External hard drive and ExpressCache

I also would be appreciative of a official response from ScanDisk.

In answer to the OP, yes I too have had issues relating to removing external hard drives.

I found due to the large capacity of the external HD, and various visited folders within, the Sandisk Expresscache software will not release the external HD when I ‘remove the USB device’. Requesting a PC shut-down, the PC/ laptop takes ages to shut-down (cup of tea time) only to find the Expresscache software has been reset on restart.

Could this be a potential problem when attaching mobile phones as storage, haven’t tried and don’t intend to but, it may be something else to consider when testing/ updating.

As previously said, a tick box to ignore caching on external media may in fact be the simplest answer, after all, it’s caching for the Operating System and program files from the primary hard-drive.

I wait in anticipation of the next release

RoRo, yes exactly my problem. My EHH is only 1 TB.

Also, notice now that ExpressCache is constantly accessing my primary hard drive with significant activity. Been doing so for a couple of days, even if I leave the computer on but inactive all night.

I am concerned that the longevity of the drives will be significantly reduced.

If I disable ExpressCache at start up, all problems go away, so I know it is ExpressCache.

To be honest, I do not see any real performance benefit with ExpressCache and because of the issues, will probably just leave it off until SanDisk does something to solve the problem 

Does anyone know if I can just reformat the drive wilth Windows to make it an accessable drive and just use it as a 2nd hard drive?

Yes just reformat and give it a new volume. I did this to mine and just switch my page file to it for now or just use as a second drive. Had to many problem with the ready cache software for now.

Thanks Chas488,

Yes, I too am frustrated with the ExpressCache software. Also disappointed in the lack of response from SanDisk.

If you don’t mind offering me some assistance. If I go to Disk Management and select the ReadyCache SSD disk, the format option is greyed out. Do I have to delete the volume first, then format, then…? Thanks in advance. 

Did you uninstall the ready cache software? Delete  the drives partition,formatt and make new volume

from what i understand the expresscache software should ignore any external drive marked as removable. Are your External HDD marked as removable disks or fixed disks when you look at them in windows explorer?

Chas488, thanks for your help. Looks like I just need to delete the volume first. I think I will just use this for my photoshop scratch drive and maybe try again next time ExpressCache gets updated.

drlucky,

they show up as Local Disk, not removable storage. I was under the impression that External USB Harddrives always showed up as local drives, but only things like flash drives showed up as removable. These are just WD 1tb external USB drives.

@Centurion,

I am not using the ReadyCache product…

However, I’m using a Maxtor External USB drive which is formatted as NTFS.

It shows up as a Local Disk.

FYI.

Well ExpressCache 1.3.0 has been installed and the same issue still happens when removing the ‘removable USB device’ external hard drive (WD 1023). Checked USB HD for system/ surface errors and viruses using AVG and nothing.

Anyone else still encountering this problem?

Hm, I will try the external drive later when I get mine back:P

So far usb flash drives don’t have issues…but they shouldn’t defrag regardless.

Taking defrag control away should have come with some options to exclude…I"d like to exclude my media drives for instance, no reason to defrag those all the time.

ExpressCache version 1.3.0 DOES NOT cache or defrag any USB drives regardless if they are are defined as Removable or Fixed. It will only cache and defrag SATA drives.

Update: After uninstalling USB device and restarting the PC, I attached the external H/Drive and windows installed the device.

After this procedure I can now remove the USB device with Expresscache running. :smileyvery-happy:

The previous errors in removing USB device have now disappeared which must have been corrupt USB driver files and from the results, not the ExpressCache software. All running well!

Here is a link to the utility which can remove USB devices on the fly for re-installation if anyone else is stuck with this:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

This not true is my system. I’ve just plugged a phone configured as mass storage via USB to copy some files (that I presume that were also cached), and the Safely Remove’ icon under the taskbar refused to remove it, saying that the device was in use by a program. After killing ExpressCache.exe via taskmanager, it could be instantly removed without any error.

I’ve faced the same behaviour too with a regular flash pen drive under 1.3.0.

@gls wrote:

ExpressCache version 1.3.0 DOES NOT cache or defrag any USB drives regardless if they are are defined as Removable or Fixed. It will only cache and defrag SATA drives.

No gls,

I have the same issue, but only with this new version 1.3.0. In 1.2 it goes well!

Regardless on the type of USB pendisk I use, it always deny to remove it.

heres’ my eccmd -info:

C:\Users\ric>eccmd -info
ExpressCache Command Version 1.0.108.0
Copyright® 2010-2013 Condusiv Technologies.
Date Time: 11/4/2013 17:32:19:665 (RIC-PC #4)

EC Cache Info

Mounted : Yes
Partition Size : 29.82 GB
Reserved Size : 3.00 MB
Volume Size : 29.82 GB
Total Used Size : 7.81 GB
Total Free Space : 22.00 GB
Used Data Size : 7.74 GB
Used Data Size on Disk : 7.80 GB

Tiered Cache Stats

Memory in use : 1024.00 MB
Blocks in use : 8045
Read Percent : 4.96%

Cache Stats

Cache Volume Drive Number : 0
Total Read Count : 32856
Total Read Size : 852.59 MB
Total Cache Read Count : 13537
Total Cache Read Size : 341.95 MB
Total Write Count : 39704
Total Write Size : 521.97 MB
Total Cache Write Count : 27015
Total Cache Write Size : 237.79 MB

Cache Read Percent : 40.11%
Cache Write Percent : 45.56%

kind regards,

Riccardo

Caching looks fine; are you sure this did not happen with 1.2.1? Also if you exit the ExpressCache gui app and kill the expresscache.exe service in the task manager does itstill state you cannot eject the pen drive?

Thanks!

@gls wrote:

Caching looks fine; are you sure this did not happen with 1.2.1? Also if you exit the ExpressCache gui app and kill the expresscache.exe service in the task manager does itstill state you cannot eject the pen drive?

 

Thanks!

If I kill expresscache.exe I’m able to extract the pendrive safely. Till then it flashes again and again like there were activities, even if I have no files open.

If you cannot solve the problem, I will uninstall 1.3 and reinstall 1.2.1: it had not this problem.

regards,

No solutions?

I don’t think it’s a minor problem!

Just an update. I stopped ExpressCache in Task manager for several weeks, and all of my external hard drives worked correctly and I could eject them. A few days ago I turned ExpressCache back on, and again ExpresCache is constantly accessing the external drives, I cannot eject them. Although everything seems to work ok, the constant drive activity is a concern.

Some have said that ExpressCache does not defrag or cache USB drives. This may be true, but it is certainly doing something with the drives.

Obviously I am not the only person with this problem. It is unfortunate that someone from SanDisk cannot shed some light on this problem.