Maintaining top SSD performance in RAID 0 question

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MerrickAggie97

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May 25, 2003
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I posted this question in another thread but felt it was worth its own after thinking a split second longer because I am just overwhelmed with all the information out there.

Anyway:

Right now I have my two Crucial M225 256 GBs running in RAID 0. I left 105 Gb of that RAID unallocated since that was the advice I was given.

My question is:

What are some programs I can run to help maintain the performance of the drives since I can't use TRIM while in RAID mode?

What is the defrag equivalent of SSD to prevent performance degradation?

What can I do to maintain top performance of my RAID 0 SSD configuration?
 
Last edited:
Yellowbeard

Yellowbeard

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Sep 9, 2003
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Check with the manufacturer and their specs. If they have their own GC, that will perform the cleanup functions to maintain your performance.
 
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MerrickAggie97

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May 25, 2003
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Yellowbeard said:
Check with the manufacturer and their specs. If they have their own GC, that will perform the cleanup functions to maintain your performance.
Click to expand...

I called tech support and they said that the latest firmware does indeed have garbage collection when the drive is idle. They say as long as I leave the computer idle every so often that garbage collection will kick in.
 
Yellowbeard

Yellowbeard

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Sep 9, 2003
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You should be covered then. If you are concerned, run ATTO occasionally and compare scores. The performance will slow somewhat as the volume gets more data on it. If it gets too bad, image it, secure erase the drives with something like Parted Magic and then put the image back on the array.
 
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MerrickAggie97

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May 25, 2003
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Yellowbeard said:
You should be covered then. If you are concerned, run ATTO occasionally and compare scores. The performance will slow somewhat as the volume gets more data on it. If it gets too bad, image it, secure erase the drives with something like Parted Magic and then put the image back on the array.
Click to expand...

One thing tech support DID say was that you should never image an SSD since it disaligns the partition.

The guy did sound like he knew what he was talking about. I didn't have to define any terms and was able to get fairly technical.

Yet, I still feel like there is more I could be doing.
 
Yellowbeard

Yellowbeard

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Sep 9, 2003
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MerrickAggie97 said:
One thing tech support DID say was that you should never image an SSD since it disaligns the partition.

The guy did sound like he knew what he was talking about. I didn't have to define any terms and was able to get fairly technical.

Yet, I still feel like there is more I could be doing.
Click to expand...

Why would you want to do more? Let the technology do the work:)

As far as imaging, perhaps cloning would be better. And, I believe that it depends on the utility used.
 
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MerrickAggie97

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May 25, 2003
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Im not one to do those sort of things.

If Im going to reinstall Windows I figure I might as well do it from scratch with a full blown format. COpying stuff back over to me leads to more problems. I just back stuff up like my documents folder as well as saved games.
 
Elganja

Elganja

Platinum Member
May 21, 2007
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This is what I would recommend (and do myself for my raid 0 arrays):

  • Use Windows Image
    • Under back up and restore, look on the left to make an image
    • Store it to a NAS (i suppose external HDD would work too)
    • Create the backup cd (only the first time)... in a pinch the windows 7 install cd will work also
  • HDDErase 3.3 (have to use this version for intel drives)
    • Download this Bootable ISO HDDErase 3.3
    • Reboot, put your drives in IDE mode and Legacy support
    • Use the bootcd and run hdderase, use the enhanced secure erase
    • after each drive is done, you will have to exit hdderase and re-enter it for the next drive
  • Recovery
    • Reboot, change your drives back to RAID
    • Recreate your RAID 0 Array (I use 128k stripe size personally...)
    • Boot using the windows backup cd
    • follow wizard to recover, note: you will have to choose advanced option to recover from network, but it works like a charm
 
Last edited:
M

MerrickAggie97

Member
May 25, 2003
100
0
0
Elganja said:
This is what I would recommend (and do myself for my raid 0 arrays):

  • Use Windows Image
    • Under back up and restore, look on the left to make an image
    • Store it to a NAS (i suppose external HDD would work too)
    • Create the backup cd (only the first time)... in a pinch the windows 7 install cd will work also
  • HDDErase 3.3 (have to use this version for intel drives)
    • Download this Bootable ISO HDDErase 3.3
    • Reboot, put your drives in IDE mode and Legacy support
    • Use the bootcd and run hdderase, use the enhanced secure erase
    • after each drive is done, you will have to exit hdderase and re-enter it for the next drive
  • Recovery
    • Reboot, change your drives back to RAID
    • Recreate your RAID 0 Array (I use 128k stripe size personally...)
    • Boot using the windows backup cd
    • follow wizard to recover, note: you will have to choose advanced option to recover from network, but it works like a charm
Click to expand...

I can't get secure erase to work on my system. I set it to IDE mode and everything. No dice. I get a message about it being locked by the BIOS.

I have the ASRock X58 Extreme 3.
 
Elganja

Elganja

Platinum Member
May 21, 2007
2,143
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MerrickAggie97 said:
I can't get secure erase to work on my system. I set it to IDE mode and everything. No dice. I get a message about it being locked by the BIOS.

I have the ASRock X58 Extreme 3.
Click to expand...

And it's in legacy mode? that sucks... I've heard of people having issues with the sata drives being locked.

One work around, unplug the power to your ssd's then after it boots plug the power back in and it should work ...

I guess I'm lucky w/ the EVGA board not locking them out
 
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MerrickAggie97

Member
May 25, 2003
100
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Elganja said:
And it's in legacy mode? that sucks... I've heard of people having issues with the sata drives being locked.

One work around, unplug the power to your ssd's then after it boots plug the power back in and it should work ...

I guess I'm lucky w/ the EVGA board not locking them out
Click to expand...

I should be greatful that even in RAID 0 mode my SSDs still run garbage collection.

Is there even a point to a secure erase?
 
Yellowbeard

Yellowbeard

Golden Member
Sep 9, 2003
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Try Parted Magic. The utility you are using should have an option to bypass this lockout. You should get a prompt to set a "null" or similar password and bypass it.

Good Way to Use Parted Magic

And yes, a secure erase is the only way to restore SSD performance as it writes all 0s to the drive. Other formatting and cleaning methods may not do this and you will have degraded performance.
 
M

MerrickAggie97

Member
May 25, 2003
100
0
0
Yellowbeard said:
Try Parted Magic. The utility you are using should have an option to bypass this lockout. You should get a prompt to set a "null" or similar password and bypass it.

Good Way to Use Parted Magic

And yes, a secure erase is the only way to restore SSD performance as it writes all 0s to the drive. Other formatting and cleaning methods may not do this and you will have degraded performance.
Click to expand...

It did have the option but it would just reboot the system and I would get the same menu again.
 
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