Regaining SSD performance

[Frizz]

Hey guys,

I've researched on this particular topic for a while now as I have experienced some performance degradation on my SSDs. I am wondering since I have TRIM as to whether formatting my SSDs and recreating my RAID stripe would affect anything in regards to restoring the degraded performance from my SDD. I am aware of ways to do this such as Secure erasing etc. although most of the threads I've read using this method were very out dated so if anyone could point me to the right direction I will be very greatful

 

[robal]

Hi,

Historically, TRIM never worked in RAID setups.
Now, it can be supported on some Intel systems (only with recent driver).
If you're unaware of this, then it's the reason... no TRIM.


Also, depending on which OWC SSD you've got, you may upgrade its firmware:
http://eshop.macsales.com/owcpages/sf_firmware.html
Cheers,

 

[W1zzard]

on a normal ssd, single drive, with trim, under windows 7, formatting a partition sends a trim for all its sectors. removing/creating partitions does not trim.

 

[95Viper]

Hi,

Historically, TRIM never worked in RAID setups.
Now, it can be supported on some Intel systems (only with recent driver).
If you're unaware of this, then it's the reason... no TRIM.


Also, depending on which OWC SSD you've got, you may upgrade its firmware:
http://eshop.macsales.com/owcpages/sf_firmware.html
Cheers,

The Intel driver will pass the Trim command to non-raided ssds; however, as AFAIK, the raided drives will not be trimmed.

What features are supported on each I/O controller hub (ICH)?

TRIM support in Windows 7* (in AHCI and RAID mode for drives not part of a RAID volume)

What are the advantages of TRIM and how can I use it with my SSD?

Is TRIM supported on RAID configuration?
Currently TRIM is not supported on RAID configurations.

If you have different info from Intel, link please.

At one time, in 2010, there was some mis-communication that raided drives were supported, however they later corrected the info.


However, OCZ has implemented their own rendition of trim in the newer devices, such as the OCZ Z-Drive R3 p84 PCI-Express SSD, using VCA (Virtualized Controller Architecture™)
And, I had seen a rumor on a blog page, that, Marvell was working on RAID with Trim support. But, have not heard or seen any updates or hard facts.

Now, most newer ssds have their own built in GC (garbage collection algorithms/routines) independent from trim and helps take up the slack.

@OP> If your ssds are degraded, yes, you may/might improve the performance by setting them back to the original state (not 0x00, but 0xff).

Links are at the OCZ, not OWC, but, still good info IMO.

You could use the SE (secure erase) feature that is built in the ssd; if your ssd supports it.
You can use HDDErase or GUI Linux Secure Erase based on the Parted Magic ISO

Also, O&O defrag has the ability to run the trim command manually (other software might... but, I have no first hand knowledge of it handy and do not know if raided drives will receive the command).

Quoted from the O&O Defrag and Solid State Drives whitepaper pdf:

Run TRIM manually
O&O Defrag 14 runs TRIM independently when automatic optimization is enabled for SSDs. In addition, a manual execution of TRIM is also possible via the integrated command line application. The syntax is as follows:
oodcmd.exe /TRIM:<Drive letter (A-Z)>
This command line tool is located in the O&O Defrag installation folder.

 

[robal]

At one time, in 2010, there was some mis-communication that raided drives were supported, however they later corrected the info.

I may have based my knowledge on outdated sources then...
I thought that TRIM in raid was possible on Intel... oh, well..


Coming back to the point (post 1)...
Random needs to come back and clarify, but I think he/she may have SSDs in raid and believe that TRIM is working for them...

Cheers,

 

[Frizz]

on a normal ssd, single drive, with trim, under windows 7, formatting a partition sends a trim for all its sectors. removing/creating partitions does not trim.

That is what I was looking for! Although I just need to find a way to do this in windows . Because essentially I'd need to delete my RAID stripe and then format each individual SSD first right?

I may have based my knowledge on outdated sources then...
I thought that TRIM in raid was possible on Intel... oh, well..


Coming back to the point (post 1)...
Random needs to come back and clarify, but I think he/she may have SSDs in raid and believe that TRIM is working for them...

Cheers,

Yep I can confirm that SSD are working under TRIM since the report from CMD is showing as follows.

DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)

This command doesn't really confirm anything but I was under the assumption that TRIM does work now RAID systems, but based on the link 95Viper posted, it is not. So would it be wise to delete my RAID stripe and just start using my SSD's as individual drives?

 

[Frizz]

just to bump and update, I manage to delete my raid stripes and HDDerase both drives.. So for now I'm assuming my SSD's are back to full speed.

 

[RejZoR]

What about alignment? I once used Paragon Aligment Tool on my HDD (not SSD) with WinXP and CHKDSK decided to truncate all my data after that. Tool itelf detected that stuff wasn't aligned and recommende that so it wasn't my fault. So i'm a bit afraid of using it on SSD as well.