RS shows VERY obvious improvement after one pass of SR 6

[TheDukeofURL]

Been trying out SR 6 / RS scanning and testing on a large bunch of drives I have. Spinning, SSD, laptop, SATA and PATA. What follows is a really good indication of what Spinrite can do with SSDs that are a bit on the old side and need a little TLC. Today's selection is a Crucial M4 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC, which has been in service for close to 5 years.

BEFORE
Driv Size  Drive Identity     Location:    0      25%     50%     75%     100
---- ----- ---------------------------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
 81  128GB M4-CT128M4SSD2                258.3   283.4   309.1   296.0   296.2


AFTER (running Spinrite on Level 3)
Driv Size  Drive Identity     Location:    0      25%     50%     75%     100
---- ----- ---------------------------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
 81  128GB M4-CT128M4SSD2                533.5   533.5   533.5   533.5   533.6

I'd say this is a WINNER!

 

[PeterUpfold]

Is that improvement just from a level 2 pass? (I'm aware you don't want to run SSDs on level 4!)

 

[DanR]

The OP states "Level 3" in his results. That is the recommend SR level for SSD's. SR level 2 is OK, but not as effective.

SR levels 4, 5 should always be avoided as they are potentially destructive to an SSD due to their capability of doing very extensive writing to the drive.

That said, SR Level 3 should be used wisely and infrequently as it does exact a price on an SSD, albeit a small one, that will be cumulative over time. Fortunately, ReadSpeed provides a 100% safe means of monitoring the status of an SSD and the need for a SpinRite Level 3 maintenance run.

@Steve used to comment (I don't recall seeing anything lately) that SpinRite would become SSD aware and would not allow levels 4 or 5 to be used on an SSD. I do not know if that would be SR 6.1 or SR 7.x.

 

[TheDukeofURL]

All of the above is correct and I will throw in that SR at Level 2 will help those drives that are struggling (both spinning and SSD). I've seen marked improvement at Level 2 when I was leery of running Level 3 or 4.

And to Dan's point, one of the FASTEST ways to kill an SSD is to make it Windows' swap file, especially when you push your memory usage near the limit! OUCHY!!!

 

[Barry Wallis]

And to Dan's point, one of the FASTEST ways to kill an SSD is to make it Windows' swap file, especially when you push your memory usage near the limit! OUCHY!!!

I hadn't thought of that. I wonder why my Surface Book 3 comes with an NVMe C: drive and I have a four-year warranty.

 

[DanR]

I hadn't thought of that. I wonder why my Surface Book 3 comes with an NVMe C: drive and I have a four-year warranty.

How much ram do you have?

 

[Barry Wallis]

How much ram do you have?

32GB.

 

[DanR]

32GB.

Maybe you have thought of this? Set the swap file to 0 keep it in ram rather than "exercising" the NVMe?

 

[TheDukeofURL]

IIRC, you need to have a minimum of 1 MB for the swap file, but that is always a good idea when you have that much RAM available for an SSD. However, if you are running RAM intensive applications, you'll have to modulate the value of the swap file accordingly. Windows is VERY GOOD at pestering you if the swap file is too small. REALLY GOOD! (wink wink)

 

[PeterUpfold]

My bad for not reading "Level 3" in the original code snippet!

 

[rfrazier]

Recommended swap file is 2X RAM. I would say that even on an SSD. HOWEVER, unless you're running 20 apps and 100 tabs assuming you have at least 8 GB of RAM, you shouldn't be touching the swap file hardly ever.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

 

[DanR]

Recommended swap file is 2X RAM.

I believe that is certainly applicable to 32 bit OS, which can only address 4 GB of ram. (~3.5 GB, technically speaking)

With 62 bit OS, 8 or more GB of ram is possible. With lots of ram, eliminating the swap file would speed up the system (even with SSD) and make life easier for the SSD. The "catch" of course is ram intensive apps (video editing, for example) which may make make a swap file desirable.

 

[Barry Wallis]

I believe that is certainly applicable to 32 bit OS, which can only address 4 GB of ram. (~3.5 GB, technically speaking)

With 62 bit OS, 8 or more GB of ram is possible. With lots of ram, eliminating the swap file would speed up the system (even with SSD) and make life easier for SSD. The "catch" of course is ram intensive apps (video editing, for example) which may make make a swap file desirable.

Yep. I have some memory intensive programs so when I set the swap file to 0, things slowed down.

 

[rfrazier]

If your swap file is 0, and you use up the RAM, your PC is likely to crash.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

 

[Barry Wallis]

If your swap file is 0, and you use up the RAM, your PC is likely to crash.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

That did concern me.

 

[rfrazier]

@Barry Wallis Not directly related to the thread, but, if you think your PC is likely to crash due to usage habits, malfunctions, power failures, battery failures, whatever; you can go into device manager in Windows and turn off write caching for each of your drives. That makes a crash less likely to do damage. I also run a chkdisk (without auto fix) after a crash. Even though I have a swap file on an SSD, I prefer to work without exhausting all my RAM. I keep task manager sitting in one corner of the screen and keep an eyeball on how much ram is in use. Therefore, my swap file shouldn't get much action.

Re Magic, etc., check out the movie "Now You See Me" #1 if you haven't already seen it. I haven't seen #2.

Amazon.com: NOW YOU SEE ME 1 & 2 BD + DGTL [Blu-ray]: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, Mélanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Jay Chou, Sanaa Lathan, Louis Leterrier, J

Amazon.com: NOW YOU SEE ME 1 & 2 BD + DGTL [Blu-ray]: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, Mélanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Jay Chou, Sanaa Lathan, Louis Leterrier, Jon M. Chu: Movies & TV

www.amazon.com

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

 

[Barry Wallis]

Not directly related to the thread, but, if you think your PC is likely to crash due to usage habits, malfunctions, power failures, battery failures, whatever; you can go into device manager in Windows and turn off write caching for each of your drives.

No need for that since I won't be turning off my swap file. Otherwise. my one month old machine is in perfect health.

 

[TheDukeofURL]

@Barry Wallis Not directly related to the thread, but, if you think your PC is likely to crash due to usage habits, malfunctions, power failures, battery failures, whatever; you can go into device manager in Windows and turn off write caching for each of your drives. That makes a crash less likely to do damage. I also run a chkdisk (without auto fix) after a crash. Even though I have a swap file on an SSD, I prefer to work without exhausting all my RAM. I keep task manager sitting in one corner of the screen and keep an eyeball on how much ram is in use. Therefore, my swap file shouldn't get much action.

Re Magic, etc., check out the movie "Now You See Me" #1 if you haven't already seen it. I haven't seen #2.

Amazon.com: NOW YOU SEE ME 1 & 2 BD + DGTL [Blu-ray]: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, Mélanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Jay Chou, Sanaa Lathan, Louis Leterrier, J

Amazon.com: NOW YOU SEE ME 1 & 2 BD + DGTL [Blu-ray]: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, Mélanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Jay Chou, Sanaa Lathan, Louis Leterrier, Jon M. Chu: Movies & TV

www.amazon.com

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

Just watched #2. Both are excellent. Loved 'em!

 

[Barry Wallis]

@rfrazier I loved both Now You See Me movies (a third one may be in the works). Also check out The Prestige and The Illusionist if you haven't seen them. And for some magical comedy there is The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.