Something like ReadyBoost, but using a SSD?

[David Arnstein]

I am interested in the Windows 7 feature "ReadyBoost," which uses a
USB/flash memory card as a cache for ordinary disk drives.

What I have in mind is using a fast solid state disk (SSD) as a BIG
cache for my mechanical disk drives.

ReadyBoost seems oriented towards small (one GByte or so) caches on
removable media. What I am interested in is a big cache on an SSD that
will reliably stay attached, so that the caching algorithm can be very
aggressive.

Does such a software package exist?

 

[Augustus]

I am interested in the Windows 7 feature "ReadyBoost," which uses a
USB/flash memory card as a cache for ordinary disk drives.

What I have in mind is using a fast solid state disk (SSD) as a BIG
cache for my mechanical disk drives.

ReadyBoost seems oriented towards small (one GByte or so) caches on
removable media. What I am interested in is a big cache on an SSD that
will reliably stay attached, so that the caching algorithm can be very
aggressive.

Does such a software package exist?

No, but such a hardware solution exists..
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=51379&vpn=OCZSSDPCIE-ZDE84256G&manufacture=OCZ Technology

 

[Mad Ad]

No, but such a hardware solution exists..
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=51379&vpn=OCZSSDPCIE-ZDE84256G&manufacture=OCZ Technology

Thats a pci-e mounted SSD. Whats the difference between that, and a drive
connected via a sata interface to the same pci-e bus for this application?


@ the OP. Why on earth would you use software? Just add the SSD and change
the windows (and any other) caches to point to it. Forget readyboost. The
interface speed of any flash connector is far below that of a sata based
SSD.

It would make more sense to instal you whole OS, caches and all, on the SSD
and keep a backup on one of the mechanicals.

 

[John McGaw]

I am interested in the Windows 7 feature "ReadyBoost," which uses a
USB/flash memory card as a cache for ordinary disk drives.

What I have in mind is using a fast solid state disk (SSD) as a BIG
cache for my mechanical disk drives.

ReadyBoost seems oriented towards small (one GByte or so) caches on
removable media. What I am interested in is a big cache on an SSD that
will reliably stay attached, so that the caching algorithm can be very
aggressive.

Does such a software package exist?

That sounds to be self-defeating. If you simply put the files on the SSD in
the first place no caching will ever be required.

 

[David Arnstein]

@ the OP. Why on earth would you use software? Just add the SSD and change
the windows (and any other) caches to point to it. Forget readyboost. The
interface speed of any flash connector is far below that of a sata based
SSD.

It would make more sense to instal you whole OS, caches and all, on the SSD
and keep a backup on one of the mechanicals.

I agree with everything you write. My issue is that I have too much
data on disk to fit on an SSD. More precisely, I am not willing to pay
up for the SSDs I would need to hold all my data. I also find that
partitioning my data between SSD and mechanical D would be difficult.
I know that I want \WINDOWS to be on SSD, but there is a lot of data
there that I access very ralrely. Similarly for my applications data.

It would be so much easier if I could just let some (intelligent)
device driver decide what disk blocks to cache on 80 GBytes of SSD.

 

[c_atiel]

Not to flame but:
What on earth would possess anyone to use a solid state hard drive as cache
over a USB bus for a mechanical hard drive?
I am interested in the thinking process here because I cannot imagine why
anyone would think that was a rational idea.
All current SSDs read at least twice as fast as mechanical hard drives but
writes may not be all that much faster, slower still over a USB bus, which
makes this even a more bizarre idea.

 

[Mad Ad]

I agree with everything you write. My issue is that I have too much
data on disk to fit on an SSD. More precisely, I am not willing to pay
up for the SSDs I would need to hold all my data. I also find that
partitioning my data between SSD and mechanical D would be difficult.
I know that I want \WINDOWS to be on SSD, but there is a lot of data
there that I access very ralrely. Similarly for my applications data.

It would be so much easier if I could just let some (intelligent)
device driver decide what disk blocks to cache on 80 GBytes of SSD.

80Gig? I was expecting you to say you have one of these new tiny ssds, I
have an 80gig too, a G2 split 25 gig per particion C: D: E: Atm my windows
is on C and has 10 gig spare, leaving 25gig for a games drive and 25 gig for
an application drive. I dont instal anything to C program files, C becomes
unweildy growing all the time so D and E take the instalations which i can
monitor and adjust more easily, this keeps C reasonably static in size (as
well as protecting my installed prog saves, setups and inis on DE if C goes
totally tits up).

In your case i would move D or E to a mech drive and use the whole 25gig for
whatever caches you needed. If you really want to get tight with C size then
use windows environment variables to move things like your desktop, swap,
common files etc to DE too.

 

[Gordon]

an application drive. I dont instal anything to C program files, C
becomes unweildy growing all the time so D and E take the instalations
which i can monitor and adjust more easily, this keeps C reasonably static
in size (as well as protecting my installed prog saves, setups and inis on
DE if C goes totally tits up).

And if C goes tits up you will STILL have to at least do a repair
installation of all your programs because they put entries in the Registry,
which, surprise surprise, is located on the C drive.
So installing programs to another partition other than C is completely
irrelevant and unnecessary...

 

[David Arnstein]

What on earth would possess anyone to use a solid state hard drive as cache
over a USB bus for a mechanical hard drive?

If you are addressing me, I would like to connect both SSD and
mechanical D directly to my motherboard using SATA. I don't want to
use USB at all.

I am interested in the thinking process here because I cannot imagine why
anyone would think that was a rational idea.
All current SSDs read at least twice as fast as mechanical hard drives but
writes may not be all that much faster, slower still over a USB bus, which
makes this even a more bizarre idea.

Again, I want nothing to do with USB. I want direct connections using
SATA only. You seem to be saying that writes to SSDs are not very much
faster than writes to mechanical Ds. That is something for me to
consider.

 

[KCB]

Not to flame but:
What on earth would possess anyone to use a solid state hard drive as
cache over a USB bus for a mechanical hard drive?
I am interested in the thinking process here because I cannot imagine why
anyone would think that was a rational idea.
All current SSDs read at least twice as fast as mechanical hard drives but
writes may not be all that much faster, slower still over a USB bus, which
makes this even a more bizarre idea.

I was wondering the same thing...

 

[John B. Slocomb]

If you are addressing me, I would like to connect both SSD and
mechanical D directly to my motherboard using SATA. I don't want to
use USB at all.


Again, I want nothing to do with USB. I want direct connections using
SATA only. You seem to be saying that writes to SSDs are not very much
faster than writes to mechanical Ds. That is something for me to
consider.

You seem to be resurrecting the old computer scheme of having two
storage systems, originally referred to as "fast memory" and "slow
memory", in those days, usually drum or disk storage for the "fast
memory" and tape for "slow memory". I.O. data was written to fast
memory for temporary storage and subsequently to slow memory for
permanent storage.

For what ever reason they don't seem to do it this way any more,
perhaps because memory systems have progressed to the point where it
is no longer necessary?

For what it is worth, don't most hard disks come with a built in
cache?

John B. Slocomb
(johnbslocombatgmaildotcom)

 

[David Arnstein]

You seem to be resurrecting the old computer scheme of having two
storage systems, originally referred to as "fast memory" and "slow
memory", in those days, usually drum or disk storage for the "fast
memory" and tape for "slow memory". I.O. data was written to fast
memory for temporary storage and subsequently to slow memory for
permanent storage.

Yes, exactly.

For what it is worth, don't most hard disks come with a built in
cache?

I see an opportunity for real progress in I/O speed. This opportunity
will vanish when SSDs become so cheap that ordinary folks like me can
afford to put ALL of our data on SSDs.

An SSD connected directly to the motherboard via SATA presents a
unique opportunity. The operating system could assume that it is a
secure, permanent backing store. This is in contrast to a USB storage
device, which could disappear at any time.

A device driver (or operating system) could take advantage of this
fast, yet permanent storage by allowing the cache to remain valid even
when the computer is power-cycled. In this scheme, I/O with the
backing store of mechanical disk(s) would become rare. Most I/O would
occur between DRAM and the caching SSD disk drive.

I suspect that some big server farms (Google?) are already using such
schemes.

 

[John B. Slocomb]

Yes, exactly.


I see an opportunity for real progress in I/O speed. This opportunity
will vanish when SSDs become so cheap that ordinary folks like me can
afford to put ALL of our data on SSDs.

An SSD connected directly to the motherboard via SATA presents a
unique opportunity. The operating system could assume that it is a
secure, permanent backing store. This is in contrast to a USB storage
device, which could disappear at any time.

A device driver (or operating system) could take advantage of this
fast, yet permanent storage by allowing the cache to remain valid even
when the computer is power-cycled. In this scheme, I/O with the
backing store of mechanical disk(s) would become rare. Most I/O would
occur between DRAM and the caching SSD disk drive.

I suspect that some big server farms (Google?) are already using such
schemes.

I'm not sure what you are referring to. You say a SSD connected via
SATA which, as far as I know, is how a SSD IS connected, or are you
talking about something connected directly to the memory bus - like
the current DIMM - with the CPU writing directly to it? In which case
it wouldn't be SATA.

I can see some problems with that. Do present SSD's accept reads and
writes at bus speeds? I doubt it.

A cursory look at Google says that SSD's seem to have transfer speeds
of between 200 - 400 MB/s while SATA-3 specs say 600 MB/s transfer
speed, which seems to say that the SATA system is not going to be the
bottle neck, that it is the storage device.

As always, there are two types of memory - fast memory, which today is
largely managed in the core memory (the DIMMs) and long term storage
memory (data base files).

Given the addressing ability of a 64 bit address register it would
seem likely that the solution is to expand the core memory to the
maximum and simply write anything needing long term storage out to
memory at the end of the session.

John B. Slocomb
(johnbslocombatgmaildotcom)

 

[Trimble Bracegirdle]

David .
I think your missing a couple things.
Check out ESATA ...a Live Plug in out external version of SATA.

READYBOOST spec say USB Flash Drive or USB HD etc etc.
Its usefulness is a lot about very fast ACCESS times. Even though the
overall
transfer speed may be average . FLASH drive is best choice all things
considered.

WINDOWS 7 can & will suggest to use almost as many GB's as the USB device
has.
BUT confusion has grown up that it goes only to 4GB because most USB Flash
drives
are formatted with FAT32 which has a 4GB file size limit ...just use NTFS
for larger.

The usual 'Professional' setup is to put the O/S Windows 7 on an SSD or some
physically separate drive of its own & everything else on other Drives...
WIN 7 can be installed in 22 GB's .. Without the Standby feature
Hyberfile.sys
& a small Pagefile setting will run in 10 Gigs.

I keep on intending to do this but to make it work comfortability all the
Win 7
Folder paths ..Programs...Documents...Pictures...etc. but NOT USERS folder
or the pagefile.sys (because its on the fastest drive) have to be set to the
'other' drive. Not easy.

SSD's vary enoumousely in speed. If any Bunny knows of one around 30 Gigs
that really offers higher performance than standard 7200rpm 3,5" HD
then please do tell.
IMO its still all for LapTops really. Readyboost included.
(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste Bunny into your
(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination.

 

[Mad Ad]

And if C goes tits up you will STILL have to at least do a repair
installation of all your programs because they put entries in the
Registry, which, surprise surprise, is located on the C drive.
So installing programs to another partition other than C is completely
irrelevant and unnecessary...

You dont get it do you, why waste time, theres nothing on C I need. Nuke it,
Start again.

If you want repair instals then you are welcome to them.

 

[Gordon]

You dont get it do you, why waste time, theres nothing on C I need. Nuke
it, Start again.

So what's the point of installing programs on a different drive? Seems YOU
don't get it, not me. You'll still have to re-install them if you "nuke" the
C drive....

If you want repair instals then you are welcome to them.

Nuked the C drive recently have we? Do all your programs still work?
Moron.

 

[Roy Smith]

80Gig? I was expecting you to say you have one of these new tiny ssds, I
have an 80gig too, a G2 split 25 gig per particion C: D: E: Atm my windows
is on C and has 10 gig spare, leaving 25gig for a games drive and 25 gig for
an application drive. I dont instal anything to C program files, C becomes
unweildy growing all the time so D and E take the instalations which i can
monitor and adjust more easily, this keeps C reasonably static in size (as
well as protecting my installed prog saves, setups and inis on DE if C goes
totally tits up).

In your case i would move D or E to a mech drive and use the whole 25gig for
whatever caches you needed. If you really want to get tight with C size then
use windows environment variables to move things like your desktop, swap,
common files etc to DE too.

Having programs installed on another drive or partition is pointless
because if you should have to reinstall Windows, you also have to
reinstall the programs you had before. When you reinstall Windows you
start off with a virgin registry which knows nothing about the programs
that were previously installed. So you would wind up reinstalling the
programs in order to recreate the various registry entries that they
need to work properly.

The only advantage to having more than one partition on a drive would be
to store things like mp3's, video files, pictures, word processing
documents and things of that nature.

--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Professional

Timestamp: Saturday, May 01, 2010 12:47:57 PM

 

[Trimble Bracegirdle]

I have a VERY large collection of ancient & modern Games
& assorted Apps.
Nearly all of them will run (by clicking on there main exe)
without 'Installation' into Win registry ..of a fresh install.
@@@

 

[Mad Ad]

Having programs installed on another drive or partition is pointless
because if you should have to reinstall Windows, you also have to
reinstall the programs you had before. When you reinstall Windows you
start off with a virgin registry which knows nothing about the programs
that were previously installed. So you would wind up reinstalling the
programs in order to recreate the various registry entries that they
need to work properly.

Yes indeed, installing the program again, then swapping in or importing the
existing (old) setups, plugins whatever, even copying the folder over whole
in many cases, without going through long and arduous setup proceedures for
the app itself (uh hell im certainly not reinstalling blender plugins when I
can copy over my existing folder).

Its all waiting for me, I can refer to the old D drive and scoop it up into
a folder and use it as an instal checklist. On top of all that, its
organised, games and video in D, apps in E. I like it that way.

The only advantage to having more than one partition on a drive would be
to store things like mp3's, video files, pictures, word processing
documents and things of that nature.

So why is there an advantage for mp3s video etc, and not my program inis,
saves, setups, filters etc etc?

Ad

 

[Gordon]

I have a VERY large collection of ancient & modern Games
& assorted Apps.
Nearly all of them will run (by clicking on there main exe)
without 'Installation' into Win registry ..of a fresh install.
@@@

So they are stand alone. Good for you. 99.999999% of MAINSTREAM programs
that were written in the last 10 years DO write to the registry...