metamatic
asked on
What does "write cache enabled" mean?
In the system log of a server I saw today I found the following warning:
Event ID 32
The driver detected that the device \device\harddisk0\dr0 has its write cache enabled. Data corruption may occur.
Funnily enough, the server in question has been having issues with data corruption. Can anybody give me more info on what this message means, how I can disable write cache and what the performance implications of doing so are?
Cheers
Andy
Event ID 32
The driver detected that the device \device\harddisk0\dr0 has its write cache enabled. Data corruption may occur.
Funnily enough, the server in question has been having issues with data corruption. Can anybody give me more info on what this message means, how I can disable write cache and what the performance implications of doing so are?
Cheers
Andy
ASKER
Thanks for the quick reply.
Sorry, should have been more precise. We are dealing with a machine running Windows 2003 Small Business Server.
Sorry, should have been more precise. We are dealing with a machine running Windows 2003 Small Business Server.
metamatic,
Q233541 describes some of the advanced performance options available if you view the properties of a hard disk. It gives information on the "Write Cache Enabled" feature.
Leaving Write Cache enabled increases speed, but at the same time increases the chances of data corruption in the event of a power failure.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q233541
Lazarus
Q233541 describes some of the advanced performance options available if you view the properties of a hard disk. It gives information on the "Write Cache Enabled" feature.
Leaving Write Cache enabled increases speed, but at the same time increases the chances of data corruption in the event of a power failure.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q233541
Lazarus
ASKER
So, from what I understand, enabling write back cache is only an issue if the server crashes or is powered off accidentally.
The server I am talking about seems to be quite reliable. As far as I'm aware it is not prone to sudden crashes - it just seems to suffer from data corruption with one particular program.
I noticed the Write Back Cacge warning in the event log and just thought I would check to see whether that could be a possible cause of my problem.
Just out of interest, does anybody know whether write back cache is enabled by default on most systems. I've just checked my home PC and it is.
The server I am talking about seems to be quite reliable. As far as I'm aware it is not prone to sudden crashes - it just seems to suffer from data corruption with one particular program.
I noticed the Write Back Cacge warning in the event log and just thought I would check to see whether that could be a possible cause of my problem.
Just out of interest, does anybody know whether write back cache is enabled by default on most systems. I've just checked my home PC and it is.
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ASKER
Many thanks.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281672/EN-US/