Romex Software Forum

My system is as follows:
Thinkpad T400, 8G memory, 32G SSD as C: with win7 32 bit installed.
Installed software related:
1)Primo Ramdisk v5.5, using 2700mb of OS Invisible memory as Ramdisk Z: (From them, I have set 2600mb as system's virtual memory and closed the virtual memory on other disks);
2)Primo Cache v0.9.1, using 2250mb of OS Invisible memory as L1 cache.
Total OS managed memory : 3032mb.
Total OS Invisible memory: 5052mb.
3)Microsoft's EWF in C: in order to protect SSD and system.

EWF is fine, wheneven you restart the PC, all the changes to the system will disappear. However it will consume main memory by writing the data, which is unrecoverable. Step by step the main memory becomes less and less. That's why I choose to use FancyCache or PrimoCache now. FancyCache v0.8.0 has to use at least 128mb of main memory while cannot treat invisible memory as L1 cache. Now after waiting for a long time, here comes PrimoCache v.0.9.1. After installation, I find for L1 cache, it can finally set 0mb of OS managed memory and make full use of OS invisible memory. I thought it can solve my problem now, as any write to main memory triggered by EWF will be deferred by PrimoCache, while which is using OS invisible memory as L1 cache. In this way, the main memory written by EWF will not increase at all! Am I understanding correctly? However to my surprise, as you can see from the below image, the main memory used by EWF is keeping increasing at a great speed, although I have set a wirte-defer time of 172800 seconds (or two days). Below please find my configurations of Primo Cache and Primo Ramdisk.
Could anybody tell me how I should set up properly to avoid the memory increase caused by EWF please? It seems that PrimoCache's write-defer does not function correctly at all.

Thanks in advance!

EWF is also a volume filter, and it intercepts write data. So no write data will come to PrimoCache. That's why the "Total Write" in PrimoCache is zero.

support wrote:EWF is also a volume filter, and it intercepts write data. So no write data will come to PrimoCache. That's why the "Total Write" in PrimoCache is zero.

Thank you very much for your explanation!
I got it...so if I delete EWF, will PrimoCache behaves the same as EWF, that is, whenever I restart the PC, all the changes to system C: will disappear?
Basically if I set the write-defer time long enough, there will be no data written to system C: at all. And all date in the cache are stored in the OS invisible memory which will disapper whenever I turn off the PC. In this way, I can protect system and SSD in the same way as what EWF does.
Am I understanding correctly?

No, you can't. PrimoCache flush all write-data from cache to disk at shutdown/restart.

support wrote:No, you can't. PrimoCache flush all write-data from cache to disk at shutdown/restart.

Yes I just note that....Is it possible that PrimoCache has an option for us: 1)to normally write data from cache to disk at shutdown/restart or 2)to clear all data in the cache then shundown/restart?
If so, I can throw EWF and focus on using PrimoCache.
Please advise. Thanks in advance!

support wrote:No, you can't. PrimoCache flush all write-data from cache to disk at shutdown/restart.

Edit: found that FancyCache already had this option but was removed in PrimoCache?: Option "No Write-Flush at Shutdown" mentioned here - has it been removed from PrimoCache? My vote to bring it back, I would like to try it out after hearing from cnlibo that PrimoCache 0.9.1 can use invisible memory only (confirmed, was able to set 0MB for "OS Managed Memory" and is working from IM only, thankyou!). This would allow us to basically implement something like EWF - however with the EWF "write overflow" being only in Invisible Memory, a great solution for those of us who want to conserve our < 4GB memory in 32-bit systems and "freeze" our systems in a particular state. Often times I want to discard the data in the write cache.

No Write-Flush At Shutdown: if ticked, the deferred write data in cache will NOT be flushed to the volume/disk at computer shutdown. This option is designed for the special scenarios. Do NOT tick it if you don't understand, otherwise it might cause data loss.

Thanks robertcollier4!
I think you are the one who fully understand me and know what I am sourcing.
Fortunately I have found a best solution to replace EWF. Please see my new post at viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2180&p=5573#p5573

Anyway I still wish PrimoCache can bring back the option "No Write-Flush at Shutdown", so that I can throw away the Shadow Defender too

robertcollier4 wrote:

support wrote:No, you can't. PrimoCache flush all write-data from cache to disk at shutdown/restart.

Edit: found that FancyCache already had this option but was removed in PrimoCache?: Option "No Write-Flush at Shutdown" mentioned here - has it been removed from PrimoCache? My vote to bring it back, I would like to try it out after hearing from cnlibo that PrimoCache 0.9.1 can use invisible memory only (confirmed, was able to set 0MB for "OS Managed Memory" and is working from IM only, thankyou!). This would allow us to basically implement something like EWF - however with the EWF "write overflow" being only in Invisible Memory, a great solution for those of us who want to conserve our < 4GB memory in 32-bit systems and "freeze" our systems in a particular state. Often times I want to discard the data in the write cache.

No Write-Flush At Shutdown: if ticked, the deferred write data in cache will NOT be flushed to the volume/disk at computer shutdown. This option is designed for the special scenarios. Do NOT tick it if you don't understand, otherwise it might cause data loss.

Today I uninstall the PrimoCache 0.9.1 and reinstall the FancyCache 0.8.0 and enable the "No Write-Flush at Shutdown". However finally I realize that this option is almost a logical contradiction. As you know, suppose you enable the "No Write-Flush at Shutdown", once you restart the PC, all the changes will disapper, including this enable option! I think this is the reason why there is no such option in the new version PrimoCache.

cnlibo wrote:However finally I realize that this option is almost a logical contradiction. As you know, suppose you enable the "No Write-Flush at Shutdown", once you restart the PC, all the changes will disapper, including this enable option! I think this is the reason why there is no such option in the new version PrimoCache.

Can't you hit the button for manual-flush of write cache? Make the changes you want then initiate a manual flush.

http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/prim ... cache.html

Flush Deferred Write-data - By default, deferred write-data stored in the cache will be flushed to disk at specified intervals, or when hibernating or shutting-down. However you can manually flush deferred write-data to disk whenever you want by clicking on the icon button in the command toolbar.

robertcollier4 wrote:

cnlibo wrote:However finally I realize that this option is almost a logical contradiction. As you know, suppose you enable the "No Write-Flush at Shutdown", once you restart the PC, all the changes will disapper, including this enable option! I think this is the reason why there is no such option in the new version PrimoCache.

Can't you hit the button for manual-flush of write cache? Make the changes you want then initiate a manual flush.

http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/prim ... cache.html

Flush Deferred Write-data - By default, deferred write-data stored in the cache will be flushed to disk at specified intervals, or when hibernating or shutting-down. However you can manually flush deferred write-data to disk whenever you want by clicking on the icon button in the command toolbar.

Yes...I think this is workable. But under most circumstances, I do not need the data to be flushed or written back to system C: thus you have to click the option "No Write-Flush at Shutdown" every time before you restart the PC. This is really troublesome.
So I need a permanent option, which can fix "No Write-Flush at Shutdown" even after restart.