I just upgraded my laptop to a flash memory buffered HD.=20 Seagate Momentus XT 750GB: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/laptop-hdd/ That drive is 750GB, RPM in the 5000's (they don't really say), with 8GB of high-speed flash memory as a buffer. They claim that since only 8GB is used= , that it is much faster than the memory used in SSD's since they can afford to use the more expensive memory.=20 The most commonly used stuff gets stored in the flash buffer, so once you boot a couple of times and start and stop your most common applications it is really fast. For instance, starting Outlook was always at least a 3-4 second process. Now it is sub-second. Boot times, although I have not measured them are probably a quarter of the time. My desktop PC uses an SSD for the system drive and a pair of mirrored 2TB drives for data.=20 I think the laptop is now noticeably faster when it comes to booting and starting the programs I most use than the SSD based desktop.=20 -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Dwayne Reid Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 1:52 PM To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [OT] Windows 7 striped volume boot At 01:18 PM 2/16/2012, V G wrote: >That's correct. I want fast boots. SIGH, I guess I'll go with BIOS fake >RAID then and keep daily backups on some other mass storage. Just coming in near the end of this thread, but why wouldn't you use=20 a solid-state drive for your OS? From the reports that I've read,=20 these things reduce boot time by a full order of magnitude. Since you are concerned with the OS booting quickly, I'd get the=20 smallest SSD that works. That would be somewhere near 128GB for me=20 (OS plus whatever programs need to run at boot time). You can use conventional hard drives for your other storage needs. dwayne --=20 Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .