SSD security status clear, but TRIM grayed out?

SSD (Solid State Drives) SanDisk SSD Dashboard
1

Hello,

I just downloaded the new Sandisk SSD Dashboard.

It appears that the TRIM optimization for my Extreme II SSD is grayed out, although the security status of the drive should be clear (or at least, I haven’t seen any indication that it’s being set otherwise). Is this a bug? Not that it bothers me very much as I’m using Windows 8.1 Update 1 which already has built-in scheduled TRIM capabilities (although with some annoying bugs that Microsoft hasn’t fixed yet).

2

TRIM is disabled on Win > 8 for the exact reason you mentioned in your post.

3

Do you know this for a fact (ie did you get this information from Sandisk or are you one of the developers of this toolbox) or are you just guessing basing on currently available information? My opinion is that even though Windows 8 has built-in support for scheduled batched TRIM, it could be useful to be able to trigger it from this software.

4

georgealon is on the development team for the SSD Dashboard. 

5

I consider my question answered, then. Please excuse me if I might have sounded rude, but there was no immediate indication (to me, at least) that georgealon is a SanDisk employee.

6

I have to disagree.

TRIM is enabled in Windows 8.1 update 1.

When I run this command at the command prompt: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify, it returns a 0, which means TRIM is enabled. 

7

exactly. because Win 8 already does TRIM no need for the dashboard to set a schedule. 

9

there are a few different ways trim can be implemented as per the ATA spec and that tool only checks one particular implementation. IIRC not all sandisk ssd are supported by that tool so that tool may tell you TRIM is not working when it in fact is. 

10

@georgealon wrote:

TRIM is disabled on Win > 8 for the exact reason you mentioned in your post.

 

Yes, it is now explicit in version 1.1.0 (via a clickable question mark) that TRIM is disabled because the OS has built-in TRIM support. 

However, I miss that feature. :cry:

I am using my SanDisk SSD as an external drive, on multiple computers (many of them running XP) which results is frequent TRIM-less file deletions. The obvious solution is to reTRIM the whole filesystem from time to time, on my home computer.

But the built-in TRIM in Windows 8.1 is of no help here. Being external, my SanDisk is not detected as an SSD and gets the “hard drive” media type in the Optimize panel (dfrgui). That means no trim for me.

SanDisk DashBoard should be the best tool for the job since it operates at a lower level, but because of the grayed out TRIM, no luck. :confounded: Since the purpose of DashBoard is to give users more control on their SSD, and since TRIM cannot harm the drive, I have a hard time understanding the rationale for the disabled feature.

11

Are you connected externally via USB? if so IIRC TRIM commands are not passed over USB so even if you run it the command would not make it to the SSD. 

12

Yes, USB is often an issue, but when all the stars align (the right driver, host controller and SATA bridge controller) TRIM commands can actually make it through.

Anyway, not even being able to perform a manual reTRIM for testing purposes is frustrating…

13

Finally, I installed DashBoard on a Windows 7 box (my home PC runs Windows 8.1) to see how well the TRIM feature does on my external (USB attached) Ultra Plus SSD.

I used the TRIMcheck utility (*) on my drive. Even after an hour wait, TRIMcheck could not detect any reaction to the trim command (supposedly) sent by Windows. But as soon as I performed a manual TRIM in DashBoard (which retrims the whole filesystem) TRIMcheck detected it as successful!

To sum up, TRIM commands (supposedly) sent by Windows are not received by my external SSD. However, TRIM commands sent by DashBoard are perfectly efficient.

Maybe this is because DashBoard operates at a lower level than Windows, but whatever the reason, DashBoard’s TRIM feature is very valuable when using a SanDisk SSD as an external drive. It is true with Windows 7, and I have no reason to think that it would not be the same with Windows 8.1.

DashBoard’s TRIM feature cannot do any harm, and it can help some users, so why not leaving it?

(*) Roughly speaking, TRIMcheck works by writing a file containing a data pattern, then deleting the file (to have Windows send a trim command) and then checking (at any time the user wants) that the data pattern has been erased (which means the drive controller got the hint). An SSD controller does not necessarily reacts quickly to TRIM commands, but in the case of my Ultra Plus, I have some confidence it does. A while ago, I did some tests with my SSD internally attached (via SATA) and it went as expected : TRIMcheck detected the data pattern removal a few seconds after the file deletion.

14

Version 1.2.0 of DashBoard enables manual TRIM on Windows 8 and above. :smiley: Many thanks to the developers!