1.38TB written on SSD in 85 day (samsung)

[ImperialCavalry]

is that normal? I downloaded Samsung Magician and it says 1.38 TB data written, drive status GOOD and I have wear leveling count already reached to 6, I'm sure as hell I didn't downloaded anything counts that much, sure I download some games on Steam, but it should be around max 300-400 GB or so, I really didnt downloaded that much. any reason why this happened?
I also have latest firmware

Samsung 750 256GB SSD
Seagate HDD 500GB
i7 4790k CPU
16 gigs RAM DDR3
Windows 7 64bit
Norton Internet Security installed on C drive since its a AV software
Steam games directly downloading to my HDD
free space on my SSD 168GB and stays in that way

disabled privacy invaders(microsoft custumer improvement) from Task Schedular long time ago, also disabled WinSAT and other unwanted things. Disabled Windows Update and BITS since I installed my computer which 85 day ago same day I got the SSD, only windows itself installed on SSD, all other things and games installed on my HDD since Hard disks more reliable than SSDs in terms of write/read as far as ı know. Superfetch also disabled by Windows, ( I didnt disabled that manually)

any help will be greatly appreciated

 

[Eximo]

The drive is counting ALL writes, not just the ones you've executed.

This includes garbage collection and automatic wear leveling. Samsung also gets performance out of flash by only writing to the first bit when the space is available. Once it has done that, it then takes like bits and re-arranges them onto the two or three bit cells (I can't recall off the top of my head which the 750 has) So for each bit you write, you might see 1-4 bits written.

 

[ImperialCavalry]

The drive is counting ALL writes, not just the ones you've executed.

This includes garbage collection and automatic wear leveling. Samsung also gets performance out of flash by only writing to the first bit when the space is available. Once it has done that, it then takes like bits and re-arranges them onto the two or three bit cells (I can't recall off the top of my head which the 750 has) So for each bit you write, you might see 1-4 bits written.

thanks for reply but I do not understand what you said, I'm not tech savvy. you saying its normal to reach wear leveling 6 in 85 days and having 1.38 TB written? I'm sorry if I sound dumb

 

[Eximo]

Wear leveling 6 basically means the drive is 6% used, effectively. So by that metric the drive has about 4 years left before it will start telling you it should be replaced. Assuming you keep up with this amount of data usage. But if you set this thing up from scratch, you will have done an OS install, and an install of all your programs in one big go at the outset.

Having 1.38TB written when you say you have downloaded around 400GB of data is about right.

Think of the flash in a 750 Evo as a large array of switches set up in sets of three. When you want to write to the drive it flips the first switch on each set, but leaves the others alone. This lets it simulate Single bit per cell flash memory, which is much faster. When the drive has idle time, it will take what it wrote and then set all three bits on each cell and clear up the 'empty' cells for that fast writing later. The Pro drives use two bit per cell flash which is faster and more resilient, you get what you pay for.

It will also do wear leveling. This is re-arranging the data on the drive so that no one bit gets used more then others. Meaning a bit that has been used several times compared to others will have data moved off of it and then go unused for a few cycles.

Garbage collection is more specific to each drive, but I know one facet of it is to try and get like data stored on each cell. So ideally all three bits will be set to 1 or 0.

 

[Eximo]

Another way to look at the data for 1.38TB written is this: 256GB x 1000 expected writes before failure (for 3 bit NAND)

So you have 256TB/1.38TB or 43 years of useful writes available. (That is assuming a very ideal, well everything) The capacitors in there might not last that long, and any part of the memory could fail at any time. The drive should have some spare cells it can use, when it runs out of those, it will let you know as well.

Of course, worst case of 4 years, a 256GB SSD will probably be around $50, so not a big deal to replace. And they will have moved on from SATA. (Heck most devices will probably just be hard assembled with flash write on the motherboard) Just waiting for the day Intel says no more sockets for the consumer.

 

[ImperialCavalry]

thanks for reply and great explantion! problem is I live in eastern europe, not in US, which means I have to buy a (when it necessary) SSD or HDD or any hardware in Turkish Liras, and that is expensive. Worst thing is, stores have limited stocks of any kind of hardware. But that is my problem, so thanks alot for reply! But do you understand that all games and downloads are in my HDD, not in this SSD. so I have no idea where or how this TB arrived to my SSD, or you saying a normal SSD counts for ALL writes? including from my Hard disk?

 

[dudeman509]

I've had 2 of my Crucial drives about 2 years with ~10 TB worth of data written. Both are still at 99% of their expected lifetime.

 

[Eximo]

The HDD writes would be separate. You probably have a swap file set up on your SSD. You could move it to the hard drive instead, or disable it entirely. Also depends on how your downloads are configured, make sure they aren't using the SSD as a temporary location (a lot of installers do this when unpacking themselves)

If you are using steam, you should poke around in the settings and see where it is keeping certain things.

Average cost of SSDs has been dropping sharply and that applies globally. Might take it a while to filter down, but 4 years is 4 years.

When I last shopped for a drive 512GB drives were SATA only and close to $600 about 4 years ago, now they hover around $150 even for M.2 drives. As they increase in density prices should remain fixed. Should see 2TB M.2 drives this year or early next year. Given two more technological advances that would make a 256GB drive roughly 1/64th the capacity capable in that form factor in 2020. (Which is much smaller then a 2.5" SATA SSD already, though many don't use all of the space even now. They may not even be available in that capacity, much like how hard it is to get below a recently manufactured hard drive that is smaller then 1TB.

 

[ImperialCavalry]

The HDD writes would be separate. You probably have a swap file set up on your SSD. You could move it to the hard drive instead, or disable it entirely. Also depends on how your downloads are configured, make sure they aren't using the SSD as a temporary location (a lot of installers do this when unpacking themselves)

If you are using steam, you should poke around in the settings and see where it is keeping certain things.

Average cost of SSDs has been dropping sharply and that applies globally. Might take it a while to filter down, but 4 years is 4 years.

When I last shopped for a drive 512GB drives were SATA only and close to $600 about 4 years ago, now they hover around $150 even for M.2 drives. As they increase in density prices should remain fixed. Should see 2TB M.2 drives this year or early next year. Given two more technological advances that would make a 256GB drive roughly 1/64th the capacity capable in that form factor in 2020. (Which is much smaller then a 2.5" SATA SSD already, though many don't use all of the space even now. They may not even be available in that capacity, much like how hard it is to get below a recently manufactured hard drive that is smaller then 1TB.

There's any risk disabling pagefile or moving to another disk? I'm new to this kind jobs so I have to learn, if I move to my HDD, that would cause any trouble for my hard disk? its 500 gigs seagate with 800 days already used, and if I disable it , there's any system-based errors can happen?

I have 16gigs ram

 

[dudeman509]

Wouldn't worry about it. The page file is something that would benefit by being on the SSD (random I/O), but with 16 GB of RAM, it's probably not getting written to very often.

If you really want to though, open system properties, go to advanced tab, performance settings, and change the page file to the other drive.

 

[ImperialCavalry]

"Auto manage.." is checked in Virtual memory and I have two things in that list, "C: System managed" and my HDD "E: None"

 

[ImperialCavalry]

Wouldn't worry about it. The page file is something that would benefit by being on the SSD (random I/O), but with 16 GB of RAM, it's probably not getting written to very often.

If you really want to though, open system properties, go to advanced tab, performance settings, and change the page file to the other drive.

thanks for reply! that can cause any system-based or lifespan based errors for my hard disk?

 

[ImperialCavalry]

okay, so I moved pagefile to my HDD with system managed option, left my C (SSD) drive with a 800-810 paging file size. I hope this not going to cause me additional issues. I opened samsung magician and it stays at 1.39 TB written data (because I downloaded a game in meantime)

I will come back here if I found more issues about my disks, (hopefully not)

thanks everyone

 

[ImperialCavalry]

Just reached to 1.40GB after downloading a game on steam (26gigs-downloaded to HDD) in that time, pagefile was enabled for all drives as "advanced" tab says, however I was disabled it for C drive and enabled for HDD only. Right now its disabled for all drives and I can see that in panel (0MB) reboot was necessary to apply changes , (before reboot samsung magician was saying Total LBA Written "2996266542" I restarted it, now it says 2996532419

its just keep increasing and I have NO idea why or where that much data comes from

I'm not going to buy an SSD again.

just for the record: HDD = Total LBA Written 828,572,677 - SSD Total LBA Written 2,996,532,419

I have this hard disk more than 3 years, and SSD have in my system only for 86 days.

 

[dudeman509]

SSDs garbage collect or optimize stuff around when they're not busy.

Windows constantly writes log files and other things in the background. The C/system drive is rarely 100% idle.

Best thing to do is not worry about it. It's not going to wear out for many, many years.

 

[ImperialCavalry]

Just reached 1.41TB today, its not my goal to bump my own thread as I do not want to annoy people with my crap- just pointing
out how quickly data writing rises for no real reason. This is my last post on this thread since I will be buying new two HDDs in
upcoming weeks so wish me good luck, its shame though, SSD made my system startup very fast- it opens fast , documents
starts fast , everything starts fast which is really nice. Now I have to return to hdd once again, computer will start slowly again
but hey, at least it will be longer lifespan.

 

[dudeman509]

but hey, at least it will be longer lifespan.

Doubtful. Hard drives have moving parts and generally wear out over 2-5 years (largely depends on the drive).

Download "SSD life" and see what the projected lifetime of your SSD is. It's probably 8+ years.

 

[ImperialCavalry]

"..estimated lifetime till April 13 2025" LOL
data written in GB: 1461.8
Health %100

Alright man, you convinced me , then I will buy only one Hard disk for my games, since SSD is in good state (clearly 3 different software saying its in good condition) Thanks! I wasn't aware that tool SSDlife this thing made me feel ALOT better,
so thank you very much! also you told me this much written data is normal, then I have nothing to worry about. It was very strange to me in first time seeing wear leveling count rises to 6 very fast so I thought its a faulty product and got paranoid in next days

Thank you and may the force be with you!

 

[BorealMind]

thanks for reply and great explantion! problem is I live in eastern europe, not in US, which means I have to buy a (when it necessary) SSD or HDD or any hardware in Turkish Liras, and that is expensive. Worst thing is, stores have limited stocks of any kind of hardware. But that is my problem, so thanks alot for reply! But do you understand that all games and downloads are in my HDD, not in this SSD. so I have no idea where or how this TB arrived to my SSD, or you saying a normal SSD counts for ALL writes? including from my Hard disk?

LOL - Since when has Turkey become Eastern Europe?