| Vista has an option to increase performance on SATA drives. Oddly though, by default, this option is turned off. To turn it on, do the following:
1. Type in "device manager" into Start Search.
2. Open the "Disk drives" tree.
3. Double click on your SATA drive(s).
4. Under the "Policies" tab, check the box that says, "Enable advanced performance."
Vista also allows you to enable write caching for external HDs. Since USB external drives are so popular lately, it's a good option/feature to have. To enable it do the following:
1. Type in "device manager" into Start Search.
2. Open the "Disk drives" tree.
3. Double click on your external drive.
4. Tick the radio box that says, "Optimize for performance"
There is one caveat to this though. You have to stop the device by clicking the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the notification area. If you frequently move your external disk around, then perhaps this isn't the best tweak. If however, you've got one plugged into your desktop and unplug it once in a blue moon, then turn it on. |