FBWF - speed up your ssd like hell! (how to)

Hey so I've been using this tweak and its been great so far but I've noticed a small problem was wondering what I could do 2 fix it. Everytime i restart after doing this mod it says i haven't shut down properly. Obviously because it doesn't save the shutdown info each time but which folder would i have 2 "persist" to get it 2 shut down properly?

 

heyho,

nice that it works for you. and in fact: i had the same promblem, and seems like i solved it:

(sorry, running a german xp, so the directions are kind'a experimental )

1. rigth click on my computer->properties (or: the "home button" / windows button + break/pause)
2. go to "advanced" and there click on "settings" for "start up and recovery"
3. disable/uncheck the second box: "time to display recovery options when needed"

hope that helps!

xoxo tom

 

is it ok to adjust the threshold by 1024?

im in ntfs, 1gb ram, 8gb sd....
-thanx

 

nope! (in any case not for your set up)

the threshold is directly taken from your "ram". setting it to 1024 might cause crashes, due to all mem beeing assigned to the threshold - so that your system does not have any left.

500 mb should be ok - in fact i never used more then 60 mb of my 500... so i'm even considering to reduce it...

but: if 1gb ram means - you have 500mb soldered and 1gb in extension, it should work. - due to xp not needing more then aprox. 500 mb.

if you have 1gb of ram i would advise you, to use 250-300 as threshold
with 1,5gb you can use 500mb

 

I've been using a batch file to enable/disable the FBWF. It makes it a lot easier when I want to make changes (less typing really). It helps a lot since I have quite a few persist folders.
Just to let anyone else know if they wanna do it too here's the instructions, its pretty simple.

The part where you have to type this part into to command line:
fbwfmgr/enable
fbwfmgr/addvolume C:
fbwfmgr/setthreshold 256

Instead of typing it into a command line type it into notepad then rename it to "enable.bat" Now instead of having to type it in when u want to make changes u just have to double click the file. You can add your persist folders under it for example I add my firefox folder so I can save bookmarks.

 

Although I would not recommend using FBWF at all (no NTFS support!) and FAT32 is not an option on a system volume, I have written a small program to flush the FBWF cache using the FBWF API. Use Visual C++ Express 2005/8 to compile. Please get fbwfapi.h and fbwfapi.lib elsewhere as these files are copyrighted.

BTW: I am using EWF as described in http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/w ... tml?page=1 - this works 100%.

Code:

// fbwflush - flush fbwf cache on all volumes
//
// Copyright (C) 2008  tomcat
// 
// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
// modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
// as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
// of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
// 
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
// 
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
// Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
 
#define STRICT
#define WINDOWS_LEAN_AND_MEAN

#include <windows.h>
#include <winerror.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <tchar.h>

#include "fbwfapi.h"

TCHAR drives[26][4];
TCHAR *volume;

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
	// returned status
	ULONG error;

	// find cache details
	ULONG current, next;
	FbwfCacheDetail cd[1000];
	ULONG cds = sizeof(cd);

	// drive index
	int d;

	// check if filter is enabled
	if((error = FbwfIsFilterEnabled(&current, &next)) != NO_ERROR) {
		_tprintf(_T("error(%d): %s\n"), error, _T("cannot get filter status."));
		return -1;
	}

	if (!current) {
		if (next) 
			_tprintf(_T("%s\n"), _T("reboot to enable filter."));
		else
			_tprintf(_T("%s\n"), _T("use fbwfmgr to enable filter."));

		return -1;
	}

	// NOTE: should be done with FbwfGetVolumeList(...) instead
	// get all logical drive letters
	if (!GetLogicalDriveStrings(26, &drives[0][0])) {
		_tprintf(_T("error(%d): %s\n"), GetLastError(), _T("cannot enumerate logical drives."));
		return -1;
	}

	// check all volumes
	for (d = 0; (d < 26 && drives[d][0] != 0); d++) {

		volume = drives[d];
		volume[2] = 0;

		// check if any files are cached
		ZeroMemory(cd, sizeof(cd));
		if ((error = FbwfFindFirst(volume, &cd[0], &cds)) != NO_ERROR) {
			if (error == ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND) {
				_tprintf(_T("error(%d): %s %s\n"), error, volume, _T("has no files cached."));
				continue;
			}
			else if (error == ERROR_INVALID_DRIVE) {
				_tprintf(_T("error(%d): %s %s\n"), error, volume, _T("is not cached."));
				continue;
			}
			else {
			_tprintf(_T("error(%d): %s\n"), error, _T("cannot enumerate cached files."));
				continue;
			}
		}

		// commit all cached files
		do {
			_tprintf(_T("committing %s%s...\n"), volume, cd[0].fileName);
			if ((error = FbwfCommitFile(volume, cd[0].fileName)) != NO_ERROR) {
				_tprintf(_T("error(%d): %s\n"), error, _T("commit failed."));
				return -1;
			}
			ZeroMemory(cd, sizeof(cd));
		} 
		while ((error = FbwfFindNext(&cd[0], &cds)) == NO_ERROR);

		if (error != ERROR_NO_MORE_FILES) {
			_tprintf(_T("error(%d): %s\n"), error, _T("cannot enumerate cached files."));
			return -1;
		}

		if ((error = FbwfFindClose()) != NO_ERROR) {
			_tprintf(_T("error(%d): %s\n"), error, _T("cannot enumerate cached files."));
			return -1;
		}
	}

	return 0;
}

 

I had trouble with this method initially on my NTFS installation but after reformatting to FAT32, I can honestly say that the performance is incredible. My machine has 1gb of RAM and the slow Intel SSD and with this method in place, the Aspire is running as snappy as a desktop machine. I installed XP SP2 on a FAT32 partition, applied the usual tweaks like disabling system restore, prefetch, pagefile, etc. Then I setup the FBWF system with a few exclusions (c:\Documents and Settings\User\xxxxx, TEMP and TMP dirs, etc.). I also created a 64mb ramdisk for the browser cache (helps firefox dramatically). With these tweaks in place, I have a fully functional, snappy, Aspire One on XP.

I hope this helps someone...

 

I zapped my shiny new Acer One with XP & SP3 (FAT32) from a USB key tonight - took a while and ran like a dog.

Tried this FBWF tip and it runs so fast it makes it a lot better - BUT - I can't turn it off - any commands to FNWFMGR result in an instant blue screen of death and the command isn't saved. I'm facing a reinstall and really don't want too.

Someone else above seems to have had the same issue - does anyone have a solution?

Thanks

 

- Delete everything in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\FBWF" using regedit
- Run the commit vbs script from the mp3car.com FBWF thread (refer to earlier posts for the link)
- Reboot, and FBWF should be turned off

 

Thanks, I'll give that a try when I get home later.

 

Hello,
wow this is fast, I'm have 110 with 1.5 Gb ram 8GBssd & 8GBSDHC (class6).
I hawe installed XP pro - SP3 - FAT32, the only issue I have is that my audio is disabled every time I use FBwf. any sugestions?

B.T.W. boot time from xp start to ready desktop is about 12 seconds!!! and everything is smooth. I recomend the latest Opera 9.5 for web browser, it's real fast on this pc.

/Digi

 

OK answer to my self, setting "fbwfmgr /setpreallocation 0" fixed the audio driver issue.
But this made it feel a bit slower..

/Digi

 

If anybody is interested, here is a complete howto for fbwf

http://www.aaowiki.de/howto:fbwf_en

 

hi, i copied all the necessary files, did the registry script, restarted my AO but i'm getting this error when i try to enable fbwf:

"FbwfMgr: Unable to communicate with the file-based write filter."

what could be wrong here?

 

was the first thing you did "fbwfmgr /enable" ? To set other options you must first set fbwf to enabled.

 

yes i was trying to enable it with fbwfmgr /enable but that error came up.

 

Same thing here.
"Fbwfmgr: Unable to communicate with the file-based write filter."

I tried to apply fbwf yesterday and it worked fine - cmd prompt didnt whine at all - but when I rebooted I got a blue screen while loading windows and I had to revert back to the last working setup.
Now when im trying to do this all again, step by step the same way, it gives me that error msg.

Is there some kind of patch for fbwf or does anyone have a clue how to fix this?

 

sry, for not having had a look into this forum for quite some time.

in fact i'm not only working 7days a week but also finally got my aao roasted
think the bios / gpu bios is dead and acer is not shure jet, whether they will repair it due to me having opened it and installed additional ram...

well...

digi and your audio driver:
i realized, i had the same problem. dont know, what was wrong, but on my first installation i had a working fbwf with sound (i remember, because it completly pissed me off in our library, where i had to boot three times to turn sound of - and people getting pissed off from windows sounds )

Latenssi:

do you have the chance, to boot a working dos from usb?
use "hp disk storage format tool" (or another drive partitioner that can set a usb drive to "active" - means: enable the mbr)

copy the necessary dos files on it (if you need them send me a pm with your email)

then delete the file "fbwf***" in your root directory

boot again and try to enable fbwf. the problem might result from a defunctionary fbwf config file ( i had that blue screen issue resolved this way)

WARNING:
if you repartition your disk after installing fbwf or something like that there might be problems.


______


as soon as i get my aao back, i'll try to work on the ewf (someone further up allready wrote about it).

it seems to be a bit buggy, but the "live commit and disable" function as well as the "horm" functionallity seem pretty cool.


xoxo le tigre

 

This looks useful.... will it work with Vista? Or do I need to do things different?

 

It does work! It's so much quicker now, thanks!

It would've been nice if I'd known exactly what Vista was doing to my SSD all the time (the light was never off - I had indexing and everything turned off), but it doesn't matter now, it has stopped!