SSD and Over Provisioning

[Deanodarlo]

I'm trying to understand best practices for SSD drives and it's hard to find a definite guide using Google.

So I'm left with a few questions considering an ALREADY USED SSD (not factory fresh).

1) Do I need to secure erase a drive first before partitioning a drive smaller to allow for over provisioning benefits? OR....

... 2) will Windows 7 install disk and TRIM operations handle that for me by simply creating a smaller partition than the max size of the SSD and selecting quick format?

3) Does secure erase remove any HPA areas of an SSD (damn you Gigabyte motherboards!)? Or will I have to use a HPA tool?

Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[It's Not Lupus]

I would like to know as well, for 1 and 2.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

The only thing that secure erase does, AFAIK, is "zero" out the flash memory. It doesn't have anything to do with over-provisioning.

So #1, i don't see why you would need to secure erase before partitioning. I would secure erase just to "wipe" the drive, but doesn't matter when you do it.

Not sure exactly what you are asking for #2, but I think you are asking in Win7 will take care of everything as long as you just partition and quick format?

If so, yes, Win7 will correctly format your SSD partition no matter what the size. XP will not, but Win7 does.

TRIM will work as long as your SSD supports it and the OS supports it (which Win7 does).

What's HPA? Don't know what that is.