• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Samsung 850 Pro SSD/questions

N

neillanz

Junior Member
Hello,
I'm planning on buying a Samsung 850 Pro SSD as an external drive and lately a few questions have been nagging me about it.
1. Does this Samsung SSD use any kind of compression from the level of the controller and inside hardware, like SandForce-based SSD drives? I'm looking for a drive, that doesn't compress data at all.
2. If I don't do anything with the BIOS password and don't enable anything in the Samsung Magician Software, will the SSD always be accessible without any password, despite the encryption or even better, can I simply disable it? I don't mind the encryption (although I don't care about it either), but I also don't want it to suddenly lock up the drive, without my consent. So basically, I want to run the drive with no protection. Also I assume that I can use crypto-erase on the drive with a PSID if needed?
3. Will the Samsung Magician software recognize the drive if I connect it via a SATA to USB connector?
Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
neillanz said:
Hello,
I'm planning on buying a Samsung 850 Pro SSD as an external drive and lately a few questions have been nagging me about it.
Click to expand...
Why not use a cheaper drive in that capacity?
1. Does this Samsung SSD use any kind of compression from the level of the controller and inside hardware, like SandForce-based SSD drives? I'm looking for a drive, that doesn't compress data at all.
Click to expand...
No. In the consumer space, only Sandforce does that.
2. If I don't do anything with the BIOS password and don't enable anything in the Samsung Magician Software, will the SSD always be accessible without any password, despite the encryption or even better, can I simply disable it? I don't mind the encryption (although I don't care about it either), but I also don't want it to suddenly lock up the drive, without my consent. So basically, I want to run the drive with no protection. Also I assume that I can use crypto-erase on the drive with a PSID if needed?
Click to expand...
If you don't set up encryption, it won't get used. In a USB enclosure, however, you will likely need to use pure software encryption, should you want to use any at all.
3. Will the Samsung Magician software recognize the drive if I connect it via a SATA to USB connector?
Click to expand...
Probably not. I don't know the technical reasoning (maybe it's slower, w/ USB 3.0 offering decent native latency?), but USB bridges that appear as ATA devices are getting rarer than ever, these days, and that would be what you would need to use Magician with it.
 
Why not use a cheaper drive in that capacity?
Click to expand...
From what I understand, this drive is about the best I can get for the price, when it comes to endurance, data retention and build.
If you don't set up encryption, it won't get used.
Click to expand...
Thing is that I've read that the encryption works no matter if you set it up or not, however it doesn't require any kind of password etc. to access the drive. Since I don't use encryption, I'm afraid that somehow by mistake the drive could lock up while I'd be using it.
Probably not. I don't know the technical reasoning (maybe it's slower, w/ USB 3.0 offering decent native latency?), but USB bridges that appear as ATA devices are getting rarer than ever, these days, and that would be what you would need to use Magician with it.
Click to expand...
So I understand that it's possible, but I need a specific cable? I plugged in my SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD to a computer with a SATA to USB 3.0 connector that I ripped out from a Seagate Backup Plus Drive and the SanDisk SSD Dashboard recognized the drive (S.M.A.R.T. data etc.), however it did say that it's using a USB connection. I don't know if this would be the same with the Samsung.
 
samsung are considered to be the new generation in high quality ssd`s..tlc.mlc..prices vary..but are bang for buck from what others using them found that they are very good...
 
neillanz said:
From what I understand, this drive is about the best I can get for the price, when it comes to endurance, data retention and build.....
Click to expand...

There are a lot of good drives out there. The 850 pro is IMO a great one (I have an 840 Pro and have been very pleased with its performance). But most likely any SSD is going to be crippled by the USB connection. I assume USB is what you are talking about since you talk about a "sata to usb connector" which is basically what an external USB enclosure does for you.

I haven't actually used an SSD in this way, but I've got a couple of different external disks using Western Digial Blue 7200 RPM notebook drives and one WD Black notebook drive. I can tell you that even on USB 3.0 I have never been able to get data to move fast enough to overwhelm one of those Blue drives let alone a high end SSD drive. The drive itself ends up being faster than the real world speed achievable through the USB 3 interface. I think an SSD would likely be a total waste used this way. ESATA might be better but still its probably a waste.

You don't say what OS you are using but if you have Windows 8 or 8.1 pro, you can just bit locker it (which is what I do). On Windows 7 unfortunately you had to have the Enterprise or Ultimate editions to do that, but I'm sure there are third party encryption utilities out there that would do the job. If you don't have any of the above but you have access to a machine that does you can bit locker the external drive on a 8/8.1/7 ent/7 ult machine and then hook it up to any windows machine and access it after entering your password. It doesn't have to be the machine that did the encryption.

Ohh...now that I read your other posts it looks like you don't want encryption? If so, stick any drive you want in the enclosure. Drive don't magically get encrypted. You have to do it deliberately. I've never heard of anyone "accidentally" encrypting a drive. I will stick to what I said on top though...an SSD is a waste for this usage.
 
There are a lot of good drives out there. The 850 pro is IMO a great one (I have an 840 Pro and have been very pleased with its performance). But most likely any SSD is going to be crippled by the USB connection. I assume USB is what you are talking about since you talk about a "sata to usb connector" which is basically what an external USB enclosure does for you.

I haven't actually used an SSD in this way, but I've got a couple of different external disks using Western Digial Blue 7200 RPM notebook drives and one WD Black notebook drive. I can tell you that even on USB 3.0 I have never been able to get data to move fast enough to overwhelm one of those Blue drives let alone a high end SSD drive. The drive itself ends up being faster than the real world speed achievable through the USB 3 interface. I think an SSD would likely be a total waste used this way. ESATA might be better but still its probably a waste.
Click to expand...
In the case of an external drive I really don't care about the speed as long as it doesn't drop to some pathetic number like 500KB/s. The goal is basically to have a good shock resistant drive that can self monitor itself. HDDs are just unreliable if you move them around. One of the reasons why I have this SATA to USB connector is because I dropped the Seagate Backup Plus HDD and the head got stuck, so I had to rip open the drive.

As for the encryption, I understand that as long as I don't enable it in the Magician software, there will be no encryption used whatsoever?

Also I have one more questions: If I copy data to the Samsung SSD through the USB, will it be saved to the actual long term storage, or will it stay in the DRAM cache and disappear?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top