How to restore SSD Performance

[996GT2]

If I reformat my SSD and the re-image my windows installation to it, will that restore its original performance?

FYI I am running the 40GB Kingston SSDNow 40GB. It is based on the Intel 34nm G2 architecture but does not currently support TRIM.

I have tried running the "tony-trim" procedure which consists of running Perfectdisk 10 in "aggressively consolidate free space" mode followed by running AS Cleaner in FF mode. This only seemed to decrease performance even after multiple trials.

 

[sxr7171]

No just run the TRIM application.

 

[nipplefish]

What about Intel's 1st gen drives? I'm looking pretty hard at a 1st gen 80gb X18 that I can get for $200... loss of performance is giving me second thoughts, though.

 

[skid00skid00]

What about Intel's 1st gen drives? I'm looking pretty hard at a 1st gen 80gb X18 that I can get for $200... loss of performance is giving me second thoughts, though.

I've got two gen 1's in my system. Although you can see a decline in performance from brand-new, to heavily used, and a jump back to brand-new performance after running AS--cleaner, there's just no way to tell the difference without benching. I'm thrilled I saved all that money on the G1, especially since I run XP, not W7. Even my WORST AS SSD bench is better than almost all the OCZ benches I've seen, on brand-new units.

 

[railman]

Restoring performance to an ssd is not that difficult. Basically you need to defrag the drive then reset all the nand cells. Now before anyone yells about not defragging an ssd hear me out. Defraging an ssd is not the same as defraging an HDD. To defrag an ssd what you really want to do is consolidate all free space on the drive. Lets call this a "soft" defrag. You can do this with certain disk utilities like Diskeeper 10 or even CCCleaner. Once you have done that all cells that were relocated will be marked as deleted. The file system does this by writing zeros to the cells. Now ssd controllers work much differently than hdd controllers in that and hdd controller that sees a file block marked as deleted will go ahead and overwrite that block with new data. An ssd controller incorporates what is known as wear leveling and will not overwrite these blocks. In order for an ssd controller to overwrite a block the block needs to marked with ones. So you will need a utility such as AS Cleaner to write ones to all the free cells. This will restore performance to your ssd.

You can get AS Cleaner here -http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=12488&d=1257418520

When you run AS Cleaner make sure to check the box that say "with FF" this is what tells the tool to write ones and not zeros.

 

[996GT2]

Restoring performance to an ssd is not that difficult. Basically you need to defrag the drive then reset all the nand cells. Now before anyone yells about not defragging an ssd hear me out. Defraging an ssd is not the same as defraging an HDD. To defrag an ssd what you really want to do is consolidate all free space on the drive. Lets call this a "soft" defrag. You can do this with certain disk utilities like Diskeeper 10 or even CCCleaner. Once you have done that all cells that were relocated will be marked as deleted. The file system does this by writing zeros to the cells. Now ssd controllers work much differently than hdd controllers in that and hdd controller that sees a file block marked as deleted will go ahead and overwrite that block with new data. An ssd controller incorporates what is known as wear leveling and will not overwrite these blocks. In order for an ssd controller to overwrite a block the block needs to marked with ones. So you will need a utility such as AS Cleaner to write ones to all the free cells. This will restore performance to your ssd.

You can get AS Cleaner here -http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=12488&d=1257418520

When you run AS Cleaner make sure to check the box that say "with FF" this is what tells the tool to write ones and not zeros.

I tried the "tony-trim method" which basically consists of running PerfectDisk 10 in "aggressively consolidate free space" mode, followed by running AS Cleaner in "FF" mode.

Not only did this NOT improve my drive performance, but it actually DECREASED my SSD's performance in both CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD Benchmark by around 25%.

I have tried this procedure several times and the end result was never a gain in performance.

FYI I have a 40GB Kingston V series, which is based on the 34nm Intel G2 architecture. However, it does not currently support TRIM.

 

[nipplefish]

I've got two gen 1's in my system. Although you can see a decline in performance from brand-new, to heavily used, and a jump back to brand-new performance after running AS--cleaner, there's just no way to tell the difference without benching. I'm thrilled I saved all that money on the G1, especially since I run XP, not W7. Even my WORST AS SSD bench is better than almost all the OCZ benches I've seen, on brand-new units.

Thanks, that's good to know. I'm not concerned with benches, just with real-world performance. I think I'll jump on this deal, it doesn't look like prices on gen 2 units are going to be dropping any time soon

 

[railman]

I tried the "tony-trim method" which basically consists of running PerfectDisk 10 in "aggressively consolidate free space" mode, followed by running AS Cleaner in "FF" mode.

Not only did this NOT improve my drive performance, but it actually DECREASED my SSD's performance in both CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD Benchmark by around 25%.

I have tried this procedure several times and the end result was never a gain in performance.

FYI I have a 40GB Kingston V series, which is based on the 34nm Intel G2 architecture. However, it does not currently support TRIM.

Sorry to hear that this method did not help you. I have used it with good results. What OS are you running? I take it you are using the 40GB drive as an OS only drive? If not what all do you have on it? What are your typical usage patterns? What are your system specs? If you answer these questions I might be able to help.

 

[deanx0r]

Do you a gen 2 Intel drive? The new Intel SSD toolbox was released on December 21st. It allows you to refresh your SSD if you don't run an OS that support TRIM. It takes a few seconds to run, no need to reformat either.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3667&p=3

 

[996GT2]

Sorry to hear that this method did not help you. I have used it with good results. What OS are you running? I take it you are using the 40GB drive as an OS only drive? If not what all do you have on it? What are your typical usage patterns? What are your system specs? If you answer these questions I might be able to help.

I am running Windows 7 Professional x64 on a Penryn Core 2 Duo based Thinkpad T61.

System specs are: 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo T8300 (3M Cache), Intel 965M Chipset with ICH8R, 4GB DDR2, 160GB, 7200 RPM secondary HDD for storage.

I am using the 40GB Kingston as an OS drive with MS Office, Photoshop, and some other apps installed. I have about 14-15 GB free space overall.

 

[railman]

I am running Windows 7 Professional x64 on a Penryn Core 2 Duo based Thinkpad T61.

System specs are: 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo T8300 (3M Cache), Intel 965M Chipset with ICH8R, 4GB DDR2, 160GB, 7200 RPM secondary HDD for storage.

I am using the 40GB Kingston as an OS drive with MS Office, Photoshop, and some other apps installed. I have about 14-15 GB free space overall.

In general it is recommended that you maintain at least 20% free space on an SSD for best performance. You are somewhat below that but still close. Are you noticing performance degradation in everyday usage or are you seeing it in benchmark tests?

I believe the Kingston drive you have is based on the Gen2 Intel drive and should be able to pass through TRIM commands. Try the following. Make sure that your PC will not go into hibernation to do this. it is best done while in S1 sleep state or at the logon screen and you are not logged on: Delete some unwanted files, this should place them in the recycle bin then empty the recycle bin and then either log off (preferably) or allow the PC to idle for a few hours and see if that improves your performance.

What this does is invokes a TRIM command by the filesystem to SSD. Although a drive may be TRIM capable it still needs to recieve the TRIM command to perform that function. If you have not deleted files and/or emptied your recycle bin for a time a TRIM command may not have been issued to the drive controller and that is why you are having performance issues.

 

[996GT2]

In general it is recommended that you maintain at least 20% free space on an SSD for best performance. You are somewhat below that but still close. Are you noticing performance degradation in everyday usage or are you seeing it in benchmark tests?

I believe the Kingston drive you have is based on the Gen2 Intel drive and should be able to pass through TRIM commands. Try the following. Make sure that your PC will not go into hibernation to do this. it is best done while in S1 sleep state or at the logon screen and you are not logged on: Delete some unwanted files, this should place them in the recycle bin then empty the recycle bin and then either log off (preferably) or allow the PC to idle for a few hours and see if that improves your performance.

What this does is invokes a TRIM command by the filesystem to SSD. Although a drive may be TRIM capable it still needs to recieve the TRIM command to perform that function. If you have not deleted files and/or emptied your recycle bin for a time a TRIM command may not have been issued to the drive controller and that is why you are having performance issues.

I don't think the Kingston drive's firmware actually supports TRIM though. They said a TRIM-capable firmware would be released in the future, but there's no date yet.

I've noticed a bit of a slowdown in boot times, and multiple benchmarks (i.e. Crystalmark) have shown about a 20% performance loss after doing the TONY-TRIM method I described above.

Windows 7's disk performance rating also dropped from 7.3 when I first got the drive, to 6.9 after a while, to 5.9 after I ran Tony Trim.

I'm not sure how to get that performance back...

 

[railman]

I don't think the Kingston drive's firmware actually supports TRIM though. They said a TRIM-capable firmware would be released in the future, but there's no date yet.

I've noticed a bit of a slowdown in boot times, and multiple benchmarks (i.e. Crystalmark) have shown about a 20% performance loss after doing the TONY-TRIM method I described above.

Windows 7's disk performance rating also dropped from 7.3 when I first got the drive, to 6.9 after a while, to 5.9 after I ran Tony Trim.

I'm not sure how to get that performance back...

Try using the Intel SSD toolbox that was referenced earlier in this thread. Since your drive has an Intel controller the tool might just work for you. It sounds to me like your drive has very limited cells which the controller considers to be free to write to thus hurting drive performance. You need to do a disk cleanup. Delete old files you no longer need, clear out your temp folders, backup any documents, saved game files, etc. to a usb stick for later use, then use the tools mentioned again, Intel tool box or Tony Trim method. One of those tools and clearing out some old and or unnecessary data should help in regaining some of your lost performance.