Hard Drive Cache?

[AphexDreamer]

Should I use my Hard Drives Cache? It has like 8MB of cache on it and I don't know if it would provide a performance increase or how much of a performence increace it could provide. I have no backup power supply and I don't think it has a battery. So would the benifts of enabling this be more then the risks?

[francis511]

What do you mean by enabling it ?If you can you should.It`s just a buffer and should be on at all times.

[AphexDreamer]

Yeah, you can enable it or disable it. But in windows vista under Enable advance performance it says "Recomended only for disks with a backup power supply. This setting further improves disk performance, but also increases the risk of data loss if disk power is lost." so should I enable it?

[FujiwaraTakumi]

Yeah, you can enable it or disable it. But in windows vista under Enable advance performance it says "Recomended only for disks with a backup power supply. This setting further improves disk performance, but also increases the risk of data loss if disk power is lost." so should I enable it?

Technically, you're always at risk of data loss when power is lost. Microsoft is probably talking specifically about whatever's stored in the hard drive's cache in the case of a power loss. Anything that is in cache when power is lost is pretty much wiped clean. That's probably the "risk of data loss" vista's talking about.

Personally, I would enable it.

[ex_reven]

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/cacheWrite-c.html