Manually flushing write cache on Windows

Question

On *nix systems, a user can use the sync command to force any pending writes in the kernel's disk cache to be flushed to disk. Does Windows have a similar command?

score 34 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 08 '18 at 22:37

34

Yes - it's also called Sync, it's part of the SysInternals Suite:

Use it whenever you want to know that modified file data is safely stored on your hard drives. Unfortunately, Sync requires administrative privileges to run. This version also lets you flush removable drives such as ZIP drives.

edited Aug 08 '18 at 22:37

Cristian Ciupitu

5,693

answered Oct 30 '14 at 00:32

Jon G - Megaphone Tech

624

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 30 '14 at 00:35

12

Yes. Looking for sync.exe I found that there is a SysInternals program to do just that. I have not used it, but I have never found a SysInternals utility which did not work extremely well.

It can be down-loaded separately, or as part of the Suite.

answered Oct 30 '14 at 00:35

AFH

17,958

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered May 20 '20 at 03:54

11

Windows Powershell has the "Write-VolumeCache" command, and it does not require administrator privileges.

answered May 20 '20 at 03:54

Dwedit

238

Manually flushing write cache on Windows

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