SSD Performance

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21 Jun 2014 14:38 #35051 by Wingcmdr77
SSD Performance was created by Wingcmdr77
Will a Disk Erasing program improve performance on an SSD? I always thought that it was a bad idea as it puts more wear on the memory cells? I know they use Trim and a host of other optimizers in the Controller to keep them running well.

I've got a Corsair Force GT that doesnt get near the performance of what it use to get?
Which was close to what the specs say below. I'm sometimes getting 100mbs less. And I'm afraid it will get worse over time. I do not think the warranty covers performance degrades, only complete failures...

www.corsair.com/en-us/force-series-gt-12...lid-state-hard-drive

Below is a program I could use to Erase it or use the Corsair SSD Toolbox which is their in house program to do the job.

Secure erase to the rescue

Secure erase, a function built into every ATA-based drive (hard drives and SSDs) since 2001, erases everything on a drive and marks the cells as empty, restoring any modern SSD to factory-fresh default performance.

Once upon a time, you could invoke secure erase only via command-line utilities such as Linux’s HDparam or the DOS-based HDDerase, developed by the University of California San Diego (with funding from the NSA, incidentally). But now, many SSD and hard-drive vendors provide a free utility—such as OCZ’s ToolBox, Samsung’s Magician, or Seagate’s SeaTools—that provides a secure erase capability.

Note that while the command is standard, many vendor utilities work only with their company’s products. If your vendor doesn’t provide a secure-erase command, you can use the DriveErase utility found in the stellar Parted Magic software.

Also, the secure erase shouldn't be thought of as routine maintenance for most users. If you're using Windows 7 or 8, skip it unless you need to wipe the drive. If you're using XP, only perform a secure erase if you really notice a drop in write performance. This is usually evidenced by "stalls" or when the computer seems to halt for short periods of time when you save a file.

Got all that? Good. Here’s how to restore your SSD to top performance, step by step.
How to restore your SSD to peak performance

First things first: If you have data on the SSD you’d like to retain, back it up. If you’re worried only about backing up files, simply drag and drop them onto a flash drive or external hard drive, or use your favorite backup program.

If you have a working operating system that you’d like to keep, however, use an imaging program such as Acronis True Image or R-Drive Image that copies everything. Do not use Windows System Recovery unless you’re restoring the data to the same drive. It won’t restore to a smaller drive and it sometimes hiccups even with a similar-size drive that has plenty of room.

Next, download the drive utility provided by your SSD vendor, or snag Parted Magic.

Before you get down to brass tacks, disconnect all other drives and boot from a flash drive to perform the erase procedure, to avoid accidentally overwriting the wrong drive. Parted Magic is a great option for this, since it works as a bootable flash drive. If disconnecting your other hard drives is too much hassle, make darn sure you’ve selected the correct drive to erase throughout this procedure. Secure erase is irrevocable.

Now run the secure-erase function. The exact method varies by program. PCWorld’s guide to securely erasing your hard drive explains how to activate secure erase in Parted Magic, which runs on a bootable flash drive. Some SSDs implement the enhanced version of secure erase by default—which also deletes the drive’s housekeeping data—but if an enhanced erase option is available, you might want to use it. Definitely use it if you’ve been doing work for the CIA.
parted magic

Parted Magic contains all the tools you need to restore an SSD to top performance.

The secure-erase process should take just a few minutes on a modern SSD. (Traditional hard drives can take hours, by comparison.)

Once the process is done, repartition and format the drive if you intend to copy data back to it. Parted Magic handily provides a full partition editor for this purpose, but you can use Windows’ own Drive Management utility (Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Create and format hard disk partitions) to do the same task. Most commonly, you’ll want to use the full capacity of the SSD in a single partition and format it as NTFS.

Once that’s done, you’re good to go. Dump any data you may have saved back onto the drive and bask in the super-speeds of your good-as-new SSD. Check out PCWorld’s guide to prolonging the life of your SSD to keep your drive humming along for years to come.

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21 Jun 2014 20:10 #35057 by garfi3ld
Replied by garfi3ld on topic SSD Performance
how full is the drive and have you checked to confirm that trim is on and running?

To check Open Command Prompt with Administrative privileges (Run as administrator) and enter the follow command.
fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
If the result is '0' TRIM is enabled.

Wes

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21 Jun 2014 20:20 #35058 by Wingcmdr77
Replied by Wingcmdr77 on topic SSD Performance
Verified a long time ago Trim is on. It's a little over half full 38.5 Gb left.

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22 Jun 2014 00:07 #35064 by garfi3ld
Replied by garfi3ld on topic SSD Performance
In past experiences a lot of SSDs slow down as they fill up. They use that extra space to run trim and as there gets to be less and less space it doesn't clean things up and when you try to write to the SSD it has to zero out the save location then overwrite it with your data.

This is why I tend to run a little larger SSD to leave that room.

Also if you shut your PC down when you aren't using it trim won't have time to clean things up as well.

Secure erase will delete everything on your SSD btw

Wes

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22 Jun 2014 02:28 - 22 Jun 2014 02:29 #35069 by trgtprctc
Replied by trgtprctc on topic SSD Performance
What are you using as a performance metric for your drive? I have a raid 0 array with a pair of Samsung 830 256Gb drives that I never saw any appreciable degradation over several months with Crystal Disk Mark. I just now tried AS SSD for the first time and saw similar numbers to what I was getting early on. My rig is on 24/7 for Folding @ Home, so internal garbage collection routines should have plenty of time to do their jobs. The array also shows 131 Gb free of 476 Gb. The setup is a handful of weeks shy of two years old and seems to be retaining its performance well.


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Last edit: 22 Jun 2014 02:29 by trgtprctc.

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