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P128 - fully formatted and now slow


Paolo64

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Hi,

 

i bought last week, on 22.Jul.2009 an P128. Of course, i inserted it immediately in my PC an than i formatted it - fully and installed Windows7 RC1 64 on it.

 

The speed of the SSD wasn't so fast as i expected and i began to google. I was not happy to read following...

 

a) don't Format the drive fully - I did! (there was no paper at the drive i should not do so)

 

b) it seems that i have an OLD firmware on the drive... VBM18O1Q - serial: 09260158-9245371. One of the important things why i bought this drive was the 'self healing function' and the 'TRIM'-functionality with Windows7. After all i read till now i don't have one thing of that both features!

 

Now i tried three days to erase the drive with HDDErase. This doesn't function with my PC. I tried all, ata, ide.. starrt from usb, cd ... and so on... two days long - the uutility froze and froze. i also did an quick-format. The drive got a little bit faster but it's to slow in writing.

 

pls. tell me... this announced 'self healing'-feature or the trim command from windows... are this two features built i my drive?

 

if not... i need an possibility to erase my P128 to get it faster... hdderase don't work on my PC.

 

Many thanks

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Hi,

 

I have 256gb SSD (which is probably the same as p256)

I lost write performance and i decided to refresh my ssd.

I tried waiting for automated garbage collector (claimed that it is feauture of new samsung ssd controller) after week of experiments (I left my pc on login prompt in vista over night / I left also befor boot/ i left in my usb enclosure with powered on SSD w/o data lines)

and nothing !

 

It's time for Reseting SSD to factory state.

 

I started with the Hdderase 3.3 but it could not recognize my SSD.

Also i tried Hdderase 4.0 - but still same problem. (for all tries I turned off AHCI in BIOS )

Because lack of any options I eventually decided zero-filling erase and full format, but it does not make improve in write performance. (this is Stupid idea - I honestly dis-encourage this)

 

I tried alternative way of ATA secure erase (instead of using hderase)

 

I used my gparted live cd linux (you can probably use anything you want i.e backtrack live cd , knopix,ubuntu etc.) and I tried perform secure erase by means of hdparm

 

hdparm --security-erase NULL /dev/sda

 

(on some distributions you will need sudo before lunching hdparm

and of course I assume you have already done full back-up of your SSD)

 

Firstly I got I/O error

 

I realized that my BIOS blocks (do no allow) ATA Secure Erase command (DELL's BIOS has no switchable option about this security feature) by the way it's quiet good idea to block this ATA command (try imagine computer VIRUS aimed with this)

 

Than I hooked-up my eSATA SIIG ExpressCard/54 and my esata enclosure with SSD and I tried again refreshing / reset procedure

 

Now

hdparm --security-erase NULL /dev/sdb

Did the job and after restoring data to my SSD I noticed gain in Writes

 

I think that It could be kind of an option for those who had problems with the Crosair P256

I have tested this only with

My SSD MMD0E56G5MXP-0VBD1

 

0923 REV 0

F/W VBM 15D1Q

 

 

After just described procedure I restored my data to SSD and Benchmarks showed noticeable performance improve in writes.

After using computer for couple hours I was amazed when i did atto disk benchmark again.

 

I obtained FULL Performance again. :)

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@krzychu1, @RamGuy: Many thanks!

 

@RamGuy: There are dozends of programs called "sercure erase" with many options... . Is it only nessessary to 'secure erase' the free space of the P128? I think that this is not the best for the lifetime of an ssd to do it often.

 

Pls. tell me... this announced 'self healing'-feature or the trim command from windows 7(it's still ready)... are this two features built i my drive? (firmware No. in first posting of me).

 

Many thanks!

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  • Corsair Employee

There are no firmware updates released for our drives AT this time.

Just use HDD Erase Version 3.3 some have used 4.0 but Version 3.3 is still the official version from us.

 

And Trim will be part of Windows 7 but until its final release that cannot be addressed.

Windows seven will be better optimized for SSD drives in general but as stated previously there is not much we can do or say until its officially released.

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Thanks to all,

in the situation that HDD Erase 3.3 or 4.0 didn't work with my equipment i found that useful tool for low level Format... MHDD from Dmitry Postrigan. it did the job well! Thx also to this guy.

 

Now i hope we all, that get the 'old' firmware would get this important firmware update. Two very usefule and important options would be included. If i havn't hope that this is fact i would think about refundig the drive to the store. I bought it last Wednsday with old firmaware!

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  • Corsair Employee

There are two Firmware versions for this product but there are no issues that I am aware of with either version. Current version VBM18C1Q and parts manufactured before 6-30-09 version VBM1801Q.

Are you having a problem?

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The problem i had till yesterday was...

 

1) Fully formated the drive first

2) the performance(benchmarks) was not as expected

3) i had readed that this drive has problems with full-formating

4) two days i tried to bring HDDErase to work - it didn't (as many others)

 

i think that the newer firmware has built in 'self healing' - not mine. Therefor i was disappointed to get the old one.

 

after working with windows7 whitch has definitely built in Trim i wanted also to have TRIM in my drives firmware.

 

Now, after using MHDD, i have no problem yet but to prevent further fast performance decreases a new firmware with TRIM and 'self healing'-function is - i think so - necessary.

 

I paid a lot of money for this drive and therefor i want the same features as other guys witch had the luck to get the newer firmware.

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do not do full format (quick only pointless doing full one good way to degrade the SSD in 30 mins or the time it takes to do that) Full format can only be done from XP setup, command line or from windows Disk manager, when in vista/7 setup only option is quick format default when you press the format button

do not fill the SSD the point it runs out of space (recomend 20GB free)

do not use tools that Wipe free space (CCleaner it says it can speed up SSDs by wipeing free space but not confirmed yet, so best not to do it)

all the above on corsair S/P can only be fixed using HDDerase or tools that do an Low Level format, but you should only get into this issue if any of the above happens

 

i had my SSD for about 2 months and it has yet to degrade (still sitting at 73% used cells in HD tune {speed goes up to 150MB/s past 73% the disk is only 50% used space})

 

when windows 7 comes out, not longer after that firmware updates should be coming, the corsair X based ones should come quite fast soon as you see it in other makes of SSDs corsair should not be far behind, samsung not sure as there is currently no way to update them (no tools) but i guess it be the same way as the Indilinx based SSDs when it comes

 

i still recommend the corsair S/P drives over the X drives

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  • Corsair Employee

NO the firmware would not have anything to do with this issue.

Self Healing as you are calling is is part of the firmware already with both versions of the Samsung drives but it will not correct an improperly formatted HDD.

I am not sure why you were not able to get HDD Erase to see the drive but I would suspect it was related to the system you used. I have not had a problem with HDD Erase seeing any drive only as I have stated several times and mentioned in the F.A.Q. the controller MUST be set to IDE mode when running these utilities. But I will make sure that is high lighted in the FAQ.

The issue you had was not being able to detect the SSD when you tried to run HDD Erase correct?

We are working with Samsung now on what will be done in the future with any new firmware that may be needed.

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I tried HDDErase 3.3 or 4.0, with IDE-Mode or AHCP-Mode, with the P128 allone or with my other two harddrives combined, from USB or from DVD-Reader. It hung befor i could see any drive selection. Ther are many other guys who had this problem also - google says. (maybe an ABIT P35 Pro - Problem?)

 

I didn't know that the 'self healing' mechanism is also implemented in my firmware-version. i am happy about - but ;-) - my Question to this is....

 

I readed that the PC should be turned of, turned on and let in this state above 1 hour to start this process.

 

but... therefor windows is doing some SSD-activity without me .. (fetching or defrag or what else...) you will rarely see an windows pc with hdd-led not flashing up all ..x.. seconds. Will in this state the SSD begin also with its 'self healing' work? Is it necessary to turn off and then turn on the pc or is the key not to work over an hour of time? or must the pc be in sleep mode?...

 

But now I will hopefully look in the future concerning furter FirmwareFlashes.

 

Thank you!

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  • Corsair Employee

This is the exerpt from the article FYI!

A new feature - Self Healing

 

The new tested P128 series drive, and drives shipping to retailers come with the latest firmware and that includes a nice new feature: a ‘self-healing’ function.

 

In layman wording the firmware detects blocks that contain invalid data (data that has been ‘deleted’ by the file system, but has yet to be physically erased/overwritten with new/valid data) and erases them to ensure future file operations are performed at maximum speed.

 

The function works automatically after a normal power off/cold boot and the user simply needs to leave the system idle for up to 1 hour (the time varies depending on the condition of the drive), during which time the SSD will ‘heal’ itself.

 

The function only works for NTFS-based file systems, and there must be at least 15% free space on the drive for it work too.

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@RAM GUY: what you want to say to me? Whats FYI?

 

This article doesn't give a answer to my question :-). The real question for me is... what condition is the trigger for the ssd to begin with this action. - Technically, not as wrote in this article. The SSD didn' 'know' if power was off. The SSD is used by Windows - even when i am not sitting at the PC. There will never bei an idle-time for an hour at standard windows. Will the SSD therefor never begin this action? That's i would be interrested on.

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