>>>Drive controllers that has too large a write cache can cause problems that you are describing. If your controller supports it, turn off all write caching.
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>>A better approach would be to make sure you have the latest drivers, if any, for a caching drive controller. Disabling write caching should be an absolute last resort, as it causes a large decrease in disk subsystem performance. A lot of network administrators are not willing to degrade the performance of a server, that may be running a lot of other mission-critical apps, just because of one.
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>>Write-behind caching is not inherently a bad thing. All reputable drive and controller manufacturers and OS vendors spend a lot of effort in ensuring cache coherency.
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>I agree. Write caching is a good thing...it just doesn't work well with file-based databases like VFP, Access, etc.
Write caching is controlled at the OS level. If there is a problem with cache coherency in a write-behind controller, you'll see it in ALL apps that write to disk, not just file-based databases. Conversely, if it's working properly, it'll be fine for all apps.
Regards. Al
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