Formatting a SSD and need advice for RAID 0 SSD

[merrick97]

I plan on getting my a 2nd Crucial 256GB SSD in addition to the one I already have and plan to run a RAID 0 configuration for maximum performance and 512 GB of space, but I have several questions:

1. What is the best way to clean out my current drive so I can get maximum performance? I know that SSD performance degrades as data is written to it and I want to know the best to clean it out so both SSD installations start out fresh.

2. I have read that TRIM is disabled in RAID 0. Is this true and how would I re-enable it?

3. Any other tweaks to concern myself with?

 

[foscooter]

If you really want to used that much "storage" space on a SSD, sure...you can do it. My 2 Intel X25-V 40GB are in RAID 0, so I know of your "concerns."

But my suggestion would be to get a large fast HDD (i.e. Samsung Spinpoint 1TB+ or Seagate 7200.12 1TB+) for use for all the "storage," or at least for backups.

1). To clean out the drive(s), you could get an application such as "Wiper.exe" or "HDDErase", BUT when you do a Windows 7 install, the format option during install should be sufficent. It does a "quick format", which just "un-tags" the sectors as available. (I think.)

2.) TRIM is available in a RAID array, but not for drives part of the array, as yours will be.
■The thing to do to get around this is it to only use 80-85% of the drive. Upon Windows install, when choosing which drive(s) to install on, partition the drive as such (say 410-448GBGB) for the OS and Programs stuff.
■Windows 7 will create a 100MB partition itself for "System Reserved" files, leave it alone.
■Leave to other 102-65GB unallocated and unused. This will help the drive to "self-optimize" since TRIM will be "unsupported."

3.) Try this website: SSD Review. However, I did not do any of these "tweaks," (A whole other Oprah), except I did move the pagefile to my HDD (even though I have 6GB of RAM, and shouldn't need it).

 

[RetiredChief]

You are planning on using them on sata6 I assume.

May be a better option, OCZ is planning on marketing a PCI-E SSD, and not at the $1000 price point.

Caught these this morning:
A quote from one of the comments
"It'll offer up to twice the performance of a Vertex 2 SSD for only $20 more when it ships in July."
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3788/oczs-revodrive-pcie-ssd-preview-an-affordable-pcie-ssd.

Myself, I would be tempted to get this and use your 256 as a data drive.

 

[merrick97]

Im just curious how I would maintain the performance of an SSD in a RAID 0 configuration. Im hoping I can get it to boot on my Sata 6Gbps controller.

 

[foscooter]

As many have stated before, if you get a SATA II drive and plug it into a SATA III port, you will NOT get SATA III specs. But SATA III should be backwards compatible. See this thread: SATA 6.0 SSD drive, especially what sminlal wrote:

According to http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/s [...] ssd_6.html, your drives' peak transfer rate is well under 250MByte/second. So SATA 6 wouldn't really help you any. I have a SATA 3Gbit/sec Intel drive that scores 7.7 on the Windows Experience Index, so it's clearly possible to get that kind of performance without needing SATA 6.

More important than SATA 6 is the basic specs of the drive itself. If the drive can't transfer data quickly enough, then SATA 6 isn't going to do you a whit of good. So when you buy your new drive, check out the benchmarks for it. SATA 6 is not a guarantee of good performance!

In my own case, just the partioning up the drive(s) took care of "maintaining performance." Any "utilities" out there, like "Intel Toolbox" or OCZ's "Garbage Collection" wouldn't work for my drives, as they are in a RAID 0 array.

Did you read the "SSD Review" link? But like I said, I didn't do any of the things listed, for my own reasons.

So, yes, putting SSD into a RAID array is a "tricky thing" primarily due to the loss of TRIM support. But TRIM is only a part of Windows 7, so what do Windows XP users do? I don't know.