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How to manually TRIM SSD's in a RAID-0?

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aoch88

aoch88

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Joined
Dec 25, 2007
I'm having an X-25M but I'm looking at building another rig using 2 x X25-V RAID-0 just to test things out. While I know RAID-0 does not support TRIM and there's something called Intel SSD Toolbox, what are the methods I can use to manually TRIM and clear off the NAND blocks? Does a normal format does the job or I need some tools to do it under DOS mode, etc?
 
Intel SSD Toolbox does not function in RAID. It's basically a scheduler for the TRIM to function on a pre-set basis, but as mentioned will NOT work in RAID0.

OCZ has Garbage Collection FW, which kind of does the same thing, but it's exclusive to their drives AFAIK.

Your only option with Intel SSDs is to clean and re-image the drives about every four months to retain top performance.

Personally, I would recommend buying a single, larger, SSD and rely on the TRIM function. TRIM works excellent in single drive setups and I recommend you go that route.
If you must have RAID, go with OCZ SSDs that support Garbage Collection.
 
I would steer clear of the RAID setup, from my experience even with OCZ drives and GC built in the degradation is pretty bad. Single 120gig drive I have now is just as fast for what I do and hasn't lost any performance.
 
Ok, here's an interesting read from AnandTech. Looking at the charts, 2 x X25-V is indeed faster than a single X25-M but it loses out on TRIM. It also looks like Intel will have TRIM for RAID:
http://guru3d.com/news/intel-brings-trim-to-ssds-in-raid/

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3618/intel-x25v-in-raid0-faster-than-x25m-g2-for-250

I'm not sure but anyone tried it? I am also interested to know how we can clean sweep the SSD to the original state manually in DOS or whatever method if it doesn't have TRIM. I'm sure there's a way?
 
I've read many articles and came to the conclusion that there is not trim for raid currently.
Reason I got 2x160gb for raid 0. With the size it'll prevent any slow down for some time.
I am pretty certain there will be some form of trim in the near future.
 
mattspalace said:
Intel SSD Toolbox does not function in RAID. It's basically a scheduler for the TRIM to function on a pre-set basis, but as mentioned will NOT work in RAID0.

OCZ has Garbage Collection FW, which kind of does the same thing, but it's exclusive to their drives AFAIK.

Your only option with Intel SSDs is to clean and re-image the drives about every four months to retain top performance.

Personally, I would recommend buying a single, larger, SSD and rely on the TRIM function. TRIM works excellent in single drive setups and I recommend you go that route.
If you must have RAID, go with OCZ SSDs that support Garbage Collection.
Click to expand...
+1

prime81 said:
I would steer clear of the RAID setup, from my experience even with OCZ drives and GC built in the degradation is pretty bad. Single 120gig drive I have now is just as fast for what I do and hasn't lost any performance.
Click to expand...
Your singular experience, though true, is not even close to the norm. I would have ZERO issues putting a couple of SSD drives in R0 with GC firmware on them. Just b/c your experience is bad, doesnt mean 99% of others are, but I certainly understand your concern. ;)
 
Last edited:
EarthDog said:
+1

Your singular experience, though true, is not even close to the norm. I would have ZERO issues putting a couple of SSD drives in R0 with GC firmware on them. Just b/c your experience is bad, doesnt mean 99% of others are, but I certainly understand your concern. ;)
Click to expand...

Do you follow me around these forums just to get a rise out of me earthdog?

Both of my agility's had GC on them and yes it was fast, but benchmark degradation and eventually hesitation on loading things is not something I would advise anyone to dump money on when they can get a larger single drive that is just as fast with TRIM. The best advice I can give the OP is get a single drive, if it's not fast enough for ya, get another one and slap it in RAID 0.
 
Im really sorry, I can see why you think that...my bad. Terrible habit of mine I have to admit... :(

Im just saying a lot of people do not have that problem. I dont feel the OP should worry if he wants to R0 a couple drives with GC on them. Your now cautious approach is valid, though i say go for it. I would if I could. :)
 
Thanks guys but if there are no automatic TRIM available for now, what are the manual options available? Any programs or software I could use under DOS mode to wipe clean the SSD?
 
You can use diskpart which is built into the OS to clean the drive.

Image the SSD RAID to another HDD
Use Diskpart with the clean command to erase the drive
Re-image the SSD RAID


Personally though, I would still recommend a single SSD with larger capacity over a pair of SSDs in RAID. I've done it all with SSDs and have found that single is the way to go with TRIM. Basically worry free and the performance doesn't degrade at all.

If you want fast, buy a Vertex LE like I have, or one of the Crucial REALSSDs.

SSDs are great because of their access time to data (usually .1ms) - that's where it really counts. The bandwidth is nice, but you can strap 3 or 4 platter-based drives together have reach almost the same transfer rates.. Don't get too caught up on ATTO screencaptures and such.
 
Thanks mattspalace but how can I run diskpart on both SSD's in RAID-0 when I need to do it from Windows? Are there any boot up DOS program to do this?
 
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