In vista if you use the search index does that increase wear and tear on the drive?

[kaishlothon]

I would normally think it would prevent it alittle but when i was in performance moniter It was by far the biggest user of the disk. I ask because have to keep this hard drive going until i can afford a new one.

One last thing, when in device manager and the hard drive properties if you turn on write caching and advanced performance could it cause anything bad to happen? (other than loss of data on power outtage)

 

[PC eye]

Without write caching enabled every write to the hard drive will see a performance hit while a 10 millisecond delay is seen on most systems in the "write-through caching" process seen there. Write caching on the other hand sends a confirmation back to the OS while taking it's own time to finish the actual write to the proper place on the drive itself. The stored information later written is referred to as "write-back caching" as the data stored is subsequently written to the drive's platters.

When working with very critical data then write caching is often disabled for highly volitile data. Other then the OS still thinking the data is already written while actually lost during any power outage it's a preferred feature. Waiting for the write-through delay on the other hand usually annoys the heck out of people when they notice a slight lag while this won't harm the drive on it's own whether write caching is or isn't enabled. A weak drive will still go on you from the typical wear + tear.