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Unable to Disable Write Caching?



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 9th 05, 02:37 PM
Harkhof
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Unable to Disable Write Caching?

I recently put a VanTec EZ Swap drive rack in one of my systems. VanTec
claims that this drive bay is "hot-swappable", but when I turn off or remove
the drive, explorer still "sees" it, and will even try to copy a file that I
drop on the "ghost" drive letter, locking windows up in the process.

This morning, when I brought the system out of hibernation (and having
removed the drive before hibernation), a ballon message appeared over the
systray that windows was not able to write $MFT to "Y:OFF_LINE" and
mentioned something about write caching. I was unable to write down the
message at the time, so I'm paraphrasing.

Anyway, I checked the drive properties in Device Manager and found that the
"enable write caching" option under the Policies tab was missing, and that
the information regarding write caching (under headings "Optimize for quick
removal" & Optimize for performance") was there, but greyed out.

The drive in question is on a mainboard supplied ITE IT8212 ATA RAID
controller on a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP motherboard that can be designated as ATA
IDE or RAID.. The controller is listed in DM under "SCSI & RAID
Controllers". Given that all drives on that controller are treated in the
same manner (i.e., write caching option unavailable), as well as drives on
add-in controllers on other machines, this seems to be the standard for
these additional controllers.

The question is, how can I disable write caching on this drive (and
therefore designate as removable) so as to avoid the type of issues
described in the first two paragraphs?

Thanks,
Hark


  #2  
Old February 9th 05, 06:57 PM
Eric Gisin
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Harkhof" wrote in message
newsmoOd.62$DG5.13@lakeread07...
I recently put a VanTec EZ Swap drive rack in one of my systems. VanTec
claims that this drive bay is "hot-swappable", but when I turn off or remove
the drive, explorer still "sees" it, and will even try to copy a file that I
drop on the "ghost" drive letter, locking windows up in the process.



Hot swap IDE cannot be done with hardware alone, it also need software support.
Most drivers do not, so you have to disable the drive in Device Mangler.

This morning, when I brought the system out of hibernation (and having
removed the drive before hibernation), a ballon message appeared over the
systray that windows was not able to write $MFT to "Y:OFF_LINE" and
mentioned something about write caching. I was unable to write down the
message at the time, so I'm paraphrasing.

Anyway, I checked the drive properties in Device Manager and found that the
"enable write caching" option under the Policies tab was missing, and that
the information regarding write caching (under headings "Optimize for quick
removal" & Optimize for performance") was there, but greyed out.

The drive in question is on a mainboard supplied ITE IT8212 ATA RAID
controller on a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP motherboard that can be designated as ATA
IDE or RAID.. The controller is listed in DM under "SCSI & RAID
Controllers". Given that all drives on that controller are treated in the
same manner (i.e., write caching option unavailable), as well as drives on
add-in controllers on other machines, this seems to be the standard for
these additional controllers.

Broken drivers.

The question is, how can I disable write caching on this drive (and
therefore designate as removable) so as to avoid the type of issues
described in the first two paragraphs?

Find out who makes the chip for the IDE RAID (promise/highpoint/SiI) and check
their support page. If you disable the RAID feature, you might be able to use
the Microsoft IDE driver.

  #3  
Old February 12th 05, 05:39 PM
Harkhof
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Eric Gisin" wrote in message
...
"Harkhof" wrote in message
newsmoOd.62$DG5.13@lakeread07...
I recently put a VanTec EZ Swap drive rack in one of my systems. VanTec
claims that this drive bay is "hot-swappable", but when I turn off or
remove
the drive, explorer still "sees" it, and will even try to copy a file
that I
drop on the "ghost" drive letter, locking windows up in the process.



Hot swap IDE cannot be done with hardware alone, it also need software
support.
Most drivers do not, so you have to disable the drive in Device Mangler.


Thanks for the Response, Eric. Disabling it does seem to be the only option
(& one I hadn't considered...), and I think I can live with that.

Thanks again,
Hark



This morning, when I brought the system out of hibernation (and having
removed the drive before hibernation), a ballon message appeared over the
systray that windows was not able to write $MFT to "Y:OFF_LINE" and
mentioned something about write caching. I was unable to write down the
message at the time, so I'm paraphrasing.

Anyway, I checked the drive properties in Device Manager and found that
the
"enable write caching" option under the Policies tab was missing, and
that
the information regarding write caching (under headings "Optimize for
quick
removal" & Optimize for performance") was there, but greyed out.

The drive in question is on a mainboard supplied ITE IT8212 ATA RAID
controller on a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP motherboard that can be designated as
ATA
IDE or RAID.. The controller is listed in DM under "SCSI & RAID
Controllers". Given that all drives on that controller are treated in the
same manner (i.e., write caching option unavailable), as well as drives
on
add-in controllers on other machines, this seems to be the standard for
these additional controllers.

Broken drivers.

The question is, how can I disable write caching on this drive (and
therefore designate as removable) so as to avoid the type of issues
described in the first two paragraphs?

Find out who makes the chip for the IDE RAID (promise/highpoint/SiI) and
check
their support page. If you disable the RAID feature, you might be able to
use
the Microsoft IDE driver.



  #4  
Old February 14th 05, 02:55 PM
Folkert Rienstra
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Harkhof" wrote in message newsmoOd.62$DG5.13@lakeread07
I recently put a VanTec EZ Swap drive rack in one of my systems.
VanTec claims that this drive bay is "hot-swappable", but when I turn off
or remove the drive, explorer still "sees" it, and will even try to copy a file
that I drop on the "ghost" drive letter, locking windows up in the process.

This morning, when I brought the system out of hibernation (and having
removed the drive before hibernation), a ballon message appeared over the
systray that windows was not able to write $MFT to "Y:OFF_LINE" and
mentioned something about write caching. I was unable to write down the
message at the time, so I'm paraphrasing.

Anyway, I checked the drive properties in Device Manager and found that
the "enable write caching" option under the Policies tab was missing, and
that the information regarding write caching (under headings "Optimize for
quick removal" & Optimize for performance") was there, but greyed out.

The drive in question is on a mainboard supplied ITE IT8212 ATA RAID
controller on a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP motherboard that can be designated as
ATA IDE or RAID.. The controller is listed in DM under "SCSI & RAID
Controllers". Given that all drives on that controller are treated in the
same manner (i.e., write caching option unavailable), as well as drives on
add-in controllers on other machines, this seems to be the standard for
these additional controllers.

The question is, how can I disable write caching on this drive


(and therefore designate as removable)


Are you saying that this unavailabe option is also setting
the removable tickbox (option, whatever) as unavailable?

so as to avoid the type of issues described in the first two paragraphs?

Thanks,
Hark



  #5  
Old February 16th 05, 05:36 AM
Harkhof
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Folkert Rienstra" wrote in message
...
"Harkhof" wrote in message
newsmoOd.62$DG5.13@lakeread07
I recently put a VanTec EZ Swap drive rack in one of my systems.
VanTec claims that this drive bay is "hot-swappable", but when I turn off
or remove the drive, explorer still "sees" it, and will even try to copy
a file
that I drop on the "ghost" drive letter, locking windows up in the
process.

This morning, when I brought the system out of hibernation (and having
removed the drive before hibernation), a ballon message appeared over the
systray that windows was not able to write $MFT to "Y:OFF_LINE" and
mentioned something about write caching. I was unable to write down the
message at the time, so I'm paraphrasing.

Anyway, I checked the drive properties in Device Manager and found that
the "enable write caching" option under the Policies tab was missing, and
that the information regarding write caching (under headings "Optimize
for
quick removal" & Optimize for performance") was there, but greyed out.

The drive in question is on a mainboard supplied ITE IT8212 ATA RAID
controller on a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP motherboard that can be designated as
ATA IDE or RAID.. The controller is listed in DM under "SCSI & RAID
Controllers". Given that all drives on that controller are treated in the
same manner (i.e., write caching option unavailable), as well as drives
on
add-in controllers on other machines, this seems to be the standard for
these additional controllers.

The question is, how can I disable write caching on this drive


(and therefore designate as removable)


Are you saying that this unavailabe option is also setting
the removable tickbox (option, whatever) as unavailable?


Yes, it is an unavailable option (greyed out).



so as to avoid the type of issues described in the first two paragraphs?

Thanks,
Hark





  #6  
Old February 16th 05, 12:53 PM
Folkert Rienstra
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

You should fix your quote-fix.

"Harkhof" wrote in message news:a5AQd.89061$Tf5.35598@lakeread03
"Folkert Rienstra" wrote in message ...
"Harkhof" wrote in message newsmoOd.62$DG5.13@lakeread07
I recently put a VanTec EZ Swap drive rack in one of my systems.
VanTec claims that this drive bay is "hot-swappable", but when I turn off
or remove the drive, explorer still "sees" it, and will even try to copy a file
that I drop on the "ghost" drive letter, locking windows up in the process.

This morning, when I brought the system out of hibernation (and having
removed the drive before hibernation), a ballon message appeared over the
systray that windows was not able to write $MFT to "Y:OFF_LINE" and
mentioned something about write caching. I was unable to write down the
message at the time, so I'm paraphrasing.

Anyway, I checked the drive properties in Device Manager and found that
the "enable write caching" option under the Policies tab was missing, and
that the information regarding write caching (under headings "Optimize for
quick removal" & Optimize for performance") was there, but greyed out.

The drive in question is on a mainboard supplied ITE IT8212 ATA RAID
controller on a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP motherboard that can be designated as
ATA IDE or RAID.. The controller is listed in DM under "SCSI & RAID
Controllers". Given that all drives on that controller are treated in the
same manner (i.e., write caching option unavailable), as well as drives on
add-in controllers on other machines, this seems to be the standard for
these additional controllers.

The question is, how can I disable write caching on this drive


(and therefore designate as removable)


Are you saying that this unavailabe option is also setting
the removable tickbox (option, whatever) as unavailable?


Yes, it is an unavailable option (greyed out).


What makes you think that write-caching is causing that?


so as to avoid the type of issues described in the first two paragraphs?

Thanks,
Hark



 




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