CrystalDiskInfo Shizuku Edition

[Norm X]

The named download might be important. The reports CrystalDiskInfo generates
are a little scary. Maybe I'm paranoid. Comments?

PS It only sees flash drive or USB HDD seen by boot ROM on Acer Aspire One.
Removable SDHC card is invisible.

 

[Norm X]

The named download might be important. The reports CrystalDiskInfo

generates are a little scary. Maybe I'm paranoid. Comments?

PS It only sees flash drive or USB HDD seen by boot ROM on Acer Aspire
One. Removable SDHC card is invisible.

I just ran CrystalDiskMark Shizuku Edition and I was shocked by the numbers.
Write speed is now so slow on the SuperTalent PATA SSD as to render it
unusable for that purpose. On the other hand write speed has not changed on
the exFAT formatted SDHC card. I read that exFAT was designed for flash. The
Windows OSes I have, only work on NTFS, which apparently is not good on
flash. Too bad exFAT is not a standard in Linux, but an add-on, just like in
WinXP. While CrystalDiskInfo does show TRIM, it is grayed out. Perhaps it
does not meet standards. Maybe I should install TRIM software. The trouble
is that TRIM only works with flash that is designed to support TRIM. For
TRIM flash, the manufacturer can easily implement its execution in
firmware. Write speeds on the Seagate external USB HDD were as good as read
speeds. I've moved WinXP cache and temp folders on to the HDD, but so far
WinXP has not written a pagefile.sys. It is not wise to have pagefile.sys on
an NTFS flash. My CrystalDiskMark numbers suggest it is OK to install
pagefile.sys on an exFAT SSD.

All this has relevance for long term viability of smart phone file systems
and use of Linux on USB dongles. I have had many problems with Linux on USB
(or internal) flash and have assigned all such devices to other purposes. I
installed Reaver Pro, a derivative of openWRT on to an 8 GB OCZ Rally2 USB
flash. It was not an easy install and it only installs on flash memory, like
openWRT installs on router flash. The installer chose FAT32 and detected and
used an internal HDD Linux swap partition. The authors seem to know that
ext2, ext3, ext4 and swap are no good for flash

 

[Paul]

I just ran CrystalDiskMark Shizuku Edition and I was shocked by the numbers.
Write speed is now so slow on the SuperTalent PATA SSD as to render it
unusable for that purpose. On the other hand write speed has not changed on
the exFAT formatted SDHC card. I read that exFAT was designed for flash. The
Windows OSes I have, only work on NTFS, which apparently is not good on
flash. Too bad exFAT is not a standard in Linux, but an add-on, just like in
WinXP. While CrystalDiskInfo does show TRIM, it is grayed out. Perhaps it
does not meet standards. Maybe I should install TRIM software. The trouble
is that TRIM only works with flash that is designed to support TRIM. For
TRIM flash, the manufacturer can easily implement its execution in
firmware. Write speeds on the Seagate external USB HDD were as good as read
speeds. I've moved WinXP cache and temp folders on to the HDD, but so far
WinXP has not written a pagefile.sys. It is not wise to have pagefile.sys on
an NTFS flash. My CrystalDiskMark numbers suggest it is OK to install
pagefile.sys on an exFAT SSD.

All this has relevance for long term viability of smart phone file systems
and use of Linux on USB dongles. I have had many problems with Linux on USB
(or internal) flash and have assigned all such devices to other purposes. I
installed Reaver Pro, a derivative of openWRT on to an 8 GB OCZ Rally2 USB
flash. It was not an easy install and it only installs on flash memory, like
openWRT installs on router flash. The installer chose FAT32 and detected and
used an internal HDD Linux swap partition. The authors seem to know that
ext2, ext3, ext4 and swap are no good for flash

Maybe you just need a new IDE drive. The IDE interface would rob
you of the speed (so the "sustained" would be lower), but
you'd get to keep the good seek time.

*******

The internal PCB on some of the new SSDs is getting pretty small.
All you would need is a planar 44 pin to SATA adapter.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8216/samsung-ssd-850-pro-128gb-256gb-1tb-review-enter-the-3d-era

The 128GB drive PCB is not pictured there. In this article,
it looks like the 128GB might be the same size as the 256GB layout.
It could be they used the same layout, but just half-density chips.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6479/samsung-850-pro-128gb-ssd-review/index2.html

*******

I can find such SATA-IDE adapters, but few are planar (suited to a laptop bay).

The planar ones are designed for 1.8" SATA drives, and those run at 3.3V.
And you'd really want an adapter that runs at 5V. (It's hard to find
the 3.3V 1.8 inch SSD drives with microSATA connectors. They only appeared
on the market for a short time, and probably didn't sell well. Only
a few people complained about not having adapters for them.)

There is no requirement, that every power rail on a SATA bay connector
be powered. On a laptop for example, it wouldn't surprise me
if only the 5V pads, out of 3.3V/5V/12V were powered. When you look
at some of the adapters, some have two regulators, some have
one regulator, implying an attempt to make 3.3V from 5V or something.

This item shows the basic mechanical form factor I have in mind.
But most all of the "details" are wrong.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4SR1R85627

And the company selling those, just doesn't know what the spirit
of Newegg is. Only one picture is shown and that one has no specs
or description. Some of the others have a little more
information. But nothing yet, provided enough info to get
me excited.

*******

OK, here's another idea. It goes from MSATA to 44 pin.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Low-profile...=US_Video_Cables_Adapters&hash=item19f83486de

I would much rather have a SATA SSD, as those are likely to be
properly implemented. With a SATA SSD with shortened PCB, you
pull the PCB out of the casing, leaving room to extend the
drive with a planar adapter. The adapter must be flat enough
to fit the drive bay - many products just have random orientations
not suited to any particular purpose. On some, the PCB is vertical
and there is no way the cover on the bay will close on one of those.

Paul

 

[David W. Hodgins]

I just ran CrystalDiskMark Shizuku Edition and I was shocked by the numbers.
Write speed is now so slow on the SuperTalent PATA SSD as to render it
unusable for that purpose. On the other hand write speed has not changed

I've never heard of CrystalDiskMark before, but have encountered the
problem of the ssd drive slowing to the speed of a floppy drive, or
even slower.

Boot any live linux cd/dvd and run the attached script, after mounting
all of the filesystems on the ssd drive.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

 

[Paul]

I've never heard of CrystalDiskMark before, but have encountered the
problem of the ssd drive slowing to the speed of a floppy drive, or
even slower.

Boot any live linux cd/dvd and run the attached script, after mounting
all of the filesystems on the ssd drive.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

Would something from the PATA era, know about TRIM ?
That thing could be a relatively old design.

I would only fool with that thing, if I had a second
drive as a substitute. I'd do a Secure Erase of the
PATA SSD, and see if the performance changes after
that or not. A Secure Erase would leave the spared-out
blocks (reallocations). But would otherwise solve
any internal fragmentation problems, if that's the theory
as to why it is slow. Obviously, the files on it
are going to have to be stored somewhere, while
testing that theory.

Paul

 

[David W. Hodgins]

Would something from the PATA era, know about TRIM ?
That thing could be a relatively old design.

I don't see how it could heart to try. This is the first time I've
heard of a pata ssd drive, but I don't see any possible harm that
could come from running the fstrim command. Either it will work, or
it will report that the drive or filesystem doesn't support the trim
command.

Regards, Dave Hodgins