As I Activate Trim Command Windows7 Build 7057?

aka1nas

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2001
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I don't think it will matter all that much unless you are using it for bulk storage and constantly (over)writing new data to it. SSDs won't be cheap enough for that for years yet, and they may have replaced this command with something else by then.

Even using one as an OS/apps drive, I don't think you will do enough writes for the TRIM command to impact wear lifetime until long after you would have replaced the drive for a faster model or junked the PC.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
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it WOULD matter much... trim means that every single 4k write will use up an erase cycle for 512K

We are talking about at least two orders of magnitude here...

EDIT: wait... not necessarily, the controller could just keep track and only do a trim when multiple cells are freed up... and right now it doesn't know which are really free, so it already has to waste a 512K on a 4K write, and writes back useless data because it doesn't know it is gone!

So in retrospect, this will improve (decrease) write amplification for a GOOD controller... but completely demolish it for a bad one.
 

aka1nas

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2001
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Originally posted by: taltamir

EDIT: wait... not necessarily, the controller could just keep track and only do a trim when multiple cells are freed up... and right now it doesn't know which are really free, so it already has to waste a 512K on a 4K write, and writes back useless data because it doesn't know it is gone!

So in retrospect, this will improve (decrease) write amplification for a GOOD controller... but completely demolish it for a bad one.

The point of TRIM is that it will perform the erase cycle when the something gets deleted at the LBA level instead of waiting to erase the inactive page when the controller is forced to overwrite them. So, the TRIMs should correspond with LBA operations, rather than individual 4k page operations at the SSD controller level.

If you only delete a 4k file, it should still erase the block with the TRIM command. However, if you delete a 128k file that is contained within a single block, it should still only be a single TRIM command.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
Originally posted by: aka1nas
Originally posted by: taltamir

EDIT: wait... not necessarily, the controller could just keep track and only do a trim when multiple cells are freed up... and right now it doesn't know which are really free, so it already has to waste a 512K on a 4K write, and writes back useless data because it doesn't know it is gone!

So in retrospect, this will improve (decrease) write amplification for a GOOD controller... but completely demolish it for a bad one.

The point of TRIM is that it will perform the erase cycle when the something gets deleted at the LBA level instead of waiting to erase the inactive page when the controller is forced to overwrite them. So, the TRIMs should correspond with LBA operations, rather than individual 4k page operations at the SSD controller level.

If you only delete a 4k file, it should still erase the block with the TRIM command. However, if you delete a 128k file that is contained within a single block, it should still only be a single TRIM command.

the point of trim is letting the drive controller know what pages contain invalid data. So it can choose to do whatever it wants with them, weather its erasing it immediately or applying a more intelligent and complicated algorithm

And for a 128k file to be located within a single block is extremely unlikely due to wear leveling and the speed benefits of parallelism encouraging striping a file on as many chips as possible.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
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Originally posted by: Alexquad84
How to Activate I?

It is not yet supported in windows 7, it is not yet supported on the patriot drive you own. There is a good chance it will never be supported on your drive, if it will be ever support you WILL have to flash it with new firmware that patriot provides.
 

IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
8,686
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As always with new technology, TRIM isn't the solution but merely a step forwards of improving SSDs. This isn't the silver bullet.