Crucial M4 advice for Windows XP

[ssddaydream]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum, but a loyal Anandtech reader.
I have done some reading, but it is unclear to me how the 64GB Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD will behave running on my Windows XP computer.

As far as I can tell, I can't TRIM the drive. I read it may not be needed, and that the GC will work independent of OS.
There is this tool, which apparently does some TRIM for older SF drives, but its not meant for the M4 drive. A user did report results on the M4 drive, however. The link to the download is in the OP.
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/SSD-Tool-free-space-trimmer/td-p/51198

My usage scenario:
The OS is Windows XP running the dedicated audio playback comptuer. The only program installed is the music player software. The remaining quantity of free space will be overwritten with large music files over and over because my music library is much larger than the free space on the SSD. I just put files on the SSD from an external drive and then shut that drive off (I don't like the drive whine, hence the SSD in the computer.)

Any tips or info is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Hi there, welcome to the forums.

Speaking from experience, it runs incredibly well....heck, it's so damn fast, I'll never go back to spindle drives. Yes, XP doesn't support TRIM, but the M4 has pretty good garbage collection. I wouldn't bother with that tool you linked to...just let the system idle for a while.

You'll never wear the drive out, so I say just treat it like a normal hard drive - use it and abuse it. If you want to tweak XP further, here's a guide that I've used (I'm OCD when it comes to this stuff): http://www.prime-expert.com/articles/a06/performance-tuning-of-windows-xp-on-ssd-based-netbooks.php

Zap's thread has some good tips as well: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2069761

Edit: You'll also have to manually align the drive before installing XP: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30986068&postcount=153

 

[ssddaydream]

Thanks for the reply and all the info. Its good to know that I don't have to worry a whole lot about the drive, I'll be sure to abuse it!
I have generally tweaked XP quite a bit, but some of this stuff I haven't tried.

I did overlook the sector alignment though. Bummer.
Do you have a link to best method of fixing the sector alignment so I don't have to reload Windows?
Apparently the G-parted CD allows this. I have a G-parted CD-- hopefully I can just fix the alignment. I can use other drives for cloning and storing images of the OS drive if I need to.
Thanks again.

 

[ssddaydream]

Okay, so I think I figured it out:
http://lifehacker.com/5837769/make-...ned-for-optimal-solid-state-drive-performance

It looks like its not a problem to align your existing OS drive without losing data by using g-parted to move your partitions around.

Seems easy, I'll give it a go.

 

[wpcoe]

Out of curiosity, I clicked on the lifehacker.com link. I have two partitions on my SSD, an OS/apps partition and a data partition. The OS/apps partition was created by the Intel SSD migration software, so it is aligned. However, I noticed that the "Partition Starting Offset" in System Information for the second (data) partition is NOT divisible by 4096, so therefore is apparently not aligned.

[edited to add:] Oops. There is actually a 4.55MB unallocated space between my partitions which makes my data partition aligned. I didn't realize this until looking at the drive in EASEUS Partition Manager. The info I was looking at in the first paragraph was for this unallocated space.

I created the data partition with EASEUS PM, so apparently it recognizes an SSD and automatically aligns a new partition. (Or, maybe it's Windows 7 itself, underlying EASEUS that does it?)

 

[Sunny129]

Speaking from experience, it runs incredibly well....heck, it's so damn fast, I'll never go back to spindle drives. Yes, XP doesn't support TRIM, but the M4 has pretty good garbage collection. I wouldn't bother with that tool you linked to...just let the system idle for a while.

is the idle time necessary for the M4 to do its garbage collection thing? the reason i ask is b/c i'm thinking about buying a Crucial M4 SSD sometime soon, but my system usage is quite different from the OP's - my CPU and GPUs are typically under 100% load (or close to it) crunching DC projects 24/7, so my system doesn't ever truly "idle." like the OP, i too run WinXP, so TRIM is not an option.

 

[sequoia464]

is the idle time necessary for the M4 to do its garbage collection thing? the reason i ask is b/c i'm thinking about buying a Crucial M4 SSD sometime soon, but my system usage is quite different from the OP's - my CPU and GPUs are typically under 100% load (or close to it) crunching DC projects 24/7, so my system doesn't ever truly "idle." like the OP, i too run WinXP, so TRIM is not an option.

I don't know about the idle time for GC and I have two M4's in raid so I rely on garbage collection and haven't had any issues so far. Really like the M4's.

That said, both Intel and Samsung have a toolbox with their drives that lets you manually trim them, might be an option.

 

[ssddaydream]

Okay,
All I had to do was:
1. Fire up the new version of GParted on a USB stick since I couldn't seem to get the new version to boot up from CD.
2. I just moved the partition to right 2MB. Then after that I moved the partition to left to 1MB. In both cases, I had it round to the nearest MiB.
3. I did not have to use fixmbr or anything, it just booted right into Windows after that.
4. I hit Start, Run, and typed msinfo32. Under Components, Storage, and Disks, I checked that Partition Starting Offset was 1,048,576 bytes. This is divisible by 4096.

Should I do anything else? As long as that number is divisible by 4096, I should be good to go right? I should be able to let the built-in GC do its thing. I also updated the firmware to the latest via bootable CD.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

is the idle time necessary for the M4 to do its garbage collection thing? the reason i ask is b/c i'm thinking about buying a Crucial M4 SSD sometime soon, but my system usage is quite different from the OP's - my CPU and GPUs are typically under 100% load (or close to it) crunching DC projects 24/7, so my system doesn't ever truly "idle." like the OP, i too run WinXP, so TRIM is not an option.

Yeah, not sure how your situation would apply, Sunny. May be better to ask Crucial/Crucial's forums. I believe GC is triggered if you delete a large file on the drive as well (I think Anand said that in one of his reviews, not 100% sure though).

@ssddaydream, sounds like you're good to go. You can use a program like AS-SSD to check the alignment status.

 

[kmmatney]

Okay,
All I had to do was:
1. Fire up the new version of GParted on a USB stick since I couldn't seem to get the new version to boot up from CD.
2. I just moved the partition to right 2MB. Then after that I moved the partition to left to 1MB. In both cases, I had it round to the nearest MiB.
3. I did not have to use fixmbr or anything, it just booted right into Windows after that.
4. I hit Start, Run, and typed msinfo32. Under Components, Storage, and Disks, I checked that Partition Starting Offset was 1,048,576 bytes. This is divisible by 4096.

Should I do anything else? As long as that number is divisible by 4096, I should be good to go right? I should be able to let the built-in GC do its thing. I also updated the firmware to the latest via bootable CD.

You should be good to go. You can also run AS-SSD to see if your partition is aligned OK. For Windows XP is usually recommend Intel or Samsung drives, since they have a TRIM tool that works in Windows XP, but you should be fine with the M4.