If you’re so lucky to have an external hard disk drive that connects to your computer through USB / USB 2.0, then you can get increased performance from your hard disk in Windows Vista. This is because Vista treats your external drive differently than a FireWire (IEEE1394) or eSATA-connected drive, rather more like a USB pendrive. By switching off a feature called “Write Caching” might work swell for a thumdrive, it seriously hampers the performance of your external USB hard disk. Here’s how to disable write caching for your USB hard disk:

  1. In Windows Vista, first click on “Start”, bringing up the Start menu.
  2. Right-click “My computer” and select “Manage”.
  3. On the left-hand menu, click “Device Manager”.
  4. Locate your external hard disk drive in the list.
  5. Right-click your disk and select “Properties”.
  6. Click the “Policies”-pane and check “Optimize for performance” and “Enable advanced performance”.
  7. Reboot your computer!

.Windows Vista Write Caching