Another solution for SSD: EWF?

[iDq]

Hello,

I've implemented EWF (more information here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838511.aspx) in Windows XP SP3. Performance now is well acceptable. In the next days, I'll post a mini-tuto. By the way, I'm testing this solution.

Regards,

[EDIT]
* RAM: 512 Mb
* File System: NTFS
* Time from booting to start using Windows: 15 secs. (aprox.) [Only chipset and VGA drivers]

 

[DarrenHD]

Hi...I am using using File-based write filter (FBWF) as described on another thread, and it works well...in fact without using that (and doing all of the tweaks like turning off paging, pre-fetch, etc, etc...) performance to me was still not acceptable. But with FBWF it is. I am getting a consistant 25MB/sec speed from the SSD. See screenshot. I have 1.5GB of ram in my Aspire One.

I tried installing Vista but I had the same horrible inconsistant SSD performance as I did with XP (only it was worse with Vista). Hopefully proper drivers will come out so we don't have to jump through all these hoops to get a smooth XP system... But nevertheless, I am happy with the performance with FBWF.

Darren
Aspire One 8GB SSD, 1.5GB Ram, XP Pro

 

[iDq]

Yep, FBWF is another implementation. I like EWF because it supports NTFS. Here's a capture of HD Tune:

[attachment=0:16c1ayqd]hdtune.JPG[/attachment:16c1ayqd]

 

[DarrenHD]

Hmmm...ok i switched over to EWF as well ( I like it better ) and converted to NTFS. My SSD performance is still the same - lower than yours. Unless there is something I've configured wrong, I guess I have a slower SSD than you

I read on a forum that EWF also works with Vista, and since we are using the RAM REG mode of EWF we do not need to make changes to the NTLDR (which is now different for Vista)....so I am going to try Vista in the next few days to see if I can get good performance out of Vista. I had similar stuttering SSD problems on Vista as I did with XP. But I never tried FBWF or EWF on Vista.

I have a full ghost image backup of my system so I think I will give Vista a try tomorrow with EWF.

Darren

 

[iDq]

A simple guide for implementing EWF (RAM-Reg Mode)

1. Get the files

Download Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 2 Feature Pack 2007 from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...ea-a37e-4d25-83df-aabbaa78914f&displaylang=en

Mount image (i. e. Nero ImageDrive) and open XPEFP2007.EXE using an archive manager (i. e. WinRAR). In the 'rep' directory you'll find this files: ewf.sys and ewfmgr.exe. Extract them.

2. Copy files

ewfmgr.exe -> \windows\system32
ewf.sys -> \windows\system32\drivers

3. Update Windows Registry

You will need to create several keys and values:

Key name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ewf

Name: ErrorControl
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0x00000001 (1)

Name: Group
Type: REG_SZ
Value: System Bus Extender

Name: Start
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0x00000000 (0)

Name: Type
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0x00000001 (1)

Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ewf\Parameters\Protected\Volume0

Name: Enabled
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

Name: Type
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0x00000001 (1)

Name: ArcName
Type: REG_SZ
Value: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}

Name: UpperFilters
Type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Value: EWF (if the value of this key is volsnap, add EWF to the value on a new line)

More information here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms940182.aspx
Also, I've found this interesting blog: http://granturing.blogspot.com/

Regards,

 

[J26]

So this trick, offers absolutely zero-writing to ssd and it will reduce the wearing down of the ssd to zero because nothing is being written right?

Also is protection software necessary to protect the computer while it's in use, so virus doesn't interrupt and force us to restart to get rid of it?

 

[iDq]

So this trick, offers absolutely zero-writing to ssd and it will reduce the wearing down of the ssd to zero because nothing is being written right?

Yes, nothing is written to SSD, unless you execute these commands:

ewfmgr c: -commitanddisable -live
ewfmgr c: -enable

Also is protection software necessary to protect the computer while it's in use, so virus doesn't interrupt and force us to restart to get rid of it?

Not an antivirus, only avoid writes to protected volume (SSD)

 

[daymz]

I'm not sure I understand. What's the purpose of installing these filters if nothing is allowed to be written to the SSD ? Speed seems to improve, but you then get a RO filesystem ? I guess you are saving your documents to SD then ? But how about OS and software customization ?

 

[iDq]

Yes, you save all your documents to an SD card (or USB pendrive).

The idea is to install everything without EWF filter installed. Customize it, etc. Then, when the system is ready, install EWF and all the small writes that Windows makes are made to RAM. When you reboot system all modifications are lost. Anyway, you can save them by using the commands I've posted above.

The purpose of these filters is to protect SSD of these "small" (and continuous) writes.

I'm thinking on test this solution:

1. Install WXP SP3 and all the drivers, applications, etc. onto a partition on SSD (6 Gb aprox.)
2. Mount the expansion slot as a virtual drive (I'm not sure of this) and place pagefile.sys, navigator cache, etc. here
3. The other 2 Gb as a unit for save all your work.

Regards,

 

[silo]

yay.. finally an NTFS supporter.. i was just about to reinstall windows for the 3rd time just to format it to FAT and use FBFW, but now i think ill just do this instead =D

oh and one more thing.. is there a way to set exclusions for certain folders so that i can write to them? like firefox?

 

[silo]

hi ive just followed all the steps as above, but I am still able to write to my SSD...
how can i check if I have done it correctly?

ive solved my own problem thru a little googling.. now it works like a treat!!!
just forgot to run the "ewfmgr c: -enable" line

 

[technonoise]

just to let you know that this procedure works perfectly also on Windows Vista..

 

[MiniM3]

Hi all, please excuse my ignorance, I'm a novice at this, I just purchased my AA1 a few days ago, installed Windows XP Pro SP3 on it and would like to use EWF if I can understand a couple of things. During installation I was presented with 2 partitions, one was about 6.6 gig and the other about 1.2 gig, I've partitioned them both to Fat32 and installed Windows in the larger partition (c and the 1.2 gig partition I'm just using as a temp/paging drive. I also added an 8 gig SDHC card in for most of my application installs, some programs are also installed in the C: partition where XP resides.

Now, here's my question. When using the EWF, I'm a little worried about the last couple registry entries to implement the EWF in this thread:

Name: ArcName
Type: REG_SZ
Value: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

and...

Name: UpperFilters
Type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Value: EWF (if the value of this key is volsnap, add EWF to the value on a new line)

* First, the Value: multi(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) <--- is this the large partition that I've installed windows xp on? if so, will this effect how my programs installed on that partition?

** Second, the EWF (if the value of this key is volsnap, add EWF to the value on a new line) <--- I have no clue what this means, should I leave it at default (EWF) ?

If anyone can shed some light on this I would really appreciate it. I hate to botch it up and reinstall everything again. Is there a way to write all these registry entries into one batch file and run it so that I don't have to enter every entry one by one?

Thanks in advance!

Damen

 

[iDq]

[...] the 1.2 gig partition I'm just using as a temp/paging drive[...]

You should disable page file. The 1.2 Gb partition is part of the SSD drive. If you enable page file you're writing data to SSD, so EWF won't help here.

* First, the Value: multi(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) <--- is this the large partition that I've installed windows xp on? if so, will this effect how my programs installed on that partition?

Yes, it should be the large partition (or the drive 'C:'). EWF will avoid any writes to your protected volume ('C:'). Anyway, you can commit writes to 'C:' by executing these commands:

ewfmgr c: -commitanddisable -live
ewfmgr c: -enable

** Second, the EWF (if the value of this key is volsnap, add EWF to the value on a new line) <--- I have no clue what this means, should I leave it at default (EWF) ?

That key must contain this value:

volsnap
ewf

 

[MiniM3]

[...] the 1.2 gig partition I'm just using as a temp/paging drive[...]

You should disable page file. The 1.2 Gb partition is part of the SSD drive. If you enable page file you're writing data to SSD, so EWF won't help here.

* First, the Value: multi(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) <--- is this the large partition that I've installed windows xp on? if so, will this effect how my programs installed on that partition?

Yes, it should be the large partition (or the drive 'C:'). EWF will avoid any writes to your protected volume ('C:'). Anyway, you can commit writes to 'C:' by executing these commands:

ewfmgr c: -commitanddisable -live
ewfmgr c: -enable

** Second, the EWF (if the value of this key is volsnap, add EWF to the value on a new line) <--- I have no clue what this means, should I leave it at default (EWF) ?

That key must contain this value:

volsnap
ewf

iDq, thanks for the reply, cool, I will remove the page file, the reason I have it on is because I run Photoshop on it and every windows boots up, it gives me that warning about not having a page file. So, if I have apps installed on C: or plan to install more apps on C: I should enable the commands you listed?

As for the UpperFilter keys, do you mean that there should be 2 of those key entries one with volsnap as the value and the other as ewf as the value? Please confirm.


Thank you.

Damne

 

[MiniM3]

So this trick, offers absolutely zero-writing to ssd and it will reduce the wearing down of the ssd to zero because nothing is being written right?

Yes, nothing is written to SSD, unless you execute these commands:

ewfmgr c: -commitanddisable -live
ewfmgr c: -enable

[quote:ay01ise2]Also is protection software necessary to protect the computer while it's in use, so virus doesn't interrupt and force us to restart to get rid of it?

Not an antivirus, only avoid writes to protected volume (SSD)[/quote:ay01ise2]

Ok, I got all the registry in, if i do these commands to enable write to the SSD, do I have to disable it again?

Damen

 

[MiniM3]

Ok, windows is now running super fast after inplementing EWF. Amazing!

One problem though, shut down is also tremendously fast as well. But every time I start up windows, I get the Windows did not start successfully properly ... screen.. any way around this? If i disable EWF, I don't get this message screen, so I'm pretty sure it's the EWF causing it.

Damen

 

[technonoise]

to remove the boot message you just have to delete the file named bootstat.dat..
it is a protected/system file so you've to enable explorer to let you see this kinda files bebore search for it.

 

[silo]

to remove the boot message you just have to delete the file named bootstat.dat..
it is a protected/system file so you've to enable explorer to let you see this kinda files bebore search for it.

or as pointed out in the FBWF thread, you can simply right click on My Computer > Properties > Advanced Tab > *under Startup and Recovery* click Settings > uncheck "Time to display recovery options when needed:"..
hope that helps!

 

[peekay123]

Gotta tell ya... I installed the EWF filter as instructed plus I setup a ramdisk for temp/tmp files so that when I do a commit, those files don't get committed. This thing ROCKS! I have a One model ZG5 (as per label on back) and upgraded it with extra 1GB 667 Ram (total 1.5GB). I also have a second class 6 SD as my unprotected writable drive.

I ran ATTO disk bench and here are the results (I ran it twice just to be sure):

[attachment=0:vexgg4zg]diskbench.JPG[/attachment:vexgg4zg]

Thanks... great thread