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As in the Windows 7 Disk Policy Options:
[x] Enable Write Caching on the device
[ ] Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device
Is the first the cache on the physical disk, and the second the windows cache?
(I've googled, but didn't find a clear answer).
1This answer doesn't help me understand the difference between the two settings. If you flush the cache on every write, then you are not caching - in what way is write caching enabled (first check box)? It seems more likely that flushing occurs periodically when the second check box is disabled, or something similar. – Sam Brightman – 2015-09-20T11:31:47.493
3@SamBrightman: as much as I understand: The first setting enables the windows cache - if an applications writes to a file, it's not immediately passed on to the disk. An application may call "flush" to force things to be written physically. The second option says: when the application says "flush", Windows will still flush its own cache to the device, but will not tell the device to flush its own internal cache. This neuters the "flush" command (as the application thinks data is safe on disk). Acceptable only if data permanence is not a priority. – peterchen – 2015-09-21T10:14:57.217
5as Moab said. The only reason you may want to consider turning off Write Caching on internal hard disks is if you frequently experience brown-outs or black-outs. but if that is the case then i recommend you invest in a decent UPS and leave write caching on – Xantec – 2010-11-26T16:31:18.877
1Thanks for the link! If I understand it correctly, it means "don't flush even if the software says so". I was mostly curious about the second option, testing build speeds on SSD vs. HDD. Power grid problems are rarity-rare here indeed pat-pats german engineering. – peterchen – 2010-11-28T09:10:37.750