SSD drive getting poor results

[discoslice]

Hi,

I've had my Intel 320 Series 120GB SSDSA2CW120G3 for a few years now and have gotten some poor performance from it, verses my Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB.

So, the Intel is an SSD but I realize that I think it's in IDE mode, and I have read it should be in AHCI mode instead. So, I switched it to AHCI mode in my BIOS and I got Blue Screens every time I booted windows, so I had to change it back to IDE.

What gives? I have a GIGABYTE Z68A-D3H-B3 motherboard now. I tried to use their "EZ Smart Response" utility to make my OS better suited for RAID/AHCI mode but it locks up and does not work.

Help!

Thanks.

 

[ronintexas]

You will probably need to reinstall Windows to get it to work properly....the way data is written to the drive (IDE vs. RAID vs. AHCI) is different.

 

[Adam Schneider]

Is your SSD almost full? Cause SSD performance drops dramatically when they get full.

 

[rhysiam]

You will probably need to reinstall Windows to get it to work properly....the way data is written to the drive (IDE vs. RAID vs. AHCI) is different.

You can actually do it for Win7 at least. Here's the steps: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=313676

I've followed them before and they worked for me.

I *believe* that Windows natively will not run TRIM on an SSD an IDE mode. So that possibly explains your slow performance as well, particularly if it's been running for a while. Once in AHCI mode, google how to check if TRIM is working, and enable it if it's not. That might be your performance issue.

 

[discoslice]

I have 9 gigs free, just freed some up on my SSD - out of 111 so not much left. I'm not sure how BIOS settings work - when I pick "AHCI" mode - does it pick that for BOTH of my hard drives? Only one is an SSD - I wonder if that's the conflict?

I'm on Win 7 64 bit btw.

I'm bugged b/c this tool from Gigabyte is supposed to take care of the issues, without needing to re-install your OS. It just locks up though when I run it...

 

[Paul NZ]

You cant change from IDE to AHCI after you install windows.

You'll get a 7b stop error. Because IDE doesn't install SATA drivers, when you install windows..

But when you change it to AHCI it'll try and find the SATA drivers. It'll find nothing, so the hdd wont boot, no boot you crash

A reg file may or may not help if you dont install windows to fix it

 

[discoslice]

Here's the link to the software which should correct this without having to re-install the OS:

http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/282/ez-smart-response.html

I can't get it to work for some reason though.

Is it worth re-installing Windows 7 to take care of this for increased performance? Or - should I wait till Win 10 comes out? What do u guys suggest?

 

[rhysiam]

Did you try the link in my post above? It details a simple preparation step you take, after which you can change the BIOS to AHCI and Windows will download and install the appropriate drivers. No OS re-install required.

You may then need to check and possibly manually tell the OS to pass TRIM commands. Google that if you're unsure what it is. Basically without TRIM, SSDs, particularly when running near capacity, will tank in performance. There's a very good chance that's your issue and it's a relatively simple fix that doesn't require an OS reinstall. Try it!

 

[rhysiam]

Oh, BTW, only an ancient HDD would not work with AHCI. You should be fine.

 

[discoslice]

Thank you rhysiam, that worked!

It's like 50% faster now loading everything - ha! Now, I just need more space on my SSD to put my games on. Games clock in at around 30 gigs at least now :O

 

[rhysiam]

Glad I could help.

Make sure you check if trim is working and enable if it's not:http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=86403