Another solution for SSD: EWF?

Risk/problem with EWF.

Somebody asked if there's a risk involved.
Yes.
My son was using the machine, and it got so close to out of power that it shut itself down- and because there was so much to commit, it apparently ran out of power before it finished. The machine now comes up complaining that the "C: Drive" needs to be ChkDsk'd, and it then blue-screens before it finishes starting XP after that.

I'll have to do a re-install this weekend. At that point, I think I'll go back to the batch file with the CommitAndDisable followed by Enable, so it only writes changes when I tell it to.

 

Re: Risk/problem with EWF.

I nearly hit this myself on the bus a few days ago. I was watching the blinking red power light and hoping it would have enough juice left to finish the commit and it barely did -- I really lucked out.

I think what I'm going to do to be safe is to modify the power alarms (power options -> alarms) and set the first alarm at 10% to warn me to wrap things up. At 5% I'll have it notify me and then proceed to force a shutdown. That way with 5% of the battery left, it should be able to finish any EWF commits that it needs.

You can also set alarms to run a program, so you could put your batch file together and when you hit a certain percentage left on the battery, you can have your machine automatically run that file to do a -commitanddisable -live to ensure you'll get everything written out before the battery dies.

Kind of a pain in the ass, but worth it to prevent having to reinstall!

 

I'd say this is a band aid fix until you'd get a hard drive that doesn't have appalling write speed. I'd gladly trade some of the speed for more reliability and convienience.

I ran into some trouble with this, apparently ran out of ram (512mb linux model) while commiting. If you ever get a message that the delayed write failed DO NOT commit! You'll probably run out of memory during the process like me and have a good chance of data loss. Just be sure to check your current memory usage if u get the popup baloon.

Reinstalling windows on this slow ass ssd is not my idea of fun.

 

Hello all, I am up to try this today Just to be sure, this works with a FAT32 formatted SSD? Looking forward to no writes and no lags. Thanks in advance.

 

I googled a bit, seems that EWF locks the partition, has nothing to do with the FS used on the partition. I will definitely try this today, and post comments later.

 

Hm, OK. I copied the files in windows\system32 and windows\system32\drivers. I set the permissions in regedit, then successfuly imported the .reg files posted here in the forum (repaired "R oot" with "Root" in the file) - the import of the reg files went with no problems. I renamed my old ntldr file and copied the new ntldr file posted here. I rebooted XP. When I try to do c:\ewfmgr C:, I get an error message "Failed getting protected volume configuration with error 1. Incorrect function". Please, any help? I did not have any such problems with FBWF. Is there anything wrong with the .reg files? I have only one partition (C on the SSD. Thanks all.

 

Success! There is definitely something wrong with the .reg files. I deleted all the entries from the imported .reg files, went manually through the registry entries from the first posts, and it works like a charm. Amazing thread, and a very nice way to increase the timing and productivity of The One. Thanks for all the information.

 

Hi!

I followed the steps as mentioned on the first page. Rebooted and checked ewf mgr in the cmd. It was Disabled. I tried to enable it with "ewfmgr c: enable" but an error message came up.

The message says:
"Failed opening the target device \\.\en with error 2
The system cannot find the file specified."

This is all written in the cmd line where it normally says:

"Memory used for data x bytes
Memory used for mapping x bytes"


Im running a freshly installed NLited XP SP3.
Can anyone help me with this? I really dont want to use my xp the way it works atm.

 

How i configurate ewf on windows vista?
I try the same configuration of winxp and system is ok....but when i restart the system and ewf is enable, windows error recovery stop the boot and said that windows failed to start.A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.....etc. Then i select "Start Windows Normally" and the system boot correctly and very fast!!!
Help....i can't fix this problem!!!!

 

Oh for f*** sake I solved my so called problem.. I was using the wrong command.. I used "ewfmgr c: enable" instead of "ewfmgr c: -enable"

 

Hey guys, sorry, really stupid question:

How can I tell if it's working?

I followed all the steps (Used the fixed registry files [Thanks!]) and everything SEEMS to be okay, I just don't know how to tell if it's working : ).

Thanks!

 

your boot up speed must be really fast and loading programs such as office 2007 should be instant.

or try to create and save a "notepad" file on desktop.. if you restart, it will be gone..


anyways, is there anyway to disable it and enable it again??????

i need change some settings and... disable isn't working..T.T

***MAKE SURE TO CHANGE POWER SETTING TO HOME/OFFICE*** or your internet will be damn slow after ewfing

 

Read this thread thoroughly. Everything you need is here, and it works.

 

It was mentioned that you can transfer Desktop/My Documents to an SD card using TweakUI. Is it possible to put other data on a fast SD to save writes to the SSD? I'm probably going to stick with 512mb and am looking for alternatives. Thanks.

Edit: It looks like there are solutions in the SSD success story thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2299

 

Thanks to SESummers for taking time to post how to use the -commit option. Shutdown was taking around 3-4mins to complete before I updated to use -commit properly i.e. just run it once at startup, and now my machine generally takes less than 1minute to shutdown!

I can confirm EWF is working beautifully using XP SP3 on NTFS.

 

Re: Another solution for SSD: EWF? HAPPY USER!!!

hi, newby here.... just happy to inform my experience in usng the EWF.. it works!!!! I was about to give up using this acer after purchasing it for less than 3 days and decided to let go, because even you did all the tweaks and disballing all the files... ITS JUST USELESS....

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS MARVELOUS PROCEDURE... YOU SAVED MY hmmm... addiction...

just an inquiry, basically this EWF is disabling the c: to write (SSD). I hav an XP SP2 (fat 32) install in my 8gig and would like to create a partition to make use of the remaining 4 gig after installing all the drivers...

will it affect the performance if its partitioned into 2? and if theres a procedure that i can follow, that would be very grateful... thanks and more power...

 

I tried this with success on my EeePC. Here's where I got caught up:
I tried merging the .reg files (with "Root" fixed), changed the Upperfilters value and upon reboot I got a 7B stop code.

I recommend before running this, disable auto restart on BSOD if you haven't already.

System properties->advanced->startup recovery settings->uncheck automatic restart

That way if you get a BSOD you can at least read the code off of it.

It would still BSOD if I tried safemode, but i was able to get back into the system by loading "last known Good configuration."

The previous configuration wiped out all the added registry keys, so then I just manually added it per the earlier post. After that the system worked no problem.

If you're locked out of your system, and last known good configuration won't work, try booting the system with a live linux or UBCD4Win, and deleting the ewf.sys. If it still won't work, UBCD4Win has tools that should let you edit the registry offline, and remove EWF from the Upperfilters registry entry.

And the UBCD4Win comes with tools to make a bootable USB drive. i find it indispensable for emergency repair of Windows systems.
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

 

Because I still only have 512MB of RAM and I like using EWF, I created a little program to easily monitor EWF's memory usage.

:arrow: jf_EwfInfo_v0.01


Edit: moved this to it's own topic:
:arrow: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4393

Best regards,
Johan

 

Haven't tried EWF yet as I am waiting on a stick of ram to come in the mail, but I was reading this page:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms940853.aspx

and it seems like setlevel 1 might be able to 'restart' the filter after a commitanddisable live. maybe someone could try it out and report back?

 

Hello all.

I thought I'd post my experience with "EWF" and the A110 so far.

I did some research before replacing my eeePC 701 with an A110 (Samsung SSD), so I was fully aware of its problems/limitations.

What I did:
- Added 1GB Ram.
- Installed nLited XP SP3 (NTFS).
- Installed the neccessary drivers.
- Installed a few programs: KMPlayer, Opera, Windows Live Messenger, Bricopack Vista Inspirat 2, Process Explorer, CCleaner, Autoruns...
- Did the usual system tricks.
- Compressed the drive.
- Implemented "EWF".
- Implemented "minlogon".

What I get:
- Boots in ~17 seconds (full boot, no SSD activity).
- Very responsive, no lag or pause (all apps open in ~1 second).
- Shuts down in ~2 seconds.

What I need to get:
- 4400mah or 6600mah battery.

So far I'm very pleased with my choice.