First SSD Install -- A Couple of Tech Questions
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Sadly, the lockups are still happening and after doing a little research, I've learned it's not all that uncommon. Others have had the same problem with certain Crucial SSDs (including my model) on some laptops. In every situation I've come across so far, those people solved the problem by switching to a different brand SSD, but interestingly, they were also able to use the same problematic Crucial drive in another machine without any problem at all. So I may just find that I have one of those laptops that doesn't play nice with the Crucial drive.Lee said:Rick congrats it looks much better. Hope that you don't have more problems with the shutting down and rebooting any more.
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That 150 MB/s SATA 1 speed is something that threw me when I saw the initial ATTO results of Reads and Writes of 200 - 225 MB per second before turning on the Momentum Cache. I haven't been able to absolutely confirm it yet, but I'm almost certain this laptop only has a SATA 1 interface, yet ATTO was showing through-put greater than SATA 1 speeds.Dave Hooton said:Rick Ausdahl said:After enabling the cache, it reporting apx. 600-800 MB per second on writes, and up to 900 MB per second on reads. I can't imagine that can be accurate on this old laptop which probably only has a SATA 1 interface.
If SATA 2 then 300 MB/s is feasible, SATA 1 has a maximum of 150 MB/s. Clearly the results are reflecting use of the drive cache. See what happens if you tick "Force Write Access" and again if you untick "Direct I/O" (which maximises transfer rate).
Regarding the ticking of the "Force Write Access" and unticking of "Direct I/O", I don't recall seeing such options in the Crucial app I downloaded, but maybe I just missed them... or is that something more generic that's done through Device Manager? I do have a vague recollection of something along those lines but can't remember the details. I'll see what I can find.
UPDATE: I just realized that the Crucial Storage Executive app is reporting the interface on this laptop as SATA 2. At least I assume it's referring to the laptop as I know the SSD is suppose to be SATA 3. Having an interface of SATA 2 would at least explain the initial 200 - 225 MB/s reported by ATTO.
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The replacement SSD is in my laptop and has 19 hours on it without any lock-ups/freezes, so I'm guardedly optimistic.
The only thing I'm a little concerned about (more curious at this point) is that in running Crucial's Storage Executive Client, it shows there have been three "SATA Interface Downshifts" over the course of those 19 hours. I've done a little digging on that topic but am still a bit fuzzy as to the specifics of the scenarios that may trigger a downshift. In addition, nothing I've seen indicates how great the downshifts were, so I really don't know how to gauge whether or not it should be a concern. Until I learn more, I'm making the assumption that the downshifts may be related to the fact that the SSD is SATA 3, but the laptop is only SATA 2.
But I've digressed. I mainly wanted to provide an update after getting a few hours on the replacement drive.
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Dave,Rick Ausdahl said:
That 150 MB/s SATA 1 speed is something that threw me when I saw the initial ATTO results of Reads and Writes of 200 - 225 MB per second before turning on the Momentum Cache. I haven't been able to absolutely confirm it yet, but I'm almost certain this laptop only has a SATA 1 interface, yet ATTO was showing through-put greater than SATA 1 speeds.Dave Hooton said:Rick Ausdahl said:After enabling the cache, it reporting apx. 600-800 MB per second on writes, and up to 900 MB per second on reads. I can't imagine that can be accurate on this old laptop which probably only has a SATA 1 interface.
If SATA 2 then 300 MB/s is feasible, SATA 1 has a maximum of 150 MB/s. Clearly the results are reflecting use of the drive cache. See what happens if you tick "Force Write Access" and again if you untick "Direct I/O" (which maximises transfer rate).
Regarding the ticking of the "Force Write Access" and unticking of "Direct I/O", I don't recall seeing such options in the Crucial app I downloaded, but maybe I just missed them... or is that something more generic that's done through Device Manager? I do have a vague recollection of something along those lines but can't remember the details. I'll see what I can find.
UPDATE: I just realized that the Crucial Storage Executive app is reporting the interface on this laptop as SATA 2. At least I assume it's referring to the laptop as I know the SSD is suppose to be SATA 3. Having an interface of SATA 2 would at least explain the initial 200 - 225 MB/s reported by ATTO.
I just wanted to let you know I have not yet found either the "Force Write Access" or the "Direct I/O" options. [:$]
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Hello Rick
First within the past 19 hours have you been coping data file onto the SSD?
If you have the more data on the drive it will start to slow as it gets full. This could be the downshifts that you are talking about.
Note I have a 256GB SSD, but i try to keep close to 120GB free or more if i can.
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I suspect that in your case the downshift statistic simply means that it's dropping from SATA 3 to SATA 2, which would be perfectly correct. I'd only worry if you run a disk check and see that it's only running in SATA 1.
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Rick Ausdahl said:
I just wanted to let you know I have not yet found either the "Force Write Access" or the "Direct I/O" options.
Hint: benchmarking
Dave
===Windows 11 & Android 13
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Oh... [:$]Dave Hooton said:Rick Ausdahl said:I just wanted to let you know I have not yet found either the "Force Write Access" or the "Direct I/O" options.
Hint: benchmarking
I still don't have a handle yet on what these options do, but here are the results from all four possible scenarios for these two settings.
1) Force Write and Direct I/O both OFF
2) Force Write OFF. Direct I/O ON
3) Force Write ON. Direct I/O OFF
4) Force Write and Direct I/O both ON
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Thanks, Lee.Lee said:Hello Rick
First within the past 19 hours have you been coping data file onto the SSD?
If you have the more data on the drive it will start to slow as it gets full. This could be the downshifts that you are talking about.
Note I have a 256GB SSD, but i try to keep close to 120GB free or more if i can.
I haven't copied/loaded any files to the drive. I think I should be OK on space. The OS partition is 160 GB with only 42% used. The balance is on the data partition with only 37% used.
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Thanks, Mark! In regard to running a "disk check", are you referring to a standard Windows utility or some other app? Also, in regard to seeing SATA 1, are you referring to seeing an actual SATA version being displayed after the disk check or are you thinking more just in terms of seeing what would be considered SATA 1 speed results?Mark Barnes said:I suspect that in your case the downshift statistic simply means that it's dropping from SATA 3 to SATA 2, which would be perfectly correct. I'd only worry if you run a disk check and see that it's only running in SATA 1.
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24 hours on the drive now. Still just seeing three SATA interface downshifts in the Crucial app. Hopefully all is well with this replacement drive.
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Rick Ausdahl said:
I still don't have a handle yet on what these options do,
See http://www.userbenchmark.com/ATTO-Disk-Benchmark/Rating/1285
The Force Write option seems to do what it says. Overlapped I/O & Queue Depth relate to how many requests the drive can handle at one time. A QD of 2 is probably more realistic.
Dave
===Windows 11 & Android 13
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Rick Ausdahl said:
Thanks, Mark! In regard to running a "disk check", are you referring to a standard Windows utility or some other app? Also, in regard to seeing SATA 1, are you referring to seeing an actual SATA version being displayed after the disk check or are you thinking more just in terms of seeing what would be considered SATA 1 speed results?
Sorry for not being clear. I was referring to whatever app you're using the report what the current interface is. If it's downshifted to SATA 1, then Crucial's Storage Excecutive should tell you that.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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Thanks for the link, Dave. It's really helpful because it gives explanations/descriptions for the ATTO options--something I haven't been able to get from the ATTO app itself.Dave Hooton said:Rick Ausdahl said:I still don't have a handle yet on what these options do,
See http://www.userbenchmark.com/ATTO-Disk-Benchmark/Rating/1285
The Force Write option seems to do what it says. Overlapped I/O & Queue Depth relate to how many requests the drive can handle at one time. A QD of 2 is probably more realistic.
I've downloaded the ATTO product a couple of times in an effort to get a populated ATTO "Help" file, but so far the file has been empty. I.e. while selecting the help file brings up an ATTO help window, and selecting the "Contents" tab then brings up a list of contents, nothing happens when selecting a content item from the list. Ditto for the "Index" tab. Selecting that tab will bring up a list of index items, but nothing is displayed when selecting an item from the list.
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No problem, Mark. When I select the "Drive Details" tab in the Crucial app, it shows the interface as SATA 3.0 Gb/s (SATA 2). The number of downshifts are one of the items listed when a different tab -- the "S.M.A.R.T" tab is selected. I'm guessing the SATA speed listed under the "Drive Details" tab is equivalent to what you had in mind.Mark Barnes said:Rick Ausdahl said:Thanks, Mark! In regard to running a "disk check", are you referring to a standard Windows utility or some other app? Also, in regard to seeing SATA 1, are you referring to seeing an actual SATA version being displayed after the disk check or are you thinking more just in terms of seeing what would be considered SATA 1 speed results?
Sorry for not being clear. I was referring to whatever app you're using the report what the current interface is. If it's downshifted to SATA 1, then Crucial's Storage Excecutive should tell you that.
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I was curious as to how an SSD might affect my wife's little Lenovo Yoga 11 inch 2-in-1, so before returning the first SSD that was giving me trouble in my Toshiba laptop, I put it in the Lenovo.
- Windows 10 boots in 13-15 seconds.
- Logos loads in 25-26 seconds.
Now the Logos layout being loaded isn't complicated or heavily resourced (only 3 panels with a total of 13 open resources), but I still couldn't help but chuckle at the boot and Logos load speeds for a little machine running a lowly Pentium processor and just 4 GB RAM. [:)]
Again, I want to say thanks to everyone for the help and support I received while trying to figure out what was going on with the first SSD I installed.
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