EWF Tool
by dan on Jul.19, 2006, under Development
Recently I built myself an ultra low powered machine to use as a media centre for the living room. I wanted something low powered and completely silent, so I got myself one of VIA’s microscopic 12×12cm Nano-ITX boards:
Everything you need is built into the board – audio, network, TV out, etc. and the whole thing is cooled with a passive heatsink. Perfect for what I needed and completely silent. Except for one snag - the hard disk makes a hell of a noise when every other component is silent!
So back to the drawing board. Eventually, I found a fantastic device:
A flash based IDE disk. It plugs directly into your IDE socket and as far as your system is concerned, it appears as a normal hard disk. As an added bonus, it uses a fraction of the power of a normal hard disk, and random access time is much faster.
There are a couple of drawback though. The main problem is the limited number of write cycles of flash devices. Normally this isn’t a problem if you’re using a flash disk for storing files, but if you’re running an operating system from one, then the number of writes to the disk increases dramatically. So if you going to use a flash based disk, you’ve got to limit the number of writes, or your devices could become useless in a matter of months. That’s when I found an excellent guide to write protecting your disk by Silvio Fiorito:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~sfiorito/eXPinstall.htm
It involves borrowing the Extended Write Filter driver from Windows XP Embedded, and installing it on your normal version of XP. It’s quite a chore setting it all up – editing security permissions, adding registry keys, replacing files, etc.
I’ve created a small tool that should automate the installation and configuration process. It’s a stand alone app, so no need to install, just unzip it to a folder on the machine that you want to configure and run it.
The driver only works on Windows XP Pro, XP Home, and Media Center 2005. You can download it here but be aware that it is beta software, and I’ve only tested it on my machine, so use at your own risk!
August 20th, 2006 on 10:27 am
Thanks for making this tool.
It will help lot of newbies in this forum thread:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181
‘XP booting direct from USB’
February 18th, 2008 on 4:43 pm
Hey, thanks for referencing my EWF guide. I had to move it to another site since my school account was closed as I’m no longer a student. My new site is: http://granturing.blogspot.com. Thanks!
May 3rd, 2008 on 12:10 pm
Nice work!
Can you please help me a little bit to be sure I’ve got it. Here’s how I understand the thing works:
1. Install WinXP on CF (which is inserted into a IDE adaptor)
2. Getting the EWF files
3. Using your tool to make the chages
4. A perfect living room PC with minimal read/writes from the CF
May 6th, 2008 on 12:56 pm
Hi Ktysai, that’s exactly right!
July 7th, 2008 on 10:57 pm
What a fantantic idea to use a flash based IDE disk. Didnt know you could get them. Learnt something new today!
November 3rd, 2008 on 11:33 pm
Thank you for making this wonderfull tool.
I have been trying to complete my carpc with cf disk, but could not figure it out how to do that.
Thank you very much.
January 16th, 2009 on 4:06 pm
have you tried to install this on Windows 7. I am testing windows 7 (64 bit) on my dell with SSD drive and this is definitelly something i would like to test
April 14th, 2009 on 7:23 am
thanks for bringing nice information to me. I do not know about EWF tool before.
April 15th, 2009 on 6:50 am
Thanks for sharing nice device you invented and i would love to have this after my 70-290 managing and maintaining a Microsoft windows server 2003 environment exam about which i am confident to pas in first attempt as i have already pass my 70-640 windows server 2008 active directory exam with high score along with the 70-649 Upgrading MCSE on wndws serv 2003 to wndws serv 2008 exam in first attempt due to highly prepared and with 100% guarantee to pass material as i will be free from all this i must return on your page to see what new things you are sharing.
April 18th, 2009 on 7:14 am
did you try to implement EWF on vista or win7?
May 6th, 2009 on 11:49 pm
I would also like to know if ewf tool works with Win7; so far I hear that it only causes BSOD…
…if someone has any success with Win7…WE ALL WOULD LIKE TO KNOW…
May 17th, 2009 on 8:54 pm
Hello,Xp pro started working much much faster on SSD,no tweaks appear any more,BUT a PROBLEM APPEARED
:
All system settings/deleted/created/modified data (folders files…) gets on its “last” stage after logging on,what i mean is that deleted files apper again,created disappear and modified becomes UNmodified.
Maybe there is a way how to turn a certain SERVICE on in order XP could SAVE all the mentioned stuff?
Thanx
June 13th, 2009 on 12:29 pm
Make a batch file with ewfmngr -commit inside it. Something like that.
July 7th, 2009 on 7:50 am
This is rj from NY. I just found this cool blog. Nice post. Thanks.
July 19th, 2009 on 5:14 pm
Thanks for such a good tool! I do not know much about EWF. Symtex are an expert database consultancy and development provider. We live, breath and eat Microsoft SQL Server day and night; really we love it and it’s that passion which keeps us at the top.
July 29th, 2009 on 2:30 am
I have developed an EWF Admin tool which can automatically commit or disable the overlay when it gets to a user defined size (MB). You can also customize the tray icon to whatever you like.
It is located at http://www.thevod.org