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"Enable advanced performance" - the optimization that isn't

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f0dder:
I used to think this setting was a decent performance thing, and used to enable it. My impression, based on various faulty wannabe-tech-knowledgy blogs was that "Enable write caching" was only the usual filesystem caching, whereas "Enabled advanced performance" meant the actual disk write cache (ie., the on-disk memory buffer, usually 8, 16 or 32 megabytes).



It's a while since I learned the true meaning, and turned off the setting in shock, and then didn't think much more about it. But after yesterday's slashdot article Apps That Rely On Ext3's Commit Interval May Lose Data In Ext4 (and especially a lot of the moronic comments, sigh) I remembered this setting again, and thought it would be a decent thing warning about it here at DC.

Basically, what it does is making the Windows API function FlushFileBuffers() do nothing. This API is meant to flush the OS's write cache for a file to disk, and is the only way to guarantee that your data goes to disk in a modern OS. Enabling the setting probably won't affect a lot of software positively (since not a lot of software actually uses FlushFileBuffers()), but for things like databases this is crucial to ensure data consistency across crashes.

Read the technet link for a more in-depth description, and go turn that checkmark off if you have it enabled :)

Darwin:
Interesting, thanks f0dder. I checked my Vista 64 bit install and that setting had been enabled, so I disabled it. My XP Pro 32 bit install doesn't even offer the option. I'm not sure if I set that option myself or not - though I recognised it, so it must have been me!

f0dder:
I definitely have had it enabled :-[

IMHO it's wrong of MS to offer this as part of the GUI (people that "need" this should be forced to edit the registry!), and the description is very very vague and misleading.

"Enable write caching on disk" is good though :)

Darwin:
"Enable write caching on disk" is good though :)
-f0dder (March 12, 2009, 01:51 PM)
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I left that one enabled... I probably stumbled across this "tweak" around the time I upgraded my HD in early January. It's the wording that's so familar AND the fact that it was enabled - MS doesn't ship Vista with it enabled out of the box, correct?

f0dder:
"Enable write caching on disk" is good though :)
-f0dder (March 12, 2009, 01:51 PM)
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I left that one enabled... I probably stumbled across this "tweak" around the time I upgraded my HD in early January. It's the wording that's so familar AND the fact that it was enabled - MS doesn't ship Vista with it enabled out of the box, correct?
-Darwin (March 12, 2009, 03:02 PM)
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I would be very surprised if they do - it would've been all over the media (if more people knew what the setting does, anyway ;)). It definitely wasn't enabled when I installed Vista64 on my laptop.

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