Downloading it now... It looks super cool!

Installing a Fresh Windows OS to a New Bootable VHD with no Host OS for Boot to VHD

Posted onMay 07, 2011byjohn

*****

I love the performance gains I get by using bootable VHDs. I’ve always enjoyed using VHDs but I generally had a host OS first, then installed a bunch of VHDs that I made bootable. Recently I’ve changed all of this on my laptop after a coworker took the time to show me a way with more flexibility (thanks Paul Stubbs!). The idea is simple: take a clean drive with no host OS and add or remove bootable VHDs as needed.

Really cool stuff!

To bridge the gap, FlashStore “sits between a hard drive and RAM, acting as a high-speed holding area for frequently used data.”

Using flash in conjunction with other types of storage isn’t new in itself. Vendors that sell such technology call it tiered storage, and say it maximizes cost-effectiveness of storage by putting valuable, frequently accessed data on high-priced, faster tiers, and less valuable, less frequently accessed data on lower-cost, slower tiers.

But Microsoft says it’s added a couple of other enhancements. “FlashStore is designed to eliminate random writes,” Microsoft says. “It organizes data in a log structure on flash so that new data sent to flash does not lead to random writes and, hence, is not subject to garbage collection by the device.” FlashStore also uses a specialized RAM index to access data from flash in a way that reduces usage of RAM.

Big boys use wired mouse - And now big girls too ;-)