Useful SSD Articles - Part 2

[QuadCube]

Thanks a bunch for all those links, lots of useful info!

 

[archid]

I think this guide would also be help ful..Saw some different tweaks in there.
■9 Tweaks to Speed Up SSD & Optmize it

 

[cheadledatarecovery]

Very comprehensive information. For particulars on a typical SSD failure in OCZ SSDs and some of the difficulties please take a look at our website here: http://www.cheadledatarecovery.co.uk/2012/02/solid-state-disk-reliability-no-need-to-backup/



Regards,
John
http://www.cheadledatarecovery.co.uk

 

[vinman222]

what is a better compenent for gaming ..

250 GB SAMSUNG 840 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 540MB/s Read & 250MB/s Write

or

1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

 

[nukemaster]

SSD's load many games faster. Once loaded most games run from memory so you do not get an FPS change in most cases.

Some games that use heavy compression will not even be faster as the cpu is the limit in decompressing data.

Many MMO(and some FPS) games load textures on the fly. If they do, SSDs will improve this because they are simply faster at getting to data so you may see less textures appearing in the near distance. This is all dependent on the game too. some will do this not matter what.

The SSD+HDD is my method of choice as I can have anything that gets a boost from the SSD(Windows and most games[load times]) and files/desktop/documents/ect on the hard drive.

 

[vinman222]

what if i used this system for my Hard drive

250 GB SAMSUNG 840 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD

and this system for my data hard drive

1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

 

[nukemaster]

I see no reason not to.

I personally use an M4 256(well 2 of then because I wanted more space, they are NOT in raid.) + 2TB 5900 rpm drive with no issues.

 

[vinman222]

i was also thinking about doing the combination like you said, i would keep that HDD but i guess add

30 GB Corsair Nova 2 SATA II 3.0Gb/s SSD - 270MB/s Read & 220MB/s Write (Single Drive) [-3]

OR for 3 dollars more

64GB SanDisk SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 490 MB/s Read & 240 MB/s Write

 

[nukemaster]

Are you going to have the 250 gigabyte Samsung + 30/64gigabyte SSD + HDD? You do not want to try to cache one SSD with another right? Its not a good idea and does not even work as far as I know. A smaller cheap scratch SSD may work for some users.

Or are you looking at 30/64gigabyte + HDD. those are small so may have trouble getting much more then Windows on it. At least with the 64gigabyte one you will have some room to work. Turn off hibernate. Reduce the page file and system restore if you can as well.

I do have Win8 on a 64gigabyte drive with some programs takes up about half the drive. You always want some free space on SSD's so they can perform better.

 

[soaote]

Excellent article

 

[huaiancg]

Thanks a lot and it is good report,SSD using in Brazil

 

[jimthenagual]

Not much info out there for windows 8 yet it seems. Have an SSD coming tomorrow. Be interesting to see what applies and what doesn't.

 

[nukemaster]

Most if not all of the Win7 stuff works with 8.

To be honest, Windows 7 and 8 take care of lots of stuff when they first run a WEI test anyway.

So both 7 and 8 should not try to defrag ssds, but 8 will optimize(trim) the drive.

 

[jaguarskx]

Triple Your Speed: How to Install an mSATA SSD Boot Drive in Your Laptop

http://blog.laptopmag.com/triple-your-speed-how-to-install-an-msata-ssd-boot-drive-in-your-laptop?cmpid=492396

 

[ShellMa]

Nice and very informative articles.
Here i found two articles about SSD`s:
It is very difficult to delete critical data from SSDs http://www.dataretrieval.com/blog/data-recovery/it-is-very-difficult-to-delete-critical-data-from-ssds.html
Solid State Drive usage and maintenance http://www.dataretrieval.com/blog/solid-state-drives/solid-state-drive-usage-and-maintenance.html
You may want to add it to the list.

 

[willsonjack]

Good stuff. Thanks for the collection.

 

[karenchimai]

I am blocked in Step 9. When I logon to the new account, I have an error :"The User Profile Service service failed the logon".
And now, I change the D:\Users back to %SystemDrive%\User and it not works anymore. Plese help me. Thank you.
Phan

Don't use the guide for changing default folder locations, I use this all the time for multi hdd/partitions.

1. Once setup and at the desktop, don't bother doing any customisation, but start up Computer Management via Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools.

2. Local Users And Groups\Users, select Administrator and enable the account.

3. Reboot.

4. Logon as Administrator, no password, go into normal User Account management and delete the account created during setup and any and all files.

5. Startup Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

6. Change the ProfilesDirectory from %SystemDrive%\Users to for example D:\Users.

7. Close down regedit and reboot.

8. Logon as Administrator and create a user account with admin privileges.

9. Logoff and logon using new account and let system create profile, which is now on your D: drive which of course now the default location for all your personal files.

10. Start up Computer Management via Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools.

11. Local Users And Groups\Users, select Administrator and disable the account. Leaving this enabled is a big security risk !!!

Viola.

 

[nukemaster]

Can you access system restore to try to undo this.

Also note, I do not think that trick works for ALL versions of Windows.

For instance, Windows 7 Home Premium does not even have Local Users And Groups\Users as far as I know that was limited to PRO and better.

Another way around this is to just right click the users folder and more it with the location tab(works for most folders, but will NOT move appdata).

This is not a perfect solution, but better for most newer users.

May I also recommend starting a thread if you get stuck on this issue because we may start to fill this thread with too may support requests(and the title is not going to help people find your issue to help.).

 

[Movieman420]

Just read the article regarding adding memory to increase SSD endurance and have this to say in response with a link to further explain.

I see sooo many articles about reducing writes to an ssd to extend nand life. Unless the drive is in an extremely write intensive environment like a server, it is VERY UNLIKELY that you'll EVER 'use up' all your nand in today's ssds. Limiting writes is yester-years thinking...before all the new gen controllers with advanced wear leveling came to be. Here's an example of nand durability in the ssd endurance thread at Xterme Systems...scroll down till you see the most recent graph...and notice the Samsung 840 that endured over 6 PETABYTES of writes. This endurance testing is very hardcore...it's harded on ssds that any work environment.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page137

 

[radiolandog]

Don't use the guide for changing default folder locations, I use this all the time for multi hdd/partitions.

1. Once setup and at the desktop, don't bother doing any customisation, but start up Computer Management via Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools.

2. Local Users And Groups\Users, select Administrator and enable the account.

3. Reboot.

4. Logon as Administrator, no password, go into normal User Account management and delete the account created during setup and any and all files.

5. Startup Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

6. Change the ProfilesDirectory from %SystemDrive%\Users to for example D:\Users.

7. Close down regedit and reboot.

8. Logon as Administrator and create a user account with admin privileges.

9. Logoff and logon using new account and let system create profile, which is now on your D: drive which of course now the default location for all your personal files.

10. Start up Computer Management via Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools.

11. Local Users And Groups\Users, select Administrator and disable the account. Leaving this enabled is a big security risk !!!

Viola.

 

[radiolandog]

Would moving a user profile to a spinning disk slow logon to desktop time?

 

[nukemaster]

Not that I have noticed(on Win7. Win8 seems to have a slower desktop load in general), but I just moved the "users" folders(Desktop/pictures/documents/ect), so appdata is still on my SSD.

 

[Isaiah4110]

Would moving a user profile to a spinning disk slow logon to desktop time?+1

Not that I have observed, though I have mainly worked with new setups and never moved an existing user profile from SSD to HDD on the same computer. User logon accesses your user profile information (hidden file in your user profile folder), loads your desktop icons, and loads your startup programs (Skype, Steam, Java Updater etc.).

I firmly believe you are better off setting your entire user profile location to the mechanical disk. AppData would be one of the worst folders to leave on the SSD as that is where all your cookies and temporary internet files are stored. I have seen people who do a lot of web browsing add ~1 GB per month of data to that folder alone. Then you have to go through and clean it out with a program like CCleaner and you are cutting into your write/erase cycles on the SSD. The Desktop folder stores any data you place on your desktop and gets loaded when you log in, so if you are really concerned about login time to the point of splitting your user profiles folder between your SSD and HDD then the Desktop folder would be one you would want to put on the SSD.

In a nutshell my advice would be to keep your entire user profile on your mechanical disk and save your SSD for only Windows and applications. If you want to split the user profile folder between the two drives then you can, but it is a lot cleaner and easier to manage if you don't.

 

[beneselby]

Excellent read! I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. Thank you

 

[flynnclark]

Thanks for the sharing