Yes, I thought that was interesting as well, the positives certainly outweigh the negatives. These drive were previously used in another computer, but now in my new build that has an NVMe drive for OS, so these drives are lightly used, storing photos and some program files (like Flight Sim).
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SpinRite v6.1 Release #3 Guest:
The 3rd release of SpinRite v6.1 is published and may be obtained by all SpinRite v6.0 owners at the SpinRite v6.1 Pre-Release page. (SpinRite will shortly be officially updated to v6.1 so this page will be renamed.) The primary new feature, and the reason for this release, was the discovery of memory problems in some systems that were affecting SpinRite's operation. So SpinRite now incorporates a built-in test of the system's memory. For the full story, please see this page in the "Pre-Release Announcements & Feedback" forum.
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Be sure to checkout “Tips & Tricks” Dear Guest Visitor → Once you register and log-in please checkout the “Tips & Tricks” page for some very handy tips!
/Steve. -
BootAble – FreeDOS boot testing freeware
To obtain direct, low-level access to a system's mass storage drives, SpinRite runs under a GRC-customized version of FreeDOS which has been modified to add compatibility with all file systems. In order to run SpinRite it must first be possible to boot FreeDOS.
GRC's “BootAble” freeware allows anyone to easily create BIOS-bootable media in order to workout and confirm the details of getting a machine to boot FreeDOS through a BIOS. Once the means of doing that has been determined, the media created by SpinRite can be booted and run in the same way.
The participants here, who have taken the time to share their knowledge and experience, their successes and some frustrations with booting their computers into FreeDOS, have created a valuable knowledgebase which will benefit everyone who follows.
You may click on the image to the right to obtain your own copy of BootAble. Then use the knowledge and experience documented here to boot your computer(s) into FreeDOS. And please do not hesitate to ask questions – nowhere else can better answers be found.
(You may permanently close this reminder with the 'X' in the upper right.)
@danlock @DiskTuna SDELETE, an official (and free) MS program which @Steve mentioned a long time ago on the podcast, is also an alternative to overwrite (clear) unallocated space (but still partitioned space). Years ago when I was experimenting with such things, I generated some junk files of random gibberish (on a Linux system command line). I moved those over to a junk folder on Windows. When I totally want to fill up the hard drive (and force deleted files to get deleted), I just copy these files over and over from Windows Explorer (highlight a group, copy, paste) and let Windows keep renaming the copies. I have files of different sizes like 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB. Then, when there's just a little space left, I run SDELETE. Turns out SDELETE is a little slow in filling large spaces. This procedure is a little kludgy but it works.
@DiskTuna @crahen This link is my own experience with ReadSpeed.
My drive was already in pretty good condition and reading didn't do much. Interestingly, and somewhat frustratingly, doing a full drive write actually reduced my ReadSpeed results a little but made everything much more consistent. Also, interestingly, in part 3 of my report, I had written all of the drive except about 1/2 of a 20 GB "gap" of unpartitioned space. In part 4, I had gone back and finished writing the gap. That reduced the ReadSpeed numbers a bit more but made them even more consistent. Looks like there's all kinds of magic going on under the hood.
Some newbie to these forums is going to be reading and wondering WHAT THE HECK is a LEVEL 3?
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast.
RonMy EVO SSD has been in use for many, many years, so I would assume that the first part of the drive has been significantly used/worn compared to the rest (assuming SSD's write from the beginning and save the end for last). I could run a level 3 and see what happens, guessing it may level out the speeds. I can't locate the specific write endurance of the 840 EVO, but I would venture to guess it's current 10Tb written has it somewhere a 1/3 way through it's life?
Here's some more data from the Samsung Magician software:
Here's some more data from the Samsung Magician software:
@crahen just for kicks I googled samsung 840 evo endurance. (I only spent a few minutes.) At first glance it appears Samsung doesn't quote numbers. I found this thread:
forums.tomshardware.com
Someone there claims the endurance is 72 TBW. I have no way to vet that at this moment. But, if it's true, you would think your drive health indicator would be inching down a bit. I hope Samsung Magician isn't lying to us. If it's inching down, I'd rather see that sooner than later. I also have a Samsung drive.
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron
ssd lifespan 840 evo
does a 840 evo last longer than better than its cousins? Diden't know how to word it. And i want to know how do you keep it in a good working state?
forums.tomshardware.com
Someone there claims the endurance is 72 TBW. I have no way to vet that at this moment. But, if it's true, you would think your drive health indicator would be inching down a bit. I hope Samsung Magician isn't lying to us. If it's inching down, I'd rather see that sooner than later. I also have a Samsung drive.
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast.
RonThanks for finding that, I saw the new models had 70+/- TB, assumed the 840 was less due to a 3 year warranty compared to 5. This is all great info that ReadSpeed is providing and look forward to NVMe support as that EVO will likely get replaced by a 1 or 2Tb NVMe drive in the future. Thanks for all the great feedback and support, great community.
Yeah, that is what I calculated as well from the SMART stats, which didn't seem right, so I went back and looked to see when I bought that drive, it was April 27, 2014, which actually puts its time in use around 6.7 years. So, not quite sure what that metric is counting.
BTW, I listened to the latest Security Now! (Epiosde #800) this morning during a nice long drive and @Steve did a wonderful job of explaining the theory behind the exact ReadSpeed results I am seeing on my drives and the the potential options for correcting. Guessing most of you have also listened to that episode, but if not it's 100% worth the time. Thanks Steve.
