Suggestions

[b74]

Hello I'm using Primo Cache on my slowest drive and here are my suggestions

Primo Cache dynamic RAM allocation ( automatic OS Ram & Programs re-allocation ( when needed, keeping at least 500Mo available at any moment ) ( LFU-R goes out and that some kindof thing linux already does ),

> Could be enabled in a mode which it will be used on any connected drive
( if drive disconnected, alert, and flush the delayed "writefile" a non-disconnectable drive and write it if reconnected ) : SD and USB are often slow as hell on writing small files ..

Correct "hibernation" problems, ( mine is sometimes not willing to hibernate while cache is on, it simply locks itself )

The program will Help too in determining which are optimal cache settings ( never knew which best settings are for block size and what is precisely "memory overhead" .. )
+ Autorun on startup of last "settings" ( set universal for every writable drive ), bigger priority for "lower drives" ( ssd having less priority )
+ Custom "Ramdisk" size for "permanent files cache"

Here are my suggestions for it to became a "true killer"

[InquiringMind]

Welcome to the forums B74,

Primo Cache dynamic RAM allocation

Nice idea in theory, but in practice I suspect it would only make a difference on system startup when the cache is being filled.

> Could be enabled in a mode which it will be used on any connected drive
( if drive disconnected, alert, and flush the delayed "writefile" a non-disconnectable drive and write it if reconnected )

Interesting idea, but what happens if that drive's contents have changed before reconnection? (e.g. if data was copied onto it from another PC). In such a situation this feature would likely corrupt the filesystem, so excluding removeable drives seems the safer option.

+ Custom "Ramdisk" size for "permanent files cache"

A few others here have requested the same feature so it seems likely to be considered (I can't speak for Romex though).

Thanks for your time.

[CrypEd]

The response i got for requesting a "file"-cache or at least a very usefull - not yet represented in windows pretching - MTB-cache, was, that primo-cache is a "block"-layer-device and isn't able to see a difference between which block allocates which files. While i see this make sence, i think it would request additional CPU-cycles.

Another "problem" is that windows itself does a wonderful job cashing last-used frequently files, formerly known as "standby" in the RessourceMonitor, you can review that percetly in detail with Sysinternals RAMMap, so doing that on an additional level probably isn't that useful, without being able to deactivate that windows feature, what seems to be impossible.

Although I still think it would be a very very nice feature for PrimoCache beeing able to read the file-system-table from inside windows to prevent HDD from spin-up from "sleep" while seeking the filesystem.

When drive is at sleep, there is no access. FIlesystem-table can't be changed. Please redirect windows-explorers drive polling to permanently cached blocks until another real read/write request drops in.

[InquiringMind]

Another "problem" is that windows itself does a wonderful job cashing last-used frequently files, formerly known as "standby" in the RessourceMonitor, you can review that percetly in detail with Sysinternals RAMMap...

Windows' own file cache does this, as you note (the Performance tab in Task Manager should show usage under "System Cache" in WinXP or "Cached" in Win7). If PrimoCache could disable this, that would be a plus since it would reduce "double-caching" and lessen the time spent determining whether a file/block is in cache or not.

Pre-caching files seems to be the main reason for such a feature, and I'd like to see an option to pre-cache directory/MFT data (to speed up system scans and applications which generate disk reports like WinDirStat).

it would be a very very nice feature for PrimoCache beeing able to read the file-system-table from inside windows to prevent HDD from spin-up from "sleep" while seeking the filesystem.

Agreed - I disabled hard-disk spin-down due to the annoyance of having to wait a second or two for disks to spin up again. The situation is worse with CD/DVD drives, though PrimoCache clearly can't do much for the 5-10 second delay of reading a new disk.