Disable write caching?

[Ryan]

Hi, I've seen it asked before but I don't believe I've seen it
answered. How do you disable write caching if the option is grayed
out? A friend of mine needs to turn it off to run an xray management
program but they can't figure out how to do so. They're running XP on
an AMD64 2800+ system, Maxtor SATA hd and they're logged on as admin.
Any ideas? All the computers that I have access to, the option is not
grayed out. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[root]

Hi, I've seen it asked before but I don't believe I've seen it
answered. How do you disable write caching if the option is grayed
out? A friend of mine needs to turn it off to run an xray management
program

Curiosity, why turn it off?

 

[davexnet02]

Curiosity, why turn it off?

In general, it's an option thru the driver.
If the default IDE drivers are used, this option is available.
If any other driver is used and/or third party scsi/IDE/SATA
controllers, it may not be.
Check the driver doc.
Dave

 

[Ryan]

Curiosity, why turn it off?

It's for a dental practice management and clinical software package.
He was told that it needed to be turned off in order for the program
to run correctly.

 

[root]

"root" <[email protected]> wrote in message

It's for a dental practice management and clinical software package.
He was told that it needed to be turned off in order for the program
to run correctly.

There is something WRONG with that claim. No package needs it turned off to
run. There could be some desire to have it off for recovery reasons but all
in all that just doesn't sound right. He should ask for a detailed
explanation as to why they want it turned off. Having it off WILL likely
result in diminished performance. Any reasons to have it off is primarily
dealt with by having a UPS and then there's no performance loss.

 

[Ryan]

Tried looking into the drivers and they're all the default. One weird
thing is that when he goes to his Policies tab for the harddrive, he's
only given the "Optimize for quick removal" and "Optimize for
performance" options. When I look at the same tab on my computer,
under "Optimize for performance" I have an "Enable write caching on
the disk" checkbox. He doesn't. He's logged on as admin and so I
can't think of why that is the case. Any ideas?

 

[Richard Urban]

Different IDE motherboard drivers give you different options. You will not
necessarily see options that are on my system nor will I have your options.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban



aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Ryan]

Hello. I agree that would seem to make sense but then we come back to
my original question. How is he supposed to disable write caching
since all he has are grayed out options of "Optimize for quick
removal" and "Optimize for performance". Thank you for any
suggestions.

 

[R. McCarty]

You can use a Dos based Microsoft program called Dskcache.Exe
Run from a Command Prompt it will allow to enable/disable both
the Write Cache and Power Protect.

 

[Richard Urban]

My latest chipset driver upgrade finally allowed me to enable/disable write
cashing. Again, it's all in the drivers!

--

Regards:

Richard Urban



aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard