RAID-0 Garbage Collection Question

[Zer0Cool]

Tomorrow when I get my 2nd Crucial C300 128GB SSD, I will be putting them in raid-0. I will use Partition Magic to secure erase the current SSD (Does anyone have any xp with secure erasing using Partition Magic?)

Since TRIm is not an option for me, Crucial's Garbage Collection option is the best I have. My question is what would be the best/proper method for creating RAID-0? From what I hear Crucial needs 20% of free space for Garbage Collection/TRIM to work properly/efficiently. Someone told me for best performance is to leave as much as 80GB unpartitioned in the raid so 128+128=256-80 leaving me with only 176GB left from my current 128GB (doesn't feel like a big upgrade) considering that space was the main reason I got the 2nd SSD.

I know that with no TRIM, raid will degrade after a few month but apparently with this solution it might not be as quick, thoughts? Also, when I will be secure erasing my current ssd, should I do the same thing to my new ssd?

Thanks

 

[Zer0Cool]

Anyone?

 

[GhislainG]

Did you contact Crucial support? They should be able to answer your questions.

Why do need to secure erase your current SSD?

 

[groberts101]

sufficient idle time will allow GC to have ample opportunity to invoke GC.

secure erasing any used SSD is always the best bet since you reset the controller/s back to a fresh state for the best possible performance from the start.

and then.. most importantly.. I don't believe you can send the ATA secure erase command with partition magic. Overwriting with data is NOT the same as.. say HDDErase or Linux would do.

So, be sure you know what you are doing and the correct tools and procedures to use if you want it done right. The SE command must be sent to the controller so that it's built in firmware utility can send the proper command to reset the controller and all nand at once.

Rule of thumb here?.. if it takes more than a few seconds to wipe the drive?.. you're just writing more trash and the drive will not be reset properly.