Caching software for SSD

P5-133XL

Xmas '97
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I now have a spare 180GB SSD, so why not use it? The problem is that my partitions use far more space than the SSD contains. I know that I can reinstall everything and move stuff around so it would all fit but that would take a lot of time that I'm not really interested in spending. So, what I'd like to know are the best SSD caching software options (preferably free) for Windows 8.

I did a simple google search and was not impressed with the choices especially since the ones I saw for free were just beta tests with 30-90 day trial keys that expire or Linux only. The ones that were not free were limited to specific manufacturers/products.

So anyone out there with better options?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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If you were using ZFS, you could designate your SSD as a cache-only drive. I'm not aware of any such feature within Windows or any of the common Windows-based file system overlays like SnapRAID.
I also didn't notice any subjective difference in using an 80GB mSATA drive for hardware-based ("Intel Smart Response") caching on a Z77 board while using an SSD for a normal boot drive.

The best thing I've found to do with older SSDs is toss them in older notebooks.
 

P5-133XL

Xmas '97
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No, I didn't get a good answer or at least an answer I that I could use. I really thought that SSD caching (non-hybrid drive) would have been much more useful and prevalent.

Unfortunately, I already found it a home so selling it is not really an option.
 

Howell

Storage? I am Storage!
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FWIW, Samsung recently acquired NVELO which claims to be faster than Intel SRT on the max setting. I have no experience with either but that makes 2 options to try. Only the Intel option is free.
 

Bozo

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I though some of the newer motherboards had a slot on them to install a micro SSD just for caching???
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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I though some of the newer motherboards had a slot on them to install a micro SSD just for caching???

Some of the "Z" (enthusiast) series motherboard chipsets do, but that is of dubious utility if your main drive is already an SSD.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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As far as I know, no Macs have any such configuration. Windows Vista supported a technology called ReadyBoost for doing high-level disk caching of disk drive access, but that wasn't supported on Windows 7 (the Readyboost hardware was just formatted and configured as if it were a USB flash drive). I can't really think of anything that comes closer than that.
 
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