Forgot to mention - the SSD is the 128GB version of the 840PRO. Less than half is occupied. And as I mentioned, I can only remember deleting once (a small folder) and uninstallation of an application. Other than that, there has been no 'writes' from my side. Perhaps a tiny overhead of when for example an application writes to a log or something (even most app-related data are stored under 'App Data', which was located on my HDD...) Given all the above, could it really be the case that my 5yr old SSD is still around 99% healthy? Is that figure from Magician accurate? My only rational explanation is that since I almost didn't delete anything from that SSD so far, hence the almost 0% wear..(?)
SSD's do have a long predicted life. Windows 7 supports Trim, regardless of the motherboard. so Trim most likely was in use before. Just give it a full format (delete all partitions) when you do a clean install of 7 and that'll be good. just remember anything you have on there now will be gone, so it's a good idea to get all your drivers in order and back up anything you want to keep from that drive first If I recall correctly, Windows 7 will support a 4K sector alignment
Its been ages since I have seen a SSD die or malfunction. It happened a fair bit in the SATA 150 days, not very often at all in the SATA 300 days and I don't think I have ever personally seen a SATA 600 SSD fail. I have an 840 Pro that is now in its 3rd home since I bought it. It has seen a lot of abuse. It was in a work laptop then my daughter's laptop and now is in a friends SFF PC, still works like it did when it was new. I would be astonished if you ever have trouble that that drive no matter how you use it. As far as maximizing SSD life goes, lots of RAM will have the most effect. Reducing memory resident apps to minimum also helps. These steps will reduce paging and mandatory reads when booting but honestly, its not going to matter, this drive will keep kicking no matter what you do.
Thank you for all info guys. Have plenty of reading to do. Will get back to you probably with more questions!
Quick VS full is a very different thing SSD VS. HDD. On a HDD a full format takes forever but it also erases the data that is already there VS. quick which only marks the data as available to overwrite. This can be a security risk if you are formatting before giving a HDD away/throwing it away. On a SSD a quick format will mark all of the data as junk (just like on a HDD) but the TRIM function will eliminate all of that "junk" data rendering a full format redundant. I actually had first hand experience dealing with TRIM making recovery of files impossible. I deleted a folder that I needed by mistake and like I had done years ago on XP I tried an "undelete" utility. All I got back was file name, all of the data within the files had already been TRIMed.
There is no Argument. I got back a folder full of files that were all 0s, even opened them up in hex view. This wasn't a file or two BTW, I lost several thousand files totally more than 5 GB, all 0ed out. This does not happen with a HDD, you could have recovered everything, its not even a challenge.
Fair enough. Still, I wonder how the Magician treats the SSD whilst 'secure erase'. Because if quick formating the SSD has excatly the same effect (i.e. totally 0-ing all files), then what's the point for a 'secure erase' function. Only possible reason I can think of is that TRIM doesn't perform this clean-up straight away, but over a certain time. Maybe. I don't know.
I have run Samsung SSDs for more than 5 years now, never once have I had a situation arise where there was a need to run secure erase. Quick format does not 0 the files, its the TRIM that sees the space marked as junk and writing 0s to reclaim the maximum performance for that junk space. The file names remain as deleted files in the master file table I believe, not sure if those get TRIMed or if new files being created eventually just overwrites the file names of the deleted files.
Most threads on the topic report that secure erase (using Magician), takes very little time to perform (few seconds - maybe couple minutes tops). If secure erase doesn't wear out the SSD, then it's a no brainer! No need to even consider a quick format (not to mention a full format)
I hit benchmarks from time to time, Samsung drives never seem to slow down. If they did I guess I would do a secure erase but so far they just work. That being said, I don't have a single drive over 50% filled so that might factor in.
Are you over-provisioning? As Mr Sutherland suggested earlier, it too can prolong SDD performance/life. I ve read more threads on the topic since yesterday. From what I ve established, a quick format will have exactly the same effect as a secure erase, with the only difference is time. Time it takes for TRIM to clear out the blocks. i.e. secure erase will perform that action immediately, whilst with a quick format, actual clearing will be performed over time. How much time - is unclear - probably depends on the actual SSD model/controller, firmware, software, OS and who knows what else. Which means that, all things considered, I m paranoid for even discussing this further. But being paranoid in computing related stuff - should be forgiven from time to time