Methods of caching data in a computer wherein a cache is given a number of caching parameters. In a method for caching data in a computer having an operating system with a file caching mechanism, the file caching mechanism is selectively disabled and a direct block cache is accessed to satisfy a request of the request stream. Cache memory can be expanded by allocating memory to a memory table created in a user mode portion of the computer and having a set of virtual memory addresses. Methods of caching data can include creating an associative map, and optimizing the order of writes to a disk with a lazy writer. Methods are further assisted by displaying cache performance criteria on a user interface and allowing user adjustment of caching parameters such as cache size, cache block size and lazy writer aggressiveness. A user may further be given the ability to enable or disable a cache for a given selected disk volume.