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Do you have a SATA disk drive in your computer ? If so, you can squeeze a little more performance out of your hard disk. This speeds up the performance of your hard disk by enhancing write caching. However, if your computer is not connected to a battery backup and you loose power you have a increased risk for data loss or corruption. If you have a laptop your chances are data loss or corruption are dramatically less since your laptop battery will kick on if your power source is lost. Let's get started:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in Device Manager and hit Enter.
2. Expand Disk Drives.
3. Right click on your hard drive and select Properties.
4. On the Policies tab, check Enable advanced performance.
5. Hit OK and close Device Manager.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by forumdude123

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Quick context and practical follow-ups to the tips from and .

Enabling the “advanced performance” policy lets Windows buffer and reorder writes in RAM to improve throughput, but that increases the chance of lost or partially written data if power fails. Before flipping the switch, treat it as a configuration change that needs verification and a rollback plan.

Useful checklist and actions to take (apply these before and after changing the policy):

  • Back up first. Create a recent full backup or image so you can recover if corruption shows up.
  • Protect the power path. A UPS for desktops or battery-backed cache on a RAID controller substantially reduces the real risk of data loss.
  • Update the stack. Install the latest chipset/storage controller drivers and firmware; vendor drivers often manage caching differently than the Windows default.
  • Confirm device capabilities. Check the drive/controller datasheet or use a diagnostic tool to verify the drive honors cache-flush commands and whether it has power-loss protection.
  • Measure and monitor. Run a quick benchmark (real-world small-random-write tests) to confirm measurable gains and watch Event Viewer and SMART logs for errors after the change.

If you see instability, hangs on shutdown, or filesystem errors, immediately revert the policy, run chkdsk, restore from backup if needed, and update drivers/firmware before trying again. Note: older OSes like Vista have limited native SSD/trim support and fewer storage-driver improvements than later Windows versions, so SSD users should check vendor guidance or consider upgrading the OS for better native support.

In many desktop scenarios the throughput gain is noticeable for write-heavy workloads; for casual use the benefit can be small while the risk remains. Use the checklist above to make an informed choice.

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Member Avatar for forumdude123

just be aware that hp notebooks and several other pc's don't support this feature.

Member Avatar for forumdude123

oh yeah, about the support for some pcs, it may be due to a feature in Intel Matrix Storage Manager that increases performance automatically instead of this method.

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