SSD slows down.

Donovan Kessler

Honorable
Apr 26, 2013
6
0
10,510
I have a glitch yesterday where I can't entered Windows 7. This happened before but after resetting a few times (sometimes once), the problem would go away. This glitch suddenly didn't appear for at least 2-3 months when it suddenly appeared and resetting cannot work anymore.

Here's the scoop, I tried to fix the problem so what I know was it could be a slow reading problem. I have 3 HDD and 1 SSD plucked in. I noticed the only difference last time when I add in my new HDD. I have 4 SATA ports (one was last time used for DVD-ROM but I took it out since I don't use it that much). So I presumed it was because of this so I tried taking out the cable one by one.

I accidentally took out my SSD cable (Inside was the Windows 7) and then plucked in back, I had an error (bootmgr was missing) so I fixed by Windows 7 install DVD. During this time, my HDD (There was another Windows 7 inside which I didn't delete) startup. Somehow the priority was changed to the HDD instead. I try doing all I can and when I finally able to recover the SSD's Windows, it was slow, like extremely so. I also checked that one of my HDD (no Windows inside) is RAW instead of NTFS. I'm still working on fixing that but it would really help if I fix the SSD first. It's very slow, even the HDD runs faster.

Note, I never had such laggy problem (in fact it was super fast) before when the SSD was fine. Now it's worse than my HDD.

I will try getting some screenshots if needed from Disk Management. It takes like 10 minutes for it to load, so I hope to get some idea on how to fix it.
 
Solution
Down load and run AS SSD. Do not need to run the benchmark just open the program and look in upper left to see:
.. SSD model, Firmware (Should be using the latest).
.. Driver should be msahci, DO NOT want to see "pcide = BAD". If you do see BAD then that is part of your reason for slow down. TRIM is NOT passed o drive if driver is pcide.
.. Partition alginment - Should see "OK"

Question;
.. what SSD, and size, and what MOTHERBOARD?
.. What sata port are you ON?
.. How full are you runing the drive. Should have a MINIMUM of 20% FREE space. Od guideline was to leave ate least 10% free - that has been upped to 20->25% free so that Wear Leveling, internal Garbage Collector and RIM can wrk their magic to keep the SSD performace upto...
Down load and run AS SSD. Do not need to run the benchmark just open the program and look in upper left to see:
.. SSD model, Firmware (Should be using the latest).
.. Driver should be msahci, DO NOT want to see "pcide = BAD". If you do see BAD then that is part of your reason for slow down. TRIM is NOT passed o drive if driver is pcide.
.. Partition alginment - Should see "OK"

Question;
.. what SSD, and size, and what MOTHERBOARD?
.. What sata port are you ON?
.. How full are you runing the drive. Should have a MINIMUM of 20% FREE space. Od guideline was to leave ate least 10% free - that has been upped to 20->25% free so that Wear Leveling, internal Garbage Collector and RIM can wrk their magic to keep the SSD performace upto Factory specs.

If 1) your driver is pcide and 2) you are running the drive at 90% full; then the SSD WILL perform slower than a HDD.

.. If pcide: fix is, first visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976 Apply the fix THEN reboot and change BIOS to use AHCI.
.. If Overfilling drive:
1) Get a larger SSD, or
2) Reduce usage to allow at LEAST 20 % free space:
... Disable Hibernation
... Manage your Page file (virual Memory) and set Max and Min to the SAME value, try 1024 mb.
... Disable, or limit the size that restore points take. Each restore point uses 300 mb of space. 20 restore points = 6 GIGs
.. Move "My documents" to HDD
.. Move internet temp directory to HDD
.. When ever you download from the internet, select SAVE AS and set to HDD.
Each of the above can be done fairly simply, just google the topic. ie Google " Disable Hibernation" ect.

The Best course of action may be to re-install OS
1) First do a "secure erease"
.... Resets SSD to factory New
2) Disconnect ALL HDDs when installng windows on to SSD
... Leave HDD(s) connected and the Tiny system partition will be on HDD - You want this on the SSD
3) Before Installing windows, go into bios and verify/change to AHCI
.. As menioned, SSDs do NOT like IDE

 
Solution

Donovan Kessler

Honorable
Apr 26, 2013
6
0
10,510
Intel SSD
http://ark.intel.com/products/56568/Intel-SSD-320-Series-40GB-2_5in-SATA-3Gbs-25nm-MLC
AMD Motherboard
http://my.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A89GTD_PROUSB3/

SATA Port 1

More than 20% free space (Only small installation so I'm sure of this)


If you're talking about AHCI, I'm currently trying to do that. The computer is super slow that I'm yet to finish. Will get back to you.
 

Donovan Kessler

Honorable
Apr 26, 2013
6
0
10,510
Alright, I managed to set up to AHCI. The system is running fast but the startup and shutdown is very slow. Also, I have a problem opening disk management or even downloading anything. I'm currently running Intel SSD Toolbox but can't seem to get the toolbox to run (everything regarding detecting the drives are not running, including the AS SSD now). I tried sfc /scannow (Found this solution somewhere), there was some corrupt files, Windows has repaired it but not all.

Also, any solution to convert one of my HDD from RAW to NTFS without loss of data?? Any help for to get disk management up and running would be helpful too.

I'm actually waiting for the computer to restart now.

Update : I can't access into Disk Management, it won't load. Also, I have to manually off the power when shutting down because the shutdown can't shutdown.
 

Donovan Kessler

Honorable
Apr 26, 2013
6
0
10,510
Anyway, I took out the RAW HDD which is actually the reason for the slow loading (disk management) and shutdown. I'll fix this on my own, I'm considering on transferring and recovering the datas in the RAW HDD, hopefully by not reformatting. Thanks for the help.