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How to Restore Corsair SSD performance WITHOUT using HDDErase

IanJackson

By IanJackson
in Solid State Drives (SSD)

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NickCPC

NickCPC

Posted
Posted
What is the solution for Win 7 64bit system please?

 

Remember that any methods listed in this thread (or using HDDErase) will all completely destroy any data you have on an SSD, so anything you had will be irretrievable.

 

As a result any operating system you currently have installed will be deleted - including Windows 7. You need to image your drive first (everyone on here recommends Acronis) so you have a copy of everything - copy this image to another drive.

 

You then need a low level program to erase your SSD. The Secure Erase wiki suggests you use Ubuntu 9.04 on a Live CD. However, I've followed that guide with Ubuntu 9.10 on a CD - it's almost no different.

 

This means you need to download Ubuntu first and burn it to a CD or DVD. Making sure you have imaged your Windows 7 installation (using Acronis) and backed it up to another drive other than your SSD, you can then follow the wiki.

 

Once you have followed the wiki, your drive is clean and you should be able to image back your Windows installation using Acronis (so restore it).

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Tomas2007

Tomas2007

Posted
Posted
I don't see the point of using anything else but Wiper for the Indilinx-based X-Series (nice approach for Samsung SSDs though until the TRIM-firmware is being released).

 

Thanks for this hint Moros! It saved me from formatting my SSD, worked perfectly. (I have 64bit OS so can't use the new firmware.)

 

Kudoz to you! :)

 

 

Nick, I sent a reply to Moros (above) earlier, but somehow it got lost it seems; I managed to fix the problem.

 

I just wish the trim firmware be available for 64bit systems, too!

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JoeSchmuck

JoeSchmuck

Posted
Posted
Thanks for this hint Moros! It saved me from formatting my SSD, worked perfectly. (I have 64bit OS so can't use the new firmware.)

 

Kudoz to you! :)

 

 

Nick, I sent a reply to Moros (above) earlier, but somehow it got lost it seems; I managed to fix the problem.

 

I just wish the trim firmware be available for 64bit systems, too!

 

Guess I missed something... TRIM doesn't work on Windoze 7 64-bit version? Where was/is that written?

 

-Joe

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JoeSchmuck

JoeSchmuck

Posted
Posted

I tried the GParted iso, ran hdparm --security-erase NULL /dev/sda and I was it looks like it was asking me for a password, well is said password="" and it failed. I tried it connected directly to the SATA port, and even to a USB adapter (Vahntec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter). Both ways it was recognized as device sda. I haven't seen anything reguarding a password. GParted application recognized both partitions on my drive in both cases. I also tried HDDErase but have not been able to get it to work either. I have the lastest firmware on my P128 but my write times are poor. (see attached photo). I sure would like to see those original speeds again. I am also running Windoze 7. Everything indicated TRIM is enabled but I don't see the speed gain in the writes, and I've been running since the new firmware has come out. I reboot my machine about twice a week and full power down maybe once a week. More if I'm messing with this SSD. I've even powered up the machine and stopped it at the POST screen for a few hours hoping the built in GC in the SSD would speed things up, it didn't. I have 41GB of free space (~32% free) which is more than the 15% required to start the optimization from what I read.

 

Any pointers would be great help to me. I can try this on another computer, just not tonight, which is my next thing to try.

 

-Joe

After.JPG.844c3748ee1b43fc563cb84adf0dc19c.JPG

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Randy Myers

Randy Myers

Posted
Posted

After a huge amount of time trying and experimenting with all options, what has worked the best for me is:

 

1) image the drive with Acronis.

2) use Parted Magic boot disk and select the erase disk option form its start menu, and then secure erase (may find that drive is frozen, if this is the case reboot with the SSD SATA cable unpluged, then plug cable back in after booted)

3) restore image from the Acronis boot disk, Acronis backup.

 

This seems to work every time for me....

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  • 5 weeks later...
hln98

hln98

Posted
Posted

Hi Randy,

 

I tried your suggestion, using Parted Magic boot disk and tested it on a regular laptop hard drive in a USB enclosure and only could do a regular (wipe) erase instead of the "Secure Erase" you spoke off.

 

The only drive that I could perform a secure erase was the internal drive of the machine I was using to boot Parted Magic CD with and didn't want to do that :)

 

My question is by erasing (wipe) erased should be good enough to be done on my SSD P256? or does it have to be "Secure Erase"?

 

Remember I am only using a USB external drive on a small laptop drive as a test.

 

Thanks.

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JoeSchmuck

JoeSchmuck

Posted
Posted

Folks are reporting Diskeeper version 10 (has SSD support) will restore your SSD performance without deleting the data on your SSD. It's unfortunately not free but the trial version is which works for a period of time.

 

Since you have a P256 the latest firmware should be doing the trick already. Randy has an X series which didn't have the firmware update to support GC and TRIM.

 

-Joe

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hln98

hln98

Posted
Posted

Reported from Tom's Hardware that Diskeeper with HyperFast, claimed my Diskeeper Corp that HyperFast can defrag SSD. According to many forums, including OCZs, non of the SSD drives with HyperFast performed yield any improvements.

 

Stay away from HyperFast.

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Englishman

Englishman

Posted
Posted

Well, it works for me.

 

I have two X32's in RAID 0 and have been backing up a system image, removing the array, erasing each drive, configuring a new array and restoring every few weeks to get write performance back, but with Hyperfast seems to keep performance to around 90% of a fresh install performance. Previously performance was degrading to 65% after a few weeks.

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cwichner

cwichner

Posted
Posted

Diskeeper worked for me, restoring performance as shown below by the Atto benchmarks (default settings). Pretty impressive.

 

However, after it ran for a day, I had an IRQ blue screen + reboot, which hasn't happened since I reinstalled my OS. I have one of the early x128 SSDs, so I think it is specific to that first generation of units. Anyone else getting Blue Screen with Diskeeper?

 

Before.png.94cbe6b376e3c8d0690392d015b5acef.png

 

After.png.33bec970a0a4777ea9481580c2072506.png

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JoeSchmuck

JoeSchmuck

Posted
Posted

Yeap, that's what I thought. Diskeeper is worth using for those who don't have TRIM or a way to collect garbage, like an X series SSD. Sometimes people just speak without checking everything out. I can't test out Diskeeper properly and give it a valid thumbs up or down because I have a P128 and since I like Diskeeper I would be biased, but those who have the X series can validate it's effectiveness like you last two did.

 

Cheers,

Joe

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cwichner

cwichner

Posted
Posted

Hi Ramguy,

 

I have had a nicely stable system for a couple of months, running Windows Server 2008 R2 now with no bios changes and only the MS Updates of last week. So while it could have been just a general system crash, Diskeeper was simply a proximate change, with the PC crashing about 24 hours after I installed it. Diskeeper was active when it crashed as well. I didn't troubleshoot beyond that, and am simply waiting to see if it happens again and a pattern emerges.

 

Aside from that, Diskeeper improved write speeds by 50%, and read speeds by ~20%, nearly as good as new, without requiring any reformatting of disks per the start of this thread. So I would definitely recommend people try out Diskeeper (trial edition) at least until the firmware update comes out.

 

Best regards,

Craig

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hln98

hln98

Posted
Posted

I found a solution to my SSD ATA secure erase problem WITHOUT using an "external enclosure":

 

Here are the steps:

 

0. Back up my SSD, using SuperDuper app to another regular 2.5 hard drive

 

1. Put in the Gparted Live CD created with the downloaded ISO and turn off my MacBookPro (MBP)

 

2. Open the back of my MBP and removed SSD and leave the MBP back open. I put MBP on a phone book so that the hard drive wire is exposed to the side.

 

3. Boot with CD, without any drive or SSD connected. Will boot straight from CD.

 

4. After completely booted into Gparted Live, plug in the SSD to the internal SATA cable in the back of my MBP. I like to stress that this is the internal cable for the internal drive and NOT cables from any external enclosure whatsoever.

 

5. Then I did a hdparm -I /dev/sda and see that my drive is NOT "Frozen". This is the only way to have your SSD NOT frozen.

 

6. I then proceeded with setting a password and could secure erase my SSD with success. These steps were outlined from the first post of this topic.

 

I am back with incredible speed just like when I first got it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Tomas2007

Tomas2007

Posted
Posted
Guess I missed something... TRIM doesn't work on Windoze 7 64-bit version? Where was/is that written?

 

Well I meant the trimming FIRMWARE (official), not the trim function itself.

As far as I know, Samsung firmware officially supported by Corsair is only for 32bit/X86:

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=83708

 

Maybe I had missed something - and I haven't cared since I found another solution - but anyway of course when I used the Wiper "unsupported" software, trimming went down nicely.

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aschb

aschb

Posted
Posted

I did install Diskeeper for 1 week and had no problems at all with my X256. Checked the performance before/after and noticed no improvement. So I uninstalled the trial version.

I have to mention my X256K almost performs like new without any changes. ATTO shows Read 221-270 (32K-8192K) and Write 199K to 210K. That's fine for me.

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SR45

SR45

Posted
Posted

Just a second suggestion....

 

I used diskeeper with hyperfast, worked for a bit then things went south. Returned the program for a credit and got Perfectdisk 11 that is simplier to use and my SSD benchmark scores are slightly improved in the Seq. Read and Writes.

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Aleena

Aleena

Posted
Posted
I don't see the point of using anything else but Wiper for the Indilinx-based X-Series (nice approach for Samsung SSDs though until the TRIM-firmware is being released).

 

Same here, it's possible I don't understand everything involved here, but I just ran wiper with all the data still on the drive and it restored performance for me without a hitch. There was no backing up of data, or repartitioning, or rebooting, making isos, etc. Took a few minutes and done. Used atto to confirm the performance restoration before and after.

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