Using a SSD Drive in the Field

[allanc]

Currently, I use a WD portable Passport drive in the field and am considering switching to a Samsung 850 PRO. Both use USB connections
Some examples of my usage are:

• Using FABS to store the data that will be migrated to a new computer. In this case, the source operating system could be XP, Vista or Windows 7.
• Booting off a Storage Craft Recovery CD/DVD to perform an image backup of the client's computer.

So, my question is whether I should be concerned about TRIM?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Yes you need to be concerned about trim. If you have one you need to get into the habit of manually forcing a trim on it.

 

[allanc]

Thank you.

 

[mr m]

Good question. I'm pretty sure that Windows TRIM doesn't work on external USB/SSD drives but the SSD manufacturers are constantly improving the onboard controller functions to help with cleanup.

External SSD's are being sold by the major players so it's worth a trip online to see.

 

[allanc]

Good question. I'm pretty sure that Windows TRIM doesn't work on external USB/SSD drives but the SSD manufacturers are constantly improving the onboard controller functions to help with cleanup.

External SSD's are being sold by the major players so it's worth a trip online to see.

Well, I could remove the SSD drive from the USB enclosure and put it into a ESATA docking station for the TRIM.
I prefer to not have to keep doing this over and over again.

 

[HCHTech]

Or.....just not worry about it. It's basically a scratch drive anyway, right? Replace it once a year whether it needs it or not = cost of doing business. Just sayin' :-D

 

[allanc]

Good question. I'm pretty sure that Windows TRIM doesn't work on external USB/SSD drives but the SSD manufacturers are constantly improving the onboard controller functions to help with cleanup.

External SSD's are being sold by the major players so it's worth a trip online to see.

I just spoke to Samsung (Canada).
The tech initially did not know but requested a day to speak to some of his peers and do some testing.
His response is that the TRIM is part of the SSD itself and will function properly within an USB enclosure.

 

[mr m]

That's good to know. I wondered why the SSD manufacturers relied on the OS to do its housekeeping.

I see some of the OEM's are now offering 10 year warranties. I've got them holding the OS in all my rigs and couldn't be happier with their superior speed. I got my first 60 GB SSD about 7 years ago and it's still going.

I remember a solid state system that fit in a 19" rack in a DEC PDP-11. It had 8 modules for a total of 2 MB's. This was 35 years ago!

 

[jbartlett323]

Yes, "Garbage Collection" is enabled on all new SSD's and is not required on an OS level. Originally, before they knew TRIM was mandatory, manu's treated it the same as Defragmenting, in the idea that it was optional. After a couple years and high failure rates and lack of OS support, they decided it was a good idea to implement it on the drive itself. Today, OS support is pretty much not required and is redundant. Most SSD's start garbage collections after milliseconds of idle time, where OS's wait up to 3 seconds in some cases.
That all being said, be sure to leave your USB SSD plugged in for awhile while not in use so that it can do this. If its always powered off, it obviously can't take out the trash.

And Nline, how do you recommend to "Force" TRIM to run? Been a few since I have looked, but last I knew there was no third (or first) party program that could successfully send the TRIM command. If you know one, please share!

 

[nlinecomputers]

And Nline, how do you recommend to "Force" TRIM to run? Been a few since I have looked, but last I knew there was no third (or first) party program that could successfully send the TRIM command. If you know one, please share!

In windows 7 and higher you run Defrag. The defrag program if it properly knows that it is on a SSD will perform the trim commands for the drive in place of a defrag.

 

[Krynn72]

In windows 7 and higher you run Defrag. The defrag program if it properly knows that it is on a SSD will perform the trim commands for the drive in place of a defrag.

Didn't know this. Thanks.

 

[allanc]

Yes, "Garbage Collection" is enabled on all new SSD's and is not required on an OS level. Originally, before they knew TRIM was mandatory, manu's treated it the same as Defragmenting, in the idea that it was optional. After a couple years and high failure rates and lack of OS support, they decided it was a good idea to implement it on the drive itself. Today, OS support is pretty much not required and is redundant. Most SSD's start garbage collections after milliseconds of idle time, where OS's wait up to 3 seconds in some cases.
That all being said, be sure to leave your USB SSD plugged in for awhile while not in use so that it can do this. If its always powered off, it obviously can't take out the trash.

And Nline, how do you recommend to "Force" TRIM to run? Been a few since I have looked, but last I knew there was no third (or first) party program that could successfully send the TRIM command. If you know one, please share!

From what I read at the Samsung Web site for the PRO series - I believe that the TRIM can be initiated from the 'Magician' program.

 

[allanc]

In windows 7 and higher you run Defrag. The defrag program if it properly knows that it is on a SSD will perform the trim commands for the drive in place of a defrag.

Interesting.
I am definitely not speaking from direct experience yet but ...
At many sites, they say to turn off the defrag for SSD drives.

 

[HFultzjr]

Just curious,

Are you looking to increase speed? Or, just reliability?

USB interface will sloooow the SSD down quite a bit.

2.0 will be a big bottleneck.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Interesting.
I am definitely not speaking from direct experience yet but ...
At many sites, they say to turn off the defrag for SSD drives.

And strictly speaking you have. The defrag program will NOT do a defrag on a system it knows has a SSD. It will run TRIM commands instead.
If for some reason Windows doesn't know that it is an SSD then it will defrag the drive and that is not good. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheRealAndCompleteStoryDoesWindowsDefragmentYourSSD.aspx

 

[allanc]

Just curious,

Are you looking to increase speed? Or, just reliability?

USB interface will sloooow the SSD down quite a bit.

2.0 will be a big bottleneck.

I am trying to decrease the time spent onsite.
I have purchased the SSD but not implemented it yet.
It will be enclosed in a small and lightweight USB 3.0 enclosure

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I agree I don't know that you would necessarily pick up a lot of speed. That said, I have found that if I work with a system that has an SSD installed, it seems like an external drive can copy much faster due to the throughput the SSD can run. But the question to ask is even if you do this, will you still have a bottleneck inside whatever systems you are working on, my guess is yes and you may not save as much time as you hope. But as cheap as SSD's are, worth a shot. If nothing else, get a regular drive for the enclosure later and put the SSD into a nice field laptop.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Considering that I've trashed two external drives by dropping them having something with no moving parts to f up might be worth it.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Point taken.

 

[allanc]

Just curious,

Are you looking to increase speed? Or, just reliability?

USB interface will sloooow the SSD down quite a bit.

2.0 will be a big bottleneck.

I hope to do some testing this weekend although it won't be entirely scientific.
I will test the following using an image backup with an external WD Portable Passport HDD and Samsung 850 PRO (SSD).
Both are USB 3.0.
I will test them both backing up via the same USB 2.0 port on a desktop and a USB 3.0 port on a notebook and post results.
It should produce at least a starting point for discussion.