"TRIM" intel x25-m raid 0 ""TRIM""

[tommyov]

Has anyone heard anything new about trim for x25-m in raid 0 config ?...

or is the only true fix is a format and fresh install from ground zero?

and is intel working on somthing for it and will come out soon,

or do the geniuses from tomshardware forums got to solve it for them?..

any info would be nice...

"Thx ahead of time for your advice"....

 

[tommyov]

would this help at all?...

Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox with Intel® SSD Optimizer Enables Users to Maximize SSD Performance over Time

http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2009/20091026comp.htm?pr1_chipshot_102609a

 

[tommyov]

The Intel SSD Toolbox provides SSD management tools and information about the drive, including comparing Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) drive attributes to manufacturer threshold. It provides basic and full diagnostics, along with recommended actions. The Toolbox also features an easy-to-use graphical user interface that will allow end users to schedule and run the Trim command independent of the operating system. The company recommends users install the firmware update and toolbox, and run the Trim function daily to ensure best performance. The firmware upgrade can be found at www.intel.com/go/ssdfirmware and the Intel SSD Toolbox and Optimizer at www.intel.com/go/ssdtoolbox.

 

[sminlal]

The information I've seen is that with the latest Intel ICHxx chipset drivers TRIM will be passed through to an SSD with the chipset in "RAID" mode as long as the SSD itself is not part of a RAID volume. This means you could, for example, connect a single SSD up as the OS disk and also have two or more HDDs set up as RAID-0, RAID-1, etc to hold data.

See: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/18653

I haven't heard anything beyond that. Implementing TRIM for a RAID set is not a trivial thing to do because the RAID controller / drivers would need to parse the TRIM command and then re-issue separate TRIM commands to the attached drives with the sectors from the original TRIM remapped to the relative sectors used on the member drives.

And there could be some interesting issues. For example, I believe that when a TRIM command is issued to the SSD, the SSD is free to drop the original stored data for those sectors (I don't see how else it could work and still accomplish what TRIM is supposed to do). This would cause problems for RAID volumes with redundancy as a verification pass would show that the redundancy sectors are no longer consistent.

So I'm not sure I'd expect RAID support soon, and if it does come out there may well be restrictions on which organizations and stripe sizes TRIM could be used with.

 

[foscooter]

The Intel Toolbox won't work for SSD in a RAID array. I tried!

And you don't want to "format", you want to wipe the drive. They (not me) recommend "HDDErase" to wipe the drive. You'll have to get others opinions about this program.

SSD really don't need to be in a RAID 0 array, they are already fast. You get more benefits out of a SSD NOT in a RAID array than in one. (TRIM!) I put mine in it only because of the size of them. I shulda bought the 80GB! See my set up below.

 

[tommyov]

thx foscooter...but wow this fourm was the one i had the most hope in, finding something out... Nobody???? i guess i should take it out of raid then..

 

[foscooter]

What size SSD do you have? Can 1 drive handle the OS and Programs? Then, what to do with the other...

 

[tommyov]

two 80 gb x25-m was thinking about adding a hard drive 500 gb for day 2 day stuff
and leavin the raid ssd just for the o/s and one game,"the game is what it was built for fsx"
i just dont know how to make the 500gb the primary drive for all the day 2 day stuff ,
and leave the ssd alone (o/s game)..would that not solve the trim cuz there will be nomore adding and deleting

 

[foscooter]

I'm not quite following you.

1). What do you mean by "day 2 day stuff"?

2). When you installed the OS (Windows 7?) did you partion up the drive to leave 15-20% unallocated/unused? That is what you should (but not must) do to get around the lack of TRIM support for SSD's in a RAID array.

3). Are you thinking about creating a dual boot system? One on SSD and one on HDD?

4). To boot from whichever drive, you would set the BIOS to boot from the drives in the order that you tell it to, even if one is a RAID array. It'll show up in BIOS as whatever you named the array.

The user "sub mesa" is great about this TRIM vs SSD vs RAID issues. Surprised he hasn't posted a reply in here.

 

[tommyov]

i have a drive that i used in this computer before just laying around some where. it worked just fine but took it out when i put the ssd's in

could i use that to boot up in when i dont wana play the game.. and do the aka (day 2 day stuff) surf the internet load up movies music ect. on that drive..wow that might just be it.. how does that work

 

[geofelt]

Windows-7 will pass on the trim command when you use the SSD in SATA AHCI mode. When you use raid which is a superset of AHCI, you get the intel raid drivers which currently do not pass on the trim command. No doubt this will change sometime.

I once had two 80gb intel X25-m drives in raid-0. They worked well. I did it to get more than an 80gb image, not for performance. I replaced them with a single X25-M 160gb drive. The larger drive has effectively implemented a form of raid by being able to access more data internally at a time. You could sell the two 80gb drives and replace them with a single 160gb drive and not lose much by the exchange. Be aware that changing from raid to AHCI will probably mean a reinstall of the OS.

 

[foscooter]

Check out "dual boot" it kinda complicated, but I have it on my other computer, running Windows 7 and XP (so I can use my Lexmark All-in-One Printer).

You could dual boot Windows 7 across 2 drives (mine is 2 partitions).

People used to dual boot Windows 7 beat, and saved their XP.

There may be a forum for dual boot, lemme look:

Here is one: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/7441-63-dual-boot-copies-windows

And a "definitive guide:" http://apcmag.com/the_definitive_dualbooting_guide_linux_vista_and_xp_stepbystep.htm

 

[sminlal]

Windows-7 will pass on the trim command when you use the SSD in SATA AHCI mode. When you use raid which is a superset of AHCI, you get the intel raid drivers which currently do not pass on the trim command. No doubt this will change sometime.

To repeat my post above, you CAN use the latest Intel RAID drivers with the motherboard chipset in RAID mode, and TRIM commands WILL be passed to the SSD as long as the SSD is NOT part of a RAID set. In other words, you can have the chipset running in RAID mode, have the SSD configured as a single, non-RAID OS volume along with, say, two data HDDs in RAID 0 or 1, etc., and the SSD WILL receive the TRIM commands.

It's only when you put the SSD into a multi-volume RAID set (or are using older Intel drivers) that TRIM won't work.

 

[geofelt]

To repeat my post above, you CAN use the latest Intel RAID drivers with the motherboard chipset in RAID mode, and TRIM commands WILL be passed to the SSD as long as the SSD is NOT part of a RAID set. In other words, you can have the chipset running in RAID mode, have the SSD configured as a single, non-RAID OS volume along with, say, two data HDDs in RAID 0 or 1, etc., and the SSD WILL receive the TRIM commands.

It's only when you put the SSD into a multi-volume RAID set (or are using older Intel drivers) that TRIM won't work.

Correct, but the OP was asking about trim for a SSD raid configuration. Raid for a SSD gives impressive synthetic data transfer numbers, but the OS benefits from good random read and write times. If abandoning raid-0 and splitting the two 80gb drives is not a logistical or management issue, I would suggest putting the OS and applications on one SSD and highly used data on the other SSD. Add a cheap hard drive for storage if needed. I think overall performance would even be better.