HDD policies "enable advanced performance"

JaffaJedi · 12 Jan 2008 at 18:16

Just noticed in Vista in the HDD properties under policies a check box for "enable advanced performance"

Is it worth enabling this?

I would try myself but I am copying loads of data across both drives just now.

helmutcheese · 12 Jan 2008 at 18:21

Yes and its all on good tweak sites, Vista will not run a SATA HDD at peak perfomance without it.

I would not advise on a lappy though.

JaffaJedi · 12 Jan 2008 at 18:22

ah great

I will switch it on

Cheers

Skeeter · 12 Jan 2008 at 21:24

helmutcheese said:
Yes and its all on good tweak sites, Vista will not run a SATA HDD at peak perfomance without it.

I would not advise on a lappy though.

Isnt this one of the HDD features on Vista that make the drive perform better, but drastically reduce the lifespan?

Buckster · 13 Jan 2008 at 17:00

you can only enable it if you have already enabled Write Caching on the drive in Vista

which afaik is a big no no

Mark.

kmufc77 · 13 Jan 2008 at 17:19

where is the hd polices on vista as im not sure if i have it enabled?

helmutcheese · 14 Jan 2008 at 00:44

On a Nvidia Controler " Write Caching " is on by Default and it does no harm, infact the actual idea of having Read or Write Cache off dont make sence.

I know some Controlers dont like it in Vista though.

I had a HDD not that long ago that the Cache chip died, and it was as slow as a week in the jail, I mean less than PIO mode and 8+ hours to defrag etc etc.

gurusan · 14 Jan 2008 at 01:02

I've just checked this option...what exactly does it do? How does it make it faster?

helmutcheese · 14 Jan 2008 at 01:57

The same as any Cache, the memory chip is faster than a Metal Disc spinning and acts as a Buffer.

AWPC · 14 Jan 2008 at 05:36

Anyone know why I cannot enable this on my HD's (Raptor 150 + Raid 0 2 x Samsung Spinpoints).

I can check it then when I look in device manager again it is blank as though I never checked it in the first place. Weird or what!

rpstewart · 14 Jan 2008 at 08:48

Haven't dig into it in any detail yet but I have the same issue. If I try and set the write caching on I the dialogue states that the caching cannot be changed for the drive. That's on an Intel ICH7R controller on both the RAID0 array and a single non RAID drive.

Sounds like a driver issue but as I say, not had a real good look yet.

helmutcheese · 14 Jan 2008 at 15:18

I would download the Hitachi Feature Tool and boot to it and see if both Read and Write Caches are Turned On.

Thats how I found out about that dodgy HDD I mentioned above.

Also I read something about (Write cache) not using it for the Intel Chipsets, could be a Vista thing.

AWPC · 14 Jan 2008 at 17:03

Think its because Intel chipsets (I have the P35) do not allow you to adjust AHCI settings when you have Raid enabled so this is disabling the cache for some strange reason.