Designated cache device for particular file types, etc

By Doug | December 4th, 2008 | 6:11 pm

I have an 8GB SDD expresscard I’d like to use as a cache device in addition to the 4GB Cruzer USB flash drive I’m currently using.  In order to use the full 8GB on the SDD I’d have to format it in NTFS, but then I’d suffer the drawbacks of NTFS on flash devices.  So here’s what I’d like to see:

1) The ability to designate that certain file types must cache on a particular device.  I could use this to cache files that are seldom or never modified onto the NTFS device, and files that are frequently modified onto the FAT32 device.  This would allow me to beat the 4GB limitation of FAT32 without experiencing the drawbacks of NTFS.

2) To handle the files I’m not sure where to cache, eBoostr should have a smart allocation routine.  This routine would read the usage data (number of times accessed, date created, date modified, etc) in order to determine which files are frequently modified.  It would use this data to decide which device to cache the file on (frequently modified files on FAT32, seldom modified files on NTFS, etc).

3) A device setup tool to format and configure flash devices for optimum performance under eBoostr.  For example, it could give the user the ability to partition the drive, format it as either FAT32 or as NTFS (after warning him of the performance consequences), designate particular files or file types to be cached onto the device, and specify the maximum cached file size.  This tool would make recommendations to guide the user through the setup process.  Using this tool, a user could partition a large flash device (for instance, my 8GB SDD) into a FAT32 patition, for frequently modified files, and a NTFS partition for stable files.

BTW, these features would enhance eBoostr’s utility under Vista as well as XP.

Thanks!

XPP SP3 2GB RAM

2 Responses to “Designated cache device for particular file types, etc”

  1. Vengence
    Dec 05, 2008

    How about multiple fat partitions on the one device? Its not elegant but it should do the trick.


  2. Doug
    Dec 05, 2008

    An excellent point. I should have thought about it more carefully. If you’re going to have multiple partitions on one device, then you might as well make them all FAT and not even mess with NTFS. However, it would still be nice to be able to partition and format the device from within eBoostr. And also, I suppose that if all partitions were FAT then there would be no need to designate which partition certain directories, files, or file types reside on. So I’ll retract all of my requests, except the request for a utility to partition and format flash devices within eBoostr. That would be handy.



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