Is slow opening of a spinner normal for a SSD OS system?

Skyzoomer

Senior member
Sep 27, 2007
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I just built an i5-2500K system using a Plextor 64GB SSD for a Win7 OS. There's one spinner Samsung 1TB, 7200rpm HDD for my data drive D :. I power off the PC every night and turn the power strip off also.

After booting up the next day, the first time I open the D : spinner, there's about a 4 second delay before the root folder opens. During the 4 second delay on the first open of the spinner, I see the disk activity LED flashing like mad.

This never happened with any of my previous systems which only used spinners for OS and data drives. (WinXP and Vista OS) They all opened the data drive within .5 seconds even on the very first open after a power on boot.

P8H67-V mobo
i5-2500K CPU, not overclocked
8 GB dual channel RAM
Plextor 64GB SSD for system drive on a SATA 3 mobo header.
Samsung 1TB, 7200rpm data drive on a SATA 2 mobo header.

Any ideas?
Sky
 
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razel

Platinum Member
May 14, 2002
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I'd check the power settings. It could be powering down. Or isn't powering up at all 1st time your PC is powered up which is odd.
 

Coup27

Platinum Member
Jul 17, 2010
2,140
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As above. Go into the Windows 7 power settings, go advanced, and ensure that "turn hard disk off after" is set to never.

Failing that, I don't really know. I've had two different SSD+HDD systems and I have never experienced your problem so it is certainly not the norm.
 

Skyzoomer

Senior member
Sep 27, 2007
343
6
81
Razel and Coup27,

You guys (girls?) rock!

"Turn hard disks off" was set to 20min. Changed it to "Never".
Powered down and rebooted. Now the D : spinner opens quickly per normal.

Thanks a mil,
Sky

PS: Thinking back, maybe the first time I needed to open the D : data spinner after a power on boot was after 20 minutes of doing email and checking forums. (My normal procedure every day.) Maybe that's why the first D : access was slow. If that's true, then it appears that everything I do for emails and checking forums only uses the SSD and never the spinner data drive. Do I need to change parameters in Thunderbird or Firefox to use the spinner more than the SSD to save writing to the SSD?
 
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Coup27

Platinum Member
Jul 17, 2010
2,140
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Glad that nailed your problem.

You are correct. While only using Firefox for browsing the D drive is not being used at all, hence after 20 minutes it went to sleep.

The whole NAND endurance subject is a different issue but the reality is that even with Firefox caching to the SSD every day, it will take years upon years to wear your SSD out in normal usage.

I have my FF cache to my SSD and it's not a concern. Plus my computer is on my desk near my head so I also don't have to listen to the HDD writing data all day every day. Or you could turn FF history off..?
 

Skyzoomer

Senior member
Sep 27, 2007
343
6
81
Glad that nailed your problem.

You are correct. While only using Firefox for browsing the D drive is not being used at all, hence after 20 minutes it went to sleep.

The whole NAND endurance subject is a different issue but the reality is that even with Firefox caching to the SSD every day, it will take years upon years to wear your SSD out in normal usage.

I have my FF cache to my SSD and it's not a concern. Plus my computer is on my desk near my head so I also don't have to listen to the HDD writing data all day every day. Or you could turn FF history off..?

Your take on the NAND endurance thing is probably spot on. Thunderbird and Firefox caching would only happen when I do something, unlike Win7 system things that could be doing hundreds of caching per day. I won't worry about the emai and browing caching.

Thanks,
Sky
 

Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
3,751
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Do I need to change parameters in Thunderbird or Firefox to use the spinner more than the SSD to save writing to the SSD?

Consumer level NAND is good for 3000-5000 write cycles.

If you write enough to fill the entire contents of the SSD every day, the SSD will last approximately 10 years before running out of write cycles.

For a normal user, writing 20GB in a day is a lot. At that usage, 3000 write cycles will last close to 50 years for a 120GB drive. don't worry about it.