Thread: Using EWF on regular WinXP

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to figure out... Because from what I read in that ReadyOn thread it seems to use its own filter similar to EWF. I ordered a CF-IDE adaptor and a 1GB SanDisk card. 1GB because I figure the install will be around 350 - 400 MB plus the hibernation file on a system with 512MB of RAM. It's a new CF card with extremely fast (for CF) read/write speed. So we'll see how well it goes!! While I wait for the CF card and adaptor I'm experimenting with nLite to see how small an install I can make that is still functional for what I plan to use it for. I'm planning to keep WMP and IE because I'd like to use them to build my .NET UI. For now though I'll probably just use one of the current frontends just to get the damn thing in my car once and for all. Then I can worry about software issues later.

Originally Posted by SFiorito

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to figure out... Because from what I read in that ReadyOn thread it seems to use its own filter similar to EWF. I ordered a CF-IDE adaptor and a 1GB SanDisk card. 1GB because I figure the install will be around 350 - 400 MB plus the hibernation file on a system with 512MB of RAM. It's a new CF card with extremely fast (for CF) read/write speed. So we'll see how well it goes!! While I wait for the CF card and adaptor I'm experimenting with nLite to see how small an install I can make that is still functional for what I plan to use it for. I'm planning to keep WMP and IE because I'd like to use them to build my .NET UI. For now though I'll probably just use one of the current frontends just to get the damn thing in my car once and for all. Then I can worry about software issues later.

I haven't read all of the ready on threat but back when I was following it I remember reading something about them having been the ones who actually developed XPe for MS so it would make sense to me if theyre the ones that wrote that they wouldve written this and maybe theyre just customizing it a bit more for their use.

I was just browsing price watch and they have 2 gb CF type hard drives for under $100. Why not use these instead of regular CF? In my expierience it hasn't been much if any slower (at least noticeable a diff) than a regular CF card in a PDA (can't say as far as running an os if theres a big speed difference). But for the price, it would seem more practical you're basically getting twice the space for less than half again as much and its not as sensitive to read/writes. I still think its a good idea to use EWF but you dont have as much of a concern. sorry if im babbling on and on I'm really tired and wanted to mention it before I forgot.

I would imagine seek times will still be slower due to the microdrives being mechanical compared to flash cards, but I don't know that for a fact. Also, I can't imagine even microdrives being able to widthstand the amount of shock that a CF card can. Microdrives are cool and all, but just the idea of all those small parts in there bouncing around (my 300ZX doesn't have a very "comfortable" suspension) makes me kind of scared to tell you the truth... Another advantage of an EWF volume (even if it's not on a CF card) is not having to worry about data integrity. So you can just shut the machine down right away rather than doing a clean shutdown.

Does the Sandisk CF card appear as a fixed disk? I hear that's manadatory. If it appears as removable media, it won't work.

Originally Posted by grepzen

In practical application, would the OS reside on a separate drive than the program files (which change, configuration, updates, etc)?

Yeah, I would think so, if not, assuredly the music and vids. And that is the very problem why you would want to do a graceful...nevermind, I'm stupid, that's what the ewf is for, to protect everything...but still shuting down normally would allow you to provide a bit more protection for the harddrive when it locks its heads (or whatever it does) to keep from hitting the platters.