Write Caching on External Hard drive

U

UrbanSpices

New Member
Hi,

I am recording directly to an external hard drive, using usb 3.

I know that enabling write caching on an external hard drive means that there is a chance of data loss in a power outage etc... I was wondering if that data loss would only apply to the current piece of recording/work that the drive was writing, or whether the rest of my data (long term storage) could also be corrupted.

I want to enable write caching to help with my write speeds, as I occasionally get frame drops recording to this HDD - just don't want to lose everything on my hardrive if the power goes out.

Thanks
 
If you enable write cache, the increased risk is not the data loss with a power outage or system crash. That may happen with internal drives as well, since these have write cache enabled as default for ages.

The additional risk is disconnecting the external drive without telling Windows. It's very easy. You can always just grab the connector and pull it out. A thing you are unable to do with internal drives. If write cache is enabled, Windows doesn't flush pending data to the disk immediately. Unexpectedly disconnecting the drive destroys the pending data. For safely disconnecting an external drive, you have to use the "safely remove hardware" function in the system tray. Windows flushes all pending data, then tells it's safe to disconnect the drive. This function is available as well with disabled write cache - in this case, Windows simply makes sure no current file is open any more.

If you do disconnect without using the "safely remove hardware" function and you are currently and actively writing data to that device, the whole drive may become corrupt and all data may be lost, if write cache is enabled. If write cache is disabled and you disconnect a drive, only the files currently being written to are truncated or get corrupt content. Other data is usually not at risk with this.

From my point of view, there is no problem with enabling write cache if you always use the "safely disconnect hardware" function before disconnecting the drive. You have to train yourself to do that, if you don't do it already.
 
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