SSD newbie. Do I need to know anything to use an SSD for a data drive?

[Wayne Larmon]

I have a task to do that requires a lot of disk I/O, suth that I am spending a lot of time waiting for disk operations to complete. It isn't anything that I can script. So I'm planning on leaving for Best Buy shortly to get an SSD to use for a data disk for this. I was planning on getting a Samsung - 840 EVO 250GB.

I am running (fully updated) 64 bit Windows 7 on a Sandy Bridge era i7. I just did a fresh Paragon disk image of drive C: on general principals. And have recently backed up my data drives.

I have never installed a SSD. I was planning on using my eSATA dock for the duration of the project. I usually just use Windows Disk Manager to partition and format new HDs. Is there anything more I should be doing for the SSD? There are usually manufacturer-bundled software that comes with disks. Can I ignore this software like I always do with old school HDs? Or is there anything that is specific to SSDs that I need to do?

TIA.

Wayne

 

[hotdog321]

I replaced the HD with a Crucial SSD in my Acer laptop. I had never done this before and it was a snap. The overall speed increase blew my mind and let my little laptop work almost as fast as my powerful new desktop.

Differences in operation between SSD and HD? Do NOT defrag--ever. And you can turn off the Windows Indexing Service. Some folks minimize or eliminate the backup features to get extra drive space. Otherwise current SSD designs seem good to go--they are getting quite mainstream.

Perhaps one of the real computer gurus will chime in, too. I'm just a user that fiddles with stuff.

 

[Jim Cockfield]

There are usually manufacturer-bundled software that comes with disks. Can I ignore this software like I always do with old school HDs? Or is there anything that is specific to SSDs that I need to do?

I'd install the latest Samsung Magician software and use it.

It can do things like optimize the Operating System Settings for it (turning off pre-fetch, indexing, etc.), and you'll see a number of options for how you want it to work, where you can choose profiles for presets like Maximum Storage, Maximum Reliability, Maximum Performance, etc., with an Advanced Tab for more customized settings; along with parameters you can set if you want to use some of the OS memory for caching purposes for faster speeds.

It also lets you do things like upgrade the SSD firmware to the latest version and more.

So, I'd definitely install and use the Samsung Magician software if you buy a Samsung SSD. It's useful for many things, including testing and monitoring drive performance and reliability.

--
JimC
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[Austinian]

I have a task to do that requires a lot of disk I/O, suth that I am spending a lot of time waiting for disk operations to complete. It isn't anything that I can script. So I'm planning on leaving for Best Buy shortly to get an SSD to use for a data disk for this. I was planning on getting a Samsung - 840 EVO 250GB.

I am running (fully updated) 64 bit Windows 7 on a Sandy Bridge era i7. I just did a fresh Paragon disk image of drive C: on general principals. And have recently backed up my data drives.

Good! A wise precaution just in case something goes wrong.

I have never installed a SSD. I was planning on using my eSATA dock for the duration of the project. I usually just use Windows Disk Manager to partition and format new HDs. Is there anything more I should be doing for the SSD? There are usually manufacturer-bundled software that comes with disks. Can I ignore this software like I always do with old school HDs? Or is there anything that is specific to SSDs that I need to do?

TIA.

Wayne

There's one other thing about SSD's; it's a good idea to check correct partition alignment and align if necessary. Google "ssd partition alignment" for details.

I use the free MiniTool Partition Wizard (Bootable CD) to align partitions when I clone HD to SSD.

 

[Wayne Larmon]

There's one other thing about SSD's; it's a good idea to check correct partition alignment and align if necessary. Google "ssd partition alignment" for details.

I use the free MiniTool Partition Wizard (Bootable CD) to align partitions when I clone HD to SSD.

I'm not cloning anything. I'm just using it as a data drive. Probably will be drive K:. Won't Windows Disk Manager take care of any aligning when it creates the partition and then formats it? (If needed. I just got back from Best Buy and haven't done anything with it yet.)

I am planning on cloning my drive C: to an SSD at some point, just not today. When I do this, I was planning on buying one of the paid versions of Paragon Backup that supports realigning for SSDs. The fee version of Paragon Backup that I now use expressly does not support realigning when restoring to a SSD (not surprised that the free version is missing a desirable feature.)

Wayne

 

[Wayne Larmon]

There are usually manufacturer-bundled software that comes with disks. Can I ignore this software like I always do with old school HDs? Or is there anything that is specific to SSDs that I need to do?

I'd install the latest Samsung Magician software and use it.

It can do things like optimize the Operating System Settings for it (turning off pre-fetch, indexing, etc.), and you'll see a number of options for how you want it to work, where you can choose profiles for presets like Maximum Storage, Maximum Reliability, Maximum Performance, etc., with an Advanced Tab for more customized settings; along with parameters you can set if you want to use some of the OS memory for caching purposes for faster speeds.

It also lets you do things like upgrade the SSD firmware to the latest version and more.

So, I'd definitely install and use the Samsung Magician software if you buy a Samsung SSD. It's useful for many things, including testing and monitoring drive performance and reliability.

Thanks. But :-( I hate it when storage devices require special software. This makes it a lot more dicey if you want to mix-and-match different brands. Sometimes low level software from different vendors doesn't play nice with each other. (I'm chuffed at the "SE" driver that Western Digital external HDs require.)

Maybe someday Microsoft will create an operating system that manages common computer hardware.

Wayne

 

[tkbslc]

You can treat an SSD like any regular hard drive in terms of installation and general usage. The only real difference is that you don't ever want to defragment it. Installation, setup, partitioning, imaging, etc are all just like on any HDD.

 

[malch]

You can treat an SSD like any regular hard drive in terms of installation and general usage. The only real difference is that you don't ever want to defragment it. Installation, setup, partitioning, imaging, etc are all just like on any HDD.

I agree but with one small reservation...

It's not clear to me if Windows will automagically enable TRIM on an SSD that is not the system drive. Does anyone know for sure?

 

[Wayne Larmon]

You can treat an SSD like any regular hard drive in terms of installation and general usage. The only real difference is that you don't ever want to defragment it. Installation, setup, partitioning, imaging, etc are all just like on any HDD.

I agree but with one small reservation...

It's not clear to me if Windows will automagically enable TRIM on an SSD that is not the system drive. Does anyone know for sure?

 

[Jim Cockfield]

Wayne Larmon wrote

Thanks. But :-( I hate it when storage devices require special software. This makes it a lot more dicey if you want to mix-and-match different brands. Sometimes low level software from different vendors doesn't play nice with each other. (I'm chuffed at the "SE" driver that Western Digital external HDs require.)

You don't need to keep it loaded. Just use it for things like updating the SSD firmware, and setting up the Operating System parameters using it's built in profiles (or use the Advanced Tab to use more customized settings).

Basically, it's doing the same kinds of things that you could set manually using the built in tools in Windows, but makes it a lot easier (as it includes custom profiles that change OS settings to better match your desired reliability/performance requirements).

For example, I used the "Greater Reliability" Profile it had available under it's OS Optimization choices, which did things like make sure trim was enabled, disabled prefetch, indexing and hibernate, etc., and used a relatively small page file size by default with that particular profile (and there are other profiles you can choose from that setup Windows settings differently).

For example, I decided that I wanted a slightly larger page file size (disk space that Windows uses for Virtual Memory) compared to the way the Samsung's "Greater Reliability" profile set that kind of thing by default. So, I just used a button they had on the Advanced Tab on the page showing my current Windows settings that took me directly to the Windows settings for page file size (versus trying to dig through control panel options to find it yourself).

You can also do things that adjust the drive's firmware for how it performs (cache settings, over provisioning so that more sectors are set aside for remapping any future bad sectors to the available spares, etc).

But, once you set up the Operating System and SSD Firmware like you want it, you don't need to keep it running or anything like that. It will add itself to the Windows Startup folder by default. But, you can just delete the entry for it so that it doesn't startup if desired (that's what I did).

It's very good software (and it can do a lot more than most other SSD manufacturers' software). So, I'd definitely recommend installing it.

--
JimC
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[Jim Cockfield]

You can treat an SSD like any regular hard drive in terms of installation and general usage. The only real difference is that you don't ever want to defragment it. Installation, setup, partitioning, imaging, etc are all just like on any HDD.

I agree but with one small reservation...

It's not clear to me if Windows will automagically enable TRIM on an SSD that is not the system drive. Does anyone know for sure?

I can tell you that Trim did not appear to be enabled after a clean install of Windows 8 to a Samsung SSD, which I thought was very unusual, since I understand that Windows is supposed to do that kind of thing by default with Win 7 or newer versions of it. I've got the latest Magician 4.3 release installed (which didn't even show up on their downloads page last week, but the older release automatically informed me a newer version was available and downloaded and installed it for me)

It's my understanding that if you run the Windows Performance Index tests, it will automatically setup that kind of thing for you, too (undocumented feature). But, note that they not longer provide that test after the latest Win 8.1 update (Microsoft decided to get rid of it with the Win 8.1 update for some reason).

Anyway, Samsung Magician informed me that Trim was not enabled with the option to setup scheduling for garbage cleanup after a clean install of Win 8.

But, once I used one of the Profiles under the Operating System Optimization menus, Windows Trim was enabled by the Magician Software.

That's very interesting (that it wasn't enabled by default after a clean install of Win 8 to it). But, the Samsung Magician software fixed that issue, along with optimizing other Windows settings to match the Profile I used (page file size changed, hibernate disabled, prefetch disabled, indexing disabled, etc., when I used the "Greater Reliability" profile available).

So, I suspect that it would do the same thing for you if you used one of their drives for Data, too (just use one of the Profiles available under "Operating System Optimization", and/or use the Advanced Tab for further customization of Windows settings).

But, I haven't tried using one as a data drive yet.

--
JimC
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[Wayne Larmon]

Wayne Larmon wrote

Thanks. But :-( I hate it when storage devices require special software. This makes it a lot more dicey if you want to mix-and-match different brands. Sometimes low level software from different vendors doesn't play nice with each other. (I'm chuffed at the "SE" driver that Western Digital external HDs require.)

You don't need to keep it loaded. Just use it for things like updating the SSD firmware, and setting up the Operating System parameters using it's built in profiles (or use the Advanced Tab to use more customized settings).

I'm not sure if it is working. When I first ran it (after updating it to the latest version), it popped up a warning dialog box that said something about not being able to communicate with the SSD. The main screen has a lot of "N/A" stuff:

Basically, it's doing the same kinds of things that you could set manually using the built in tools in Windows, but makes it a lot easier (as it includes custom profiles that change OS settings to better match your desired reliability/performance requirements).

For example, I used the "Greater Reliability" Profile it had available under it's OS Optimization choices, which did things like make sure trim was enabled, disabled prefetch, indexing and hibernate, etc., and used a relatively small page file size by default with that particular profile (and there are other profiles you can choose from that setup Windows settings differently).

I don't see anything about "Trim" in the Maximum Reliability tab. Not sure why I would want to disable hibernate (etc.) if I am only using the SSD as a data disk and am not running Windows from it.

For example, I decided that I wanted a slightly larger page file size (disk space that Windows uses for Virtual Memory) compared to the way the Samsung's "Greater Reliability" profile set that kind of thing by default. So, I just used a button they had on the Advanced Tab on the page showing my current Windows settings that took me directly to the Windows settings for page file size (versus trying to dig through control panel options to find it yourself).

Again, most of the stuff here looks like it is only applicable if the operating system is running on the SSD.

You can also do things that adjust the drive's firmware for how it performs (cache settings, over provisioning so that more sectors are set aside for remapping any future bad sectors to the available spares, etc).

"Firmware update" and "Performance Optimization" are greyed out and don't do anything--see above screen shot.

But, once you set up the Operating System and SSD Firmware like you want it, you don't need to keep it running or anything like that. It will add itself to the Windows Startup folder by default. But, you can just delete the entry for it so that it doesn't startup if desired (that's what I did).

It's very good software (and it can do a lot more than most other SSD manufacturers' software). So, I'd definitely recommend installing it.

It doesn't seem to be working for me. Maybe it can't see through the eSATA dock.

And, sigh, I did some quick tests and the SSD isn't really much faster than my Western Digital Greens. Maybe eSATA and SSDs aren't a good mix.

My motherboard does have two SATA III ports, but they are currently being used. I was planning on doing some wholesale drive replacements (2 TB drives to 3 TB drives, etc.) and (as I mentioned in another post) using the paid version of Paragon Backup to migrate my C: drive to the SSD. But I wanted to do the time consuming task that I need to do Right Now today on the SSD with it mounted as a data disk before doing all this.

And one more question: My motherboard is a 2011 Asus P8 Z68-V Pro board. It has an "Intel Z68 Express Chipset" with two SATA 6 Gb/s ports and four SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports. The MB also has a "Marvell PCIe SATA 6.0 Gb/s" controller with two 6.0 Gb/s ports. The six Intel ports are already used. The two Marvell ports aren't used and (remembering from 2011 when I set it up), I think that the Marvell ports need to be enabled in the BIOS.

The eSATA port is a JMicron JMB362 SATA controller. 3.0 Gb/s port. It has always been very fast with my external eSATA drives. (About three times faster than USB 3.0 external drives. (Motherboard mounted ASMedia USB 3.0 controllers.))

Why the Marvell ports? Is this because the Intel chipset only supported six ports and Asus wanted to sell a motherboard with eight ports? And is there any reason to not enable the Marvell ports and install the SSD on one of the Marvel ports? (I just copied a 7.5 GB folder to a different folder on the SSD and am getting about 45 MB/second, which is slower than my WD Greens.)

I have a case with lots of drive bays and a hefty power supply. (Custom machine from Puget Systems.)

Wayne

 

[Jim Cockfield]

That sounds like some kind of compatibility issue with the controller chipset, it's drives, and/or docking station. Have you updated your BIOS and all drivers from Asus for your SATA chipsets to rule out a BIOS firmware or driver issue with that JMicron chipset?

Even if you have, I'd be inclined to use a different chipset for interfacing to your SSD anyway.

So, I'd try one of the Marvell 6Gbps ports with it if you've got a spare SATA cable and a PSU connection for it.

You wouldn't need to install it in a drive bay for test purposes (just leave it hanging and make sure it's not shoring out anything and/or tape the drive somewhere; as it's not like it's got any mechanical parts or anything that are going to fail from a bit of vibration).

Make sure to set the port for AHCI mode in BIOS for best performance (as AHCI allows for Native Command Queuing for better performance).

I also see an AHCI driver for the Marvell chipset available for it on downloads page here (pick the OS, then expand the SATA section and you'll find it):

https://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/39/P8Z68V_PRO/

But, there may be newer drivers for it available elsewhere.

If you still have any issues, you may want to consider moving some of your existing drives around and installing the SSD on one of the Intel SATA III (6Gbps ports), as those should work fine with most SSDs. Then, go to the Intel Downloads page and let it scan your system for the latest Intel drivers for it.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx

IOW, I'd find the port that works best with the SSD, as a physical hard drive is not going to be fast enough to take advantage of the speed a SATA III port provides anyway.

After you get it working OK, use the Windows Performance Experience tool, as it has an undocumented feature that optimizes the OS settings for an SSD (making sure TRIM is enabled, etc.), like this:

1. Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Performance Information and Tools.
2. View the Windows Experience Index base score and subscores for your computer.
3. If you have recently upgraded your hardware and want to find out if your score has changed, click Update my score.

IOW, in your case, make use the "Update my score" choice so it will run it again (as I've seen a number of posts that it will automatically optimize Windows settings when an SSD is detected).

Then, see what the Samsung Magician Software tells you.

You did partition and format the drive using Windows Disk management, right? If so, it should automatically set it for the best partition alignment with Win 7 or newer versions of Windows.

But, again, make sure the SATA port is on is set to AHCI mode for best performance (and RAID mode does the same thing -- making sure NCQ is enabled).

--
JimC
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[Wayne Larmon]

Thanks for the research! I'll digest what you said and plan what to do. I haven't been inside the machine since I first set it up in 2011 and I need to refresh my memory of how everything is configured.

But probably what you suggest is the quickest thing to try: getting the SSD out of the eSATA dock and connecting it to one of the SATA III ports is most likely the best bet. And sighing that once again something that should work, doesn't (speedy eSATA.)

And one more question. I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that USB 3.0 external drives are only about 1/3 the speed of my eSATA external drives (which are different than the eSATA dock I am using now with the SSD.) The USB 3.0 drives were two different Western Digital drives. One was a new 2 1/2" "My Passport" self powered drive. The second was a new 3 TB desktop drive with an external power supply. The eSATA drives are Western Digital Greens mounted in Vantec NexStar 3 enclosures. (I just put a new 3 TB in one of the enclosures and did a 1.7 TB backup last night and it went at the same speed as I always get with this enclosure: ~3X USB 3.0 speed.) Is it normal for USB 3.0 drives to be this slow? Or is this an indicator that I have something else that is running sub-optimally? (I haven't updated any drivers since I got the machine in Oct. of 2011.)

I'll be testing the eSATA dock another way tonight. The next thing on my agenda is to use the dock to copy one of my 2 TB drives to a new 3 TB drive (that will replace the 2 TB drive) I'll see if hard drive to hard drive is any faster than hard drive to SSD. (The eSATA dock is a Thermalake Blak-X dock that I got from Best Buy a few years ago.)

Thanks again.

Wayne

 

[Jim Cockfield]

If you're seeing speeds that slow, something else is wrong.

I'd make sure to update all drivers to the latest versions (see the download link on the Asus page I linked to in my last post for starters), and I'd also update your BIOS to the latest release.

Personally, I *always* update my BIOS firmware, as well as all chipset drivers when newer versions are available.

Of course, you'll find lots of others that say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

But, manufacturers often fix bugs, add new features, improve compatibility and more with updates, even if they don't advertise the bugs they've fixed in newer releases. ;-)

Of course, you see the same kind of thing with firmware updates for cameras (they don't always advertise that the older firmware had issues that they've fixed in a newer release).

Anyway, you've got lots of areas that bottlenecks can occur. One place is the USB 3.0 controller chipset (and associated USB 3.0 drivers) on the motherboard. Another is with the USB 3.0 to SATA "bridge" chipset in your drive enclosure.

Personally, rather than buying USB 3.0 attached drives with their own enclosures, I'd use a docking station instead. But, I'd make sure I was using one with a decent USB 3.0 to SATA Bridge Chipset in it. I'd probably take a look at this inexpensive enclosure using an Asmedia 1053e chipset (which has a good reputation and provides a SATA III interface to a drive you put into it), and it supports the latest 3TB and 4TB drives, too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA26917C9434

It's also available in White:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2690RW3093

For under $30 delivered, that's not a bad deal for a USB 3.0 to SATA III chipset enclosure with support for 3TB+ drive sizes, and I've seen tests of that Asmedia 1053e chipset showing read/write speeds close to 300MB/Second with an SSD. There are even faster chipsets available. But, as far as "bang for the buck" for most uses, I'd probably go with something using that one.

But, the USB 3.0 controller chipset on your Motherboard can be an issue, too. Make sure you have the latest drivers installed for starters. If you still have any issues, I'd just buy a PCIe USB 3.0 controller card and use it instead. I'd lean towards one using an NEC (now Renesas) USB 3.0 controller chipset.

Of course, make sure your USB 3.0 cable is good, too (as I've seen a number of performance complaints that ended up being caused by a cable issue).

--

JimC

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[Wayne Larmon]

If you're seeing speeds that slow, something else is wrong.

I'd make sure to update all drivers to the latest versions (see the download link on the Asus page I linked to in my last post for starters), and I'd also update your BIOS to the latest release.

Personally, I *always* update my BIOS firmware, as well as all chipset drivers when newer versions are available.

This is also a well used Windows install from 2011. Because I'm looking at replacing the C: drive with the SSD anyway, I'm thinking of doing a fresh Win 7 install. Even though I try to practice safe computing, it is possible that I have some spyware (or even malware) running around in the background.

I really hate doing this, because I am a software developer and I have a lot of software that will need reinstalling. Among other things, I have several Adobe programs that are updates of updates, which usually means calling Adobe and wheedling them into activating me. The last time I installed, their can-be-updated-from... update logic was faulty and I needed to call and exchange a lot of numbers back and forth over the phone.

But updating all the drivers and then doing a clone from a HD to a SSD will be time consuming and I still might end up sluggish (if I have problems with my existing Windows install.)

Decisions.

Thanks for all your help!

Wayne

 

[larry55279]

You need to format the drive from the Windows disk utility. I had to do that for my Samsung unit. You DO want to be able to use the Samsung utility, too. It will set up the disk for max performance, which I recommend. You can run benchmarks from it, too.

 

[Wayne Larmon]

That sounds like some kind of compatibility issue with the controller chipset, it's drives, and/or docking station. Have you updated your BIOS and all drivers from Asus for your SATA chipsets to rule out a BIOS firmware or driver issue with that JMicron chipset?

Even if you have, I'd be inclined to use a different chipset for interfacing to your SSD anyway.

So, I'd try one of the Marvell 6Gbps ports with it if you've got a spare SATA cable and a PSU connection for it.

You wouldn't need to install it in a drive bay for test purposes (just leave it hanging and make sure it's not shoring out anything and/or tape the drive somewhere; as it's not like it's got any mechanical parts or anything that are going to fail from a bit of vibration).

1. Last night I did my copy from my old 2 TB drive to my new 3 TB drive using the same eSATA dock. The speeds seems what I expect from SATA or eSATA (SATA == eSATA speeds.) I did the same thing (2 TB drive to three TB drive on my basement Dell SC440 from SATA to SATA. That transfer took about the same length of time.)
2. After doing this, opened my main desktop machine and swapped the 3 TB drive for the 2 TB drive Woke it up and reset drive letters and re-established shares, etc. Then powered down and connected the SSD to a SATA II ports that had previously been connected to an internal SATA drive dock (that I haven't used for years and forgot about.) I don't have any spare SATA III cables and I didn't want to connect the SSD to a Marvell SATA III port with a SATA II cable. (Question: do I need a cable that has "SATA III" stamped on it to connect to a SATA III port?)
3. Booted and the SSD was recognized. And now Magician recognized it and worked. Checked SSD firmware and it was up to date. Ran Magician "Performance Benchmarks" on all drives. Magician measured the SSD as being SATA II speedy: 285 MN/s sequential read, 270 MN/s sequential write, 52303 and 50118 IOPS. My HDs tested ~100 MB/S for sequential and 300-500 IOPS, depending on the drive. To my surprise, my new Western Digital Green (on a SATA II port) tested faster than my WD Back (on a SATA III port.)

But....those are the results that Magician reported. When I did my own test of drag/drop copying about 7.5 GB of small files (~2,500 files) on the same drive, Windows was only measuring the SSD as a copying a bit over 100 MB/S. My new 3 TB WD Green measured in the 70s. The SSD seemed to act about 1.5 as fast as the WD Green. Where is the SSD advantage in real life? Where did all those IOPS go?

The SSD being ~1.5x faster was about what I was seeing when I was doing my time consuming task yesterday. (Turning three years worth of magazines that were in InDesign files into whole issue PDFs--lots of included linked files for this--every image is an external (large CMYK) file.) The intermediate PostScript files were about a gigabyte ea.)

Oh, one thing that fell through the cracks yesterday (when the DPReview editor hung and I lost an entire post) is that Magician does have a component that runs in the background, all the time. This was in the MSConfig Startup tab:



This became apparent yesterday when I was using the SSD in the eSATA dock. After booting there was a



error message right after bootup. I hadn't tried to start Magician on my own. (And Magician could never connect to the SSD through the eSATA dock. Magician only started working when I connected the SSD to an internal SATA port. I got the same error message right after boot with and without the SSD mounted in the eSATA dock.)

Anyway, Magician is running all the time (unless you disable it in MSConfig) so my original worry of (potentially) dueling low level software is still valid.

Trim. I did some Google research and found

Make Sure TRIM Is Enabled for Your Solid State Drive in Windows 7 for Better Performance

I followed the suggestion and get

C:\Windows\system32>fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
DisableDeleteNotify = 0

C:\Windows\system32>

which means that trim is working, correct?

I did check and the SSD isn't on the defrag schedule. (It doesn't show up in the defrag schedule at all.)

So I guess that my only real question is if I need a cable that is rated SATA III to connect the SSD to a SATA III Marvell port.

Wayne

 

[Jim Cockfield]

Those speeds (high 200s) are what I'd expect to see from a fast SSD on a SATA II (not SATA III) port.

No, the cable shouldn't make any difference (a SATA II cable is no different than a cable you'd use with a SATA III connection).

Are you sure you're using a SATA III versus SATA II port with it?

Is your BIOS set for AHCI for use with that port? You'll want to use AHCI mode for best performance, so that NCQ (Native Command Queuing) is being used. As mentioned by others, make sure you partitioned and formatted the drive using Windows 7, too. If that's not what you did, go into Disk Management, delete any existing partitions on it, create a new partition, and format it as NTFS. Windows 7 will automatically insure the correct partition alignment for use with newer drives (including SSDs) when creating a new partition, using 1024 byte or 2048 byte boundaries by default, to get around any performance issues you can see with other partition alignments.

IOW, SATA II is limited to a max of 300MB/Second (and with a good SATA II chipset and drivers, it's not uncommon to see speeds in the 270MB to 285MB range for sequential read/write tests using a faster SSD). But, it should be faster with a SATA III connection.

As for your copies of smaller files, smaller files do not have the same speed you'd have with larger file sizes. Also, because you have more than one I/O process going at the same time (reading and writing), that's going to be slower.

So, your results sound about what I'd expect to see for a fast SSD connected to a SATA II port (hence my concern that you're using a SATA II versus SATA III port for your SSD).

As for Samsung Magician, it automatically adds itself to the startup folder. But, once you get everything setup as desired, you can remove it. Just go to your Start Menu>AllPrograms>Startup. Then, right click on the entry for Samsung Magician and click Delete.

It's also available under All Programs>Samsung Magician (so you can start it anytime you want to use it for tweaking your settings, without it needing to be in the Startup folder).

--
JimC
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[Jim Cockfield]

For example, I'm seeing read speeds of between 530 and 540MB/Second using an older Samsung 830 SSD connected to a SATA III port (although write speeds are not as fast).

So, if your tests are "topping out" at less than 300MB/Second using the performance benchmarks in Samsung Magician, it sounds like you're probably using a SATA II versus SATA III port with your new Samsung 256GB 840 EVO drive (as SATA II is limited to 300MB/Second maximum, meaning that you'll usually see benchmarks in the upper 200s with one, which is what you appear to be benchmarking now at around 285MB/Second max read speed).

So, I'd check your motherboard manual and make sure you're using a SATA III (versus one of the SATA II Ports), and also check BIOS settings, etc. as mentioned in my last post.

--
JimC
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