Halp SSD Crash Prevention

dbzeag

Wants to kiss you where it stinks
Jun 9, 2006
17,057
502
548
45
Marklar
₥947
I just got a good netbook for a good price and I was going to swap in an SSD to make it truly portable (more battery life, less waiting because of faster performance, less moving parts). I have read about tweeking tools used to "prime" SSD to make it last longer, moving segments and such or drivers for Windows to write to SSD more efficiently to make the flash last longer.

Anyone have any tips?
 
Are you seriously in IT? Because most of the time it seems like you guys don't know anything >.>

Setup windows for whichever computer on a partition, then adjust all the settings and whatnot. Turn off services that read/write continuously. Set up the user data/settings/temp internet files/program files to work from a harddrive partition (you can find a list on google). Get the latest greatest drivers for the ssd (intel ones are of course the most 'adjustable')

Make an image of the windows install, burn it to the SSD boot enabled. Change bios to boot from SSD.

The idea is to keep the SSD static as possible. I don't really think the effort involved pays off much in the long term for desktops. Youll need to replace windows or do a major update long before you kill the SSD read writes.
 
Are you seriously in IT? Because most of the time it seems like you guys don't know anything >.>

Setup windows for whichever computer on a partition, then adjust all the settings and whatnot. Turn off services that read/write continuously. Set up the user data/settings/temp internet files/program files to work from a harddrive partition (you can find a list on google). Get the latest greatest drivers for the ssd (intel ones are of course the most 'adjustable')

Make an image of the windows install, burn it to the SSD boot enabled. Change bios to boot from SSD.

The idea is to keep the SSD static as possible. I don't really think the effort involved pays off much in the long term for desktops. Youll need to replace windows or do a major update long before you kill the SSD read writes.

No I am not in IT.

Nor have I ever used an SSD, so I have to learn somewhere.

I like the idea of cloning a hard disk image of an install to the SSD then run from that. Thank you for that idea.

Also none of this is on a desktop, it's on a netbook, only one hard drive in the machine.
 
Personally, I wouldn't even bother.

So I take it you have never moved your laptop around to the point you damage your hard drive from the vibrations? Or damage the drive from heat it generates inside the chassis of the laptop? I have and would care to not do so again.
 
I had a laptop that survived several motorcycle crashes in a backpack on my back.

Pretty sure you have to try pretty hard to kill one, or just have a crappy unit.

I have killed two motherboards, four cooling solutions, three hard drives, two screens, one optical drive, and 4 batteries. Only 3 laptops "destroyed"./
 
No, we replace them when they are too old (read: 3 weeks old).

SSDs will last much longer than 3 weekes.

Honestly though, I would do what Kyle said and not bother. Just back up your shit and replace it once it's bad and out of warranty.
 
So I take it you have never moved your laptop around to the point you damage your hard drive from the vibrations? Or damage the drive from heat it generates inside the chassis of the laptop? I have and would care to not do so again.
This doesnt really prevent physical damage. People do this because EEPROM chips have a limited number of read write cycles and up until recently most OS/Drivers were optimized for magnetic media which has an entirely different 'wear' model (usually the motors/arms wear out or the control tracks get messed up). Some of them have optimized wear leveling, which tries to write new data to the least used physical chips so as to even out wear over the entire storage drive.

Essentially, the less you write to it, the longer it lasts. It's a big deal if you have a server constantly writing/erasing/reading data.

That's why I said the effort involved is negligible for the gain in life expectancy for your average desktop. It's pointless if you don't have a separate physical hard drive.

If you want to keep it from dying L2 treat it like a delicate electronic device, not a toaster. This is why I think people constantly break their iphones and shit. They treat them like accessories, not like electronics. When I went to 'orientation' for something they made people pay full retail price for broken gear. Makes you think twice about dropping a $10000 handheld radio >.>
 
This doesnt really prevent physical damage. People do this because EEPROM chips have a limited number of read write cycles and up until recently most OS/Drivers were optimized for magnetic media which has an entirely different 'wear' model (usually the motors/arms wear out or the control tracks get messed up). Some of them have optimized wear leveling, which tries to write new data to the least used physical chips so as to even out wear over the entire storage drive.

Essentially, the less you write to it, the longer it lasts. It's a big deal if you have a server constantly writing/erasing/reading data.

That's why I said the effort involved is negligible for the gain in life expectancy for your average desktop. It's pointless if you don't have a separate physical hard drive.

If you want to keep it from dying L2 treat it like a delicate electronic device, not a toaster. This is why I think people constantly break their iphones and shit. They treat them like accessories, not like electronics. When I went to 'orientation' for something they made people pay full retail price for broken gear. Makes you think twice about dropping a $10000 handheld radio >.>

Packing teh laptop in two padded neoprene cases, wrapping it in clothes before packing into a suitcase for cross country business trips is the only way it has moved around.