Ok, given the information that was posted about a broken TRIM issue… How does one go about determining if the TRIM command is actually making it to the SSD?
In the month I’ve had a Sandisk Extreme 120GB I’ve slowly but steadily watched the performance drop significantly (or at least significantly so far as I’m concerned). Using AS SSD, on a SATA II system, I’ve watched the writes drop from around 150 MB/s to this morning it came up at 91 MB/s… Not even 15MB/s higher than my significantly smaller Intel SSD… 4K writes though are the BIGGEST issue having dropped from approx 60 MB/s down to less than 12 MB/s. Again, the Intel 330 60GB has stayed around 60 MB/s… but thier toolbox contains extra utilities that maintain the SSD.
SO! I’ve checked at the command prompt to confirm TRIM is in fact turned on, and so far as windows is concerned, it is… What I want to know is, How do I check if TRIM is actually being used by the drive?? If the SSD isn’t using the TRIM command, why not and how do I maintain the health/performance of the drive?
Also, I haven’t played around with the bootable USB in the Sandisk Toolbox, but I’m wondering if there is some type of Secure Erase feature in there? If not, Sandisk, when can we expect one? Or what is an approved, FREE utility compatible with SSD’s? So far as I’m concerned (an a lot of other people) a SSD with out a way of returning it to out-of-box condition is more or less useless…
Thanks, corrected the issue. In Store Product Replacement is good insurance with new technology. Returned the Sandisk Extreme and got an Intel drive instead. The extra money is justified by the quality and software IMO.
Why are you saying that? Do you know your SSD will be forever broken? The SandForce SSD controller is easily the most used controller in consumer SSDs. SanDisk also used it. Intel uses it. SanDisk used a FW that they thought was fine, and it seems that it isn’t. Can it be fixed? Of course, but the fix is not here yet. What has SanDisk done wrong?
Granted, the Sandforce controller is used by a lot of the manufacturers… That said some didn’t use the Sandforce Basecode for the firmware (as I undestand it)… They don’t have the TRIM issue. As I understand it, OCZ didn’t and Intel isn’t saying… Yet.
As I posted in the thread with the link to the article showing the issue, Sandisk (and others) either needs to work on their in house quality control if this got past them… OR they DID know about the broken firmware and released the product anyway without telling their customers. Either way, it’s bad business…
Also, without some kind of basic software package with things like secure erase (or some type of optimizing) there’s currently no way to restore performance. Where as Sandisk’s utility only really let’s you update firmware and view smart data, Intel’s has a secure erase, system info, drive info for other drives than their own (including HDDs), optomization on a schedule, and a couple diagnostic functions in addition to SMART. Even OCZ at least has secure erase!
But the thing I keep coming back to is either they didn’t catch such a glaring error as TRIM not working or thed did and released the product anyway… Honestly, until someone from sandisk can PROVE otherwise I’m choosing to believe the latter…
Sure, it can be fixed… But how long will a person have to wait? All the while having their performance drop slowly over time.
I can honestly say, I won’t be recommending Sandisk SSDs to people I know.
Yeah i completly agree, it’s not costumers fault that sandforce sells defective product so they should refund all costumers not interested to stay with it, since no one knows when they will be fixed and if new issues will come, so Sandisk and many other brands should inform costumers issues from Sandforce SSDs like:
And offcourse the annoying and riddiculllous issue on this controller of the sleep/hybernate/suspend, you cannot use it, just great.
Enought is enought, SANDFORCE CONTROLLERS ARE A COMPLETELY DISASTER, i have a Sandisk Extreme 120 (R201) and BSOD are a constant and after that it stops recognizing the SSD, i need to let it disconnected awhile (5-10m) to be recognized again, in all computers it does exactly the same issues, i would like to see from Sandisk inform clients from they’re SSD issues and possible soluctions like refund for example. Are costumers forced to mantain a faulty/bugs units??! No they’re NOT.
Sandisk Costumer Support please tell me what steps are needed to refund my SSD Extreme 120? I was boughted 2 months ago, and those believe me it was 2 painfull months, i replace it with a OCZ Vertex 4 (not Sandforce) and all problems went away.
PS: I bought 3 units all of them have the same issues.
I think Sandisk has some of the worst customer service in the industry and I have criticized it before but I think TRIM is working on my 480G Extreme SSD. I do know when I restart the free capacity of the drive goes up. Additionally, after 2 weeks of solid usage the speed has actually gone up some. I am running the 201 firmware and confirmed that W7X64 is set to send the TRIM command. I too would like a tool to be sure it is working though.
Yes, I know about the notification… I’m more interested in knowing how to tell if the SSD controller is actually UTILIZING the TRIM command. Like I said in the original post, so far as windows was concerned TRIM is turned on and that’s exactly how I figured that out ;).
Just because the OS is sending the command doesn’t mean that the SSD’s controller is actually passing it on.
