Using an existing SSD as a cache for 2 HDDs

[Dazza17]

Hi all!

 

I'm looking to in prove the storage situation of my rig with an additional 1 or 2TB HDD and a 500GB NVMe boot drive. I currently have a 128GB SATA SSD boot drive with a 1TB HDD.

Would it be possible to use the current 128GB SSD as a cache for the 2 HDDs, after transferring the data to the new 500GB NVMe drive?

[porina]

If you have a compatible AMD system they offer StoreMI for free: https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/store-mi

A general solution is PrimoCache but it is paid software: https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/primo-cache/

 

I do not have experience with using either of the above. I'm not certain if either allow a single cache SSD to work with 2 HDs. 

[GameOverAus]

On 12/16/2021 at 9:53 PM, Dazza17 said:

Hi all!

 

I'm looking to in prove the storage situation of my rig with an additional 1 or 2TB HDD and a 500GB NVMe boot drive. I currently have a 128GB SATA SSD boot drive with a 1TB HDD.

Would it be possible to use the current 128GB SSD as a cache for the 2 HDDs, after transferring the data to the new 500GB NVMe drive?

PrimoCache can definately do that, , you setup the pool of drives and then use PrimoCache to cache the drive letter that was created when you pooled the 2 drives, you can also cache individual drives. By default PrimoCache uses system memory as L1 cache and any physical hard drive assigned as L2 cache

It will copy the information to the SSD in this case and then offload it to the Hard Drives at an integer of time you determine.

Note tho that the speed is completely determined by the speed of the slowest drive in any operation.  SO even tho you might have a blisteringly fast 2 hard drives or NVME if what you are reading from initially or copying too ultimately is slow then you wont see much improvement at all.