making a removable SSD drive nonremovable

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Vandeman
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike Vandeman

Hi,

I hope I'm in the right newsgroups.

I have an Acer Aspire One, with 500 MB ram, an internal 8 GB 'system' SSD,
to which I've installed an 16 GB SDHC card in the "storage expansion" slot.
After one year of Linpus Linux, I've become disaffected with Linux and have
begun installing and 'tweaking' Windows XP. A solid state drive is as fast
as or faster than a spinning drive for reading data (generally) because read
data transfer rate may be comparable and seek time is zero. After all, it is
a random access device. However, write data transfer rates are perhaps half
as fast because of the nature of SSD. Consequently, performance is reduced.

In an effort to tweak for better performance, I have changed environmental
variables to save temporary files in my 16 GB SDHC (drive D:) and moved the
"Temporary Internet Files" folder to D:. The biggest improvement to
performance came when I chose in 'Performance Options' 'Visual Effects',
'Adjust for Best Performance'. The display is a lot simpler and I think the
improvement results because it uses a lot less paging for screen refresh.

I think the best improvement to performance would come about of I could move
the paging file to D:. I've run into a problem which is why I am here.

The 16 GB SDHC solid state drive is marked as removable. I found it is not
possible to do 'Optimize for Performance' with write caching on a removable
SSD drive and any attempt to create a pagefile there fails with no error
message. I would like to ask if there is a safely way 'tweak' the operating
system to make the SDHC SDD 'nonremovable'. If I can find a way I would be
more than happy to use a spot a crazy glue to insure it is physically
nonremovable. On the Acer Aspire One there is a second slot that accepts a
number of formats including up to a 16 GB SDHC, so I would lose nothing with
a spot of crazy glue.

I really like solid state drives because they are immune to G forces and do
not spin. I lost one spinning drive in a laptop when it stopped spinning one
month after the manufacturer's warranty expired.

Thanks for your interest and for your help.

m.
 
I have an Acer Aspire One, with 500 MB ram, an internal 8 GB 'system' SSD,
to which I've installed an 16 GB SDHC card in the "storage expansion"
slot. After one year of Linpus Linux, I've become disaffected with Linux
and have begun installing and 'tweaking' Windows XP. A solid state drive
is as fast as or faster than a spinning drive for reading data (generally)
because read data transfer rate may be comparable and seek time is zero.
After all, it is a random access device. However, write data transfer
rates are perhaps half as fast because of the nature of SSD. Consequently,
performance is reduced.

In an effort to tweak for better performance, I have changed environmental
variables to save temporary files in my 16 GB SDHC (drive D:) and moved
the "Temporary Internet Files" folder to D:. The biggest improvement to
performance came when I chose in 'Performance Options' 'Visual Effects',
'Adjust for Best Performance'. The display is a lot simpler and I think
the improvement results because it uses a lot less paging for screen
refresh.

I think the best improvement to performance would come about of I could
move the paging file to D:. I've run into a problem which is why I am
here.

The 16 GB SDHC solid state drive is marked as removable. I found it is not
possible to do 'Optimize for Performance' with write caching on a
removable SSD drive and any attempt to create a pagefile there fails with
no error message. I would like to ask if there is a safely way 'tweak' the
operating system to make the SDHC SDD 'nonremovable'. If I can find a way
I would be more than happy to use a spot a crazy glue to insure it is
physically nonremovable. On the Acer Aspire One there is a second slot
that accepts a number of formats including up to a 16 GB SDHC, so I would
lose nothing with a spot of crazy glue.

I really like solid state drives because they are immune to G forces and
do not spin. I lost one spinning drive in a laptop when it stopped
spinning one month after the manufacturer's warranty expired.

Thanks for your interest and for your help.

m.
Click to expand...

Whoops, a couple of points I neglected to mention:

1. I also turned of indexing. This speeded up drive access at the cost of
indexed text searches.

2. After moving 'Temporary Internet Files' to D:, I lost the ability to
empty it using 'Disk Cleanup', the selection is gone. Maybe I moved it
badly. However, temporary Internet files are stored on D:.

3. I set up a temp folder on D:, yet after MS update temp was empty after
reboot. In my experience temp is not cleared when it is on the system drive.
Maybe it is working better now. However, note the following:

4. The event log showed the following warning error afterwards:

"Unable to manage the removable disk in drive \\.\PhysicalDrive1. There are
system files (paging files, RSM database files, and/or system/windows
directories) on this disk which are needed for system operation. The drive
will be disabled for RSM operations. This drive can be re-enabled via the
Removable Storage Manager snap-in when there are no longer system files
present."

I hope I have not exposed you to information overload.

My question is how to I turn a removable drive into a fixed drive?

Thanks in advance for your help.

m.
 
Mike Vandemann said:
Whoops, a couple of points I neglected to mention:

1. I also turned of indexing. This speeded up drive access at the cost of
indexed text searches.

2. After moving 'Temporary Internet Files' to D:, I lost the ability to
empty it using 'Disk Cleanup', the selection is gone. Maybe I moved it
badly. However, temporary Internet files are stored on D:.

3. I set up a temp folder on D:, yet after MS update temp was empty after
reboot. In my experience temp is not cleared when it is on the system
drive. Maybe it is working better now. However, note the following:

4. The event log showed the following warning error afterwards:

"Unable to manage the removable disk in drive \\.\PhysicalDrive1. There
are system files (paging files, RSM database files, and/or system/windows
directories) on this disk which are needed for system operation. The drive
will be disabled for RSM operations. This drive can be re-enabled via the
Removable Storage Manager snap-in when there are no longer system files
present."

I hope I have not exposed you to information overload.

My question is how to I turn a removable drive into a fixed drive?

Thanks in advance for your help.

m.
Click to expand...

All well and good and I do not know of any way to make the computer think a
removable drive is a non-removable drive. You are aware of the limited
read/write life cycle of the types of SD card drive you are using don't you?
Since you are using for your temp files where a lot of reading and writing
occur, if you reach the read/write life cycle limit your computer will
possibly crash without any warning messages that you will be able to
decipher.
 
Mike said:
Whoops, a couple of points I neglected to mention:

1. I also turned of indexing. This speeded up drive access at the cost of
indexed text searches.

2. After moving 'Temporary Internet Files' to D:, I lost the ability to
empty it using 'Disk Cleanup', the selection is gone. Maybe I moved it
badly. However, temporary Internet files are stored on D:.

3. I set up a temp folder on D:, yet after MS update temp was empty after
reboot. In my experience temp is not cleared when it is on the system drive.
Maybe it is working better now. However, note the following:

4. The event log showed the following warning error afterwards:

"Unable to manage the removable disk in drive \\.\PhysicalDrive1. There are
system files (paging files, RSM database files, and/or system/windows
directories) on this disk which are needed for system operation. The drive
will be disabled for RSM operations. This drive can be re-enabled via the
Removable Storage Manager snap-in when there are no longer system files
present."

I hope I have not exposed you to information overload.

My question is how to I turn a removable drive into a fixed drive?

Thanks in advance for your help.

m.
Click to expand...

There is a small filter driver here. It has something to do with filtering
the "Removable Media Bit". I don't know how easy this is to do. You
have to modify an INF, to get the filter driver to install.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html#partitioning

Paul
 
Mike Vandeman said:
Hi,

I hope I'm in the right newsgroups.

I have an Acer Aspire One, with 500 MB ram, an internal 8 GB 'system' SSD,
to which I've installed an 16 GB SDHC card in the "storage expansion"
slot. After one year of Linpus Linux, I've become disaffected with Linux
and have begun installing and 'tweaking' Windows XP. A solid state drive
is as fast as or faster than a spinning drive for reading data (generally)
because read data transfer rate may be comparable and seek time is zero.
After all, it is a random access device. However, write data transfer
rates are perhaps half as fast because of the nature of SSD. Consequently,
performance is reduced.

In an effort to tweak for better performance, I have changed environmental
variables to save temporary files in my 16 GB SDHC (drive D:) and moved
the "Temporary Internet Files" folder to D:. The biggest improvement to
performance came when I chose in 'Performance Options' 'Visual Effects',
'Adjust for Best Performance'. The display is a lot simpler and I think
the improvement results because it uses a lot less paging for screen
refresh.

I think the best improvement to performance would come about of I could
move the paging file to D:. I've run into a problem which is why I am
here.

The 16 GB SDHC solid state drive is marked as removable. I found it is not
possible to do 'Optimize for Performance' with write caching on a
removable SSD drive and any attempt to create a pagefile there fails with
no error message. I would like to ask if there is a safely way 'tweak' the
operating system to make the SDHC SDD 'nonremovable'. If I can find a way
I would be more than happy to use a spot a crazy glue to insure it is
physically nonremovable. On the Acer Aspire One there is a second slot
that accepts a number of formats including up to a 16 GB SDHC, so I would
lose nothing with a spot of crazy glue.

I really like solid state drives because they are immune to G forces and
do not spin. I lost one spinning drive in a laptop when it stopped
spinning one month after the manufacturer's warranty expired.
Click to expand...

Using a FLASH based memory card in the way you suggest is a very bad idea.

First the windows paging file should be on the fastest available drive.
Putting in a FLASH based memory will make Windows take a very significant
performance hit.

Second, the FLASH memory technology has a very limited write/rewrite life
and using it as intensively as you are, you will use up that life fairly
quickly. Failure modes vary, but generally, once the contoller chip detects
an error it prevents access to the entire memory. Either the memory becomes
read only, or more usually, the memory disappears from windows entirely. I
could send you several memory cards and USB sticks that have failed.
 
Replace the 8GB drive with a 16GB drive a removable drive is exactly
that, "removable", and unless you hack the OS to make them "internal
drives", it can't be used as a system drive.
 
You want the Hitachi cfadisk disk filter driver (source included).
http://www.lancelhoff.com/downloads/USB_LocalDisk.zip
http://www.lancelhoff.com/make-windows-see-any-usb-flash-drive-as-local-disk/

However, I could not get pagefile.sys created with or without it.
I did run a disk editor on the root dir, and see numerous deleted pagefile.sys.

Ignore all the idiot trolls who claim temp/page usage will kill flash cards.
Ignore the raving lunatics who claim low-latency flash cannot do paging.
I am fed up with you ignorant ****s who show up in any thread about flash drives.

Pagefile is small random IO, and as long the drive has seek times of a few msec
it is much better than IDE hard drives with seek times over 10 msec.
My card reader with 1G SD has seek time of 2.5 msec, wish I could page on it.
 
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