Tune as a reference is that the speeds are just slightly better with it enabled looking at the stats. However, where the difference truly lies is the sustained seek and write times. With the cache disabled, the minimum drops to < .5 MB/sec but with the write caching enabled it stays around the 122 MB/sec witha maximum of 138 MB/sec on a SATA 6 3.5nch drive.
My major concern is data loss...when, not if, there is a power loss or a BSOD occurs. Me thinks if data loss is is such a big thing, why is write caching enabled by default?
Last edited by Sammy888; 01 Feb 2011 at 07:07.
Hello Sammy,
Write Caching is suppose to help a HDD perform better by caching data in faster memory before needed than just loading it from the slower HDD platters on demand. The NOTE box in OPTION TWO can help give more in-depth details on this though.
Now for a SSD, it should be faster to have write caching turned off.
Last edited by Brink; 01 Feb 2011 at 23:19. Reason: typo
Thanks. The information is sending me mixed messages. I have everything at the default level like in the pic. I still don't know which is the best option for a HDD non SSD drive or untick in the event of sudden system shutdown?
Brink,
I enabled write cache command for my external 320 GB hard disk.But I did not notice any improvement.why?
If your system is at high risk for power losses or sudden shut downs, then it would probably be best to disable write caching for the HDD to avoid the potential of data loss.
If not, then you could gain some performance by leaving it enabled.
You probably wouldn't notice much if any difference with the naked eye.
This is one that you would have to run a HDD benchmark for to possibly see a difference. It would also help if AHCI is enabled for the HDD and not have it in IDE when Windows 7 was installed on it. You would not want to change this setting in BIOS for the HDD unless you were doing a clean install though.
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