Are you already a happy owner of an SSD or are you considering buying one? Then I am sure that you are concerned about the question of the term of his work. I will start a series of articles about SSD with a story about write cycles.

Everyone knows that SSD flash memory has a limited number of write cycles. Often, the conclusion follows that it is necessary to reduce the amount of data written to disk by all means.

And if you also know that in fact an order of magnitude more data is written to the SSD than to the HDD, then it’s generally scary to get the disk out of the box :)

In practice, the finite number of rewrite cycles does not matter to the vast majority of users. The resource of modern SSDs and the logic of their controllers can withstand huge amounts of recorded data.

Today on the program

How an SSD works

Let's quickly go over some of the principles behind how SSDs work.

garbage collection

SSD flash memory is made up of blocks, which in turn are made up of pages. The data is written to separate block pages, and it is not possible to update the data by simply overwriting the old ones. Moreover, you can only erase the entire block!

Therefore, at first the necessary data is moved from the pages of one block to another, and only then the entire block with the remaining unnecessary data is erased, thereby freeing up for new entry. This process is called garbage collection.

TRIM

TRIM is an operating system feature that marks unnecessary data in a special way. Therefore, the controller does not need to move them by writing to other blocks. This increases the write speed, and most importantly - significantly reduces the number of rewrite cycles.

In modern Windows operating systems, this function enabled(checked by the command above), but not at all the fact that it works.

Wear leveling

The resource of a solid state drive directly depends on the number of cycles of rewriting memory blocks. If you regularly write data to the same block, it will quickly die, thereby reducing the capacity of the disk. Therefore, the task of the controller is to evenly distribute data across all SSD blocks.

Increasing the recording capacity

It is obvious that garbage collection and wear leveling lead to an increase in the actual amount of data written to the SSD (write amplification). Unlike the HDD, this volume is much larger than programs and the system dictate.

There is no fixed multiplier, since the increase in volume depends on a number of factors, including the type of data being written.

consistent recording (for example, copying files) does not entail a significant increase in volume, since it is possible to evenly fill the blocks. Random entry(for example, the operation of the OS) is associated with a much more active movement of data across blocks of a solid state drive.

One way or another, the task of the controller is to effectively allocate data on the disk, ensuring the maximum life of all memory blocks.

Drive Life Estimation

Now my main system drive is Kingston Hyper X 3K. “Hyper-X” is just a marketing name for the line, but “3K” reveals one of the main technical characteristics of the disc - its resource in terms of the amount of recorded data.

3K or 3,000 is the number of write cycles that the Intel 25nm MLC NAND flash at the heart of this drive can withstand. The Kingston Hyper-X model without the “3K” suffix is ​​also based on 25nm memory, but can withstand 5000 cycles.

Let's take a look at a hypothetical 120GB disk that writes 12GB per day (that's a lot, as you'll see below). Suppose, at your load, the controller increases the recording volume by 10 times, which is also taken with a large margin.

In this scenario, you go through one rewrite cycle per day. Dividing the number of cycles by 365, we get 8.219 years for 3000 cycles and 13.698 years for 5000 cycles (rounded values ​​in the table). After that, in theory, your data should be intact for another 12 months, but it is possible that it is read-only.

What the manufacturers say

Unfortunately, manufacturers are partly to blame for the fact that a number of users do not use the full potential of their devices. In official data, the endurance of the disk may not be indicated for all models, be on the back of the documentation, or even be absent.

But there is always a mean time between failures (MTBF). It may be 1 or 2 million hours, but who cares?

Example of a disk for ordinary consumers

This is how uninformative things were with my first SSDs Kingston V100- 64 and 128GB. In 2010, these were typical SSDs for ordinary consumers - not the fastest and relatively inexpensive.

However, the company's website then had such a phrase (now the page is gone, but Google remembers).

Recommended workloads for the SSDNow series M, V+ and V is up to 20GB writes per day for three years. For the "E" Series we recommend writes up to 900GB per day for the 32GB and 1.8TB per day for the 64GB SSD.

The resource of a 64GB disk is 20GB per day for three years, i.e. about 22 TB. Please note that in older series it is much higher.

It was a long time ago, and those discs are already out of production. In the series that came to replace them Kingston V200 And V300 with the same three-year warranty, it is already clearly stated:

• 60GB: 32TB
• 120GB: 64TB
• 240GB: 128TB

The 64GB drive lives in my netbook, and the 128GB drive worked as a system drive in my main PC for exactly a year.

Now it has become auxiliary, giving way to Hyper-X.

Enthusiast disk example

Have you read reviews, comparisons, testimonials before buying an SSD? I also! Based on personal experience and the good price / quality ratio at that time, I took the above-mentioned Kingston Hyper X 3K, which was just positioned for those who want to drive faster.
Please do not consider any mention of this or any other drives as my purchase recommendation. These are just examples.

In addition to a higher speed of work, it has a deeper resource (at the time of publication of the article, this link contained the following data):

• 90GB: 57.6TB
• 120GB: 76.8TB
• 240GB: 153.6TB

In other words, for a 120GB drive, the company guarantees an average of 60GB writes per day for three years of SSD support.

Let's compare this SSD with other SSDs that also use Intel 25nm MLC NAND synchronous memory. The Intel 330 drive (with exactly the same memory and controller as in HyperX 3K) appeared in the summer of 2012, and its service life is formulated as follows:

The SSD will have a minimum of three years of useful life under typical client workloads with up to 20 GB of host writes per day.

20GB per day is about 22TB over the three year warranty period, though it's not clear if this depends on the size of the drive. Interestingly, Kingston is more optimistic about Intel flash memory than the NAND manufacturer itself :)

The only problem is that not all SSDs can extract the necessary information. For example, Kingston has this option only in new models, while Samsung drives generally hide these numbers.

This is the details of my Hyper-X after three months of operation. ID 241 – Lifetime Writes From Hosts denotes the cumulative amount of recorded data in gigabytes. It turns out that I write to disk about 7GB per day. By the way, ID 231 shows the remaining disk resource as a percentage.

I hibernate a PC with 8GB of memory at least once a day. Not to mention that in addition to my daily work, I have a main virtual machine spinning on this disk.

If you believe the declared resource of 76.8 TB, in this scenario, this drive will last me for 30 years. Hm... do you remember that 30 years ago Windows was installed from five 5.25"" floppy disks? :) SSD Life is less optimistic, "only" 9 years old.

Where are your 10 year old CDs now?

What will happen in 10 years

For the sake of interest, I found a rare check. Here is a WD 40GB, bought along the way between unknown fish, chicken and orange juice (apple, according to updated data;)

I'm pretty sure that drive didn't fail, but I have no idea where it is now! By the way, for today for this money middle-class SSDs with a volume of 128GB are offered.

In the coming years, the number of SSD shipments will increase, and the volume of disks will grow.

Gartner estimates that as early as 2016, the average volume of client SSDs will be 319GB. In another 7 years? I don't think you'll need your old 64 or 128GB drive, even if it's still alive.

Don't fall prey to the stereotype

The reason for the failure of the SSD can be anything, regardless of the manufacturer. And, as a rule, the cause of death is not the expended resource of rewrite cycles at all.

At one time, Kingston regularly introduced discounts on the V100 series, because its reputation was tarnished by the first discs. They often turned into bricks due to firmware problems, and with its update, the problem disappeared. In the same way, the problem was solved with my brother, who previously returned two identical drives in a row to OSZ.

With this entry, I strongly encourage you to think that a limited number of write cycles is not a significant factor in the life of a modern solid state drive in a home PC.

Of course, if you regularly write terabytes of torrents to it, it will live less, but for such purposes it is logical to use hard drives with a lower cost per gigabyte of data. And for the system, programs, games and personal files, you need to use the full potential of the SSD!

Discussion and Poll

In the next blog post, I'll break down the common mistakes people make when "optimizing" their SSDs. All the main theses are ready, but I also hope that your comments will help me complete them :)

Therefore, I ask you:

1. Tell us what kind of SSD you have, how long have you owned it, and share your impressions of using it.
2. Please provide screenshots:

• performance (CrystalDiskMark)
• characteristics of the S.M.A.R.T. and expected life (CrystalDiskInfo or SSDLife)

List the steps you have taken to optimize your SSD.

Poll removed, because the polling web service has ceased to exist.

When buying a flash drive, many people ask themselves the question: "how to choose the right flash drive." Of course, choosing a flash drive is not so difficult if you know exactly for what purposes it is purchased. In this article I will try to give a complete answer to the question posed. I decided to write only about what to look for when buying.

A flash drive (USB drive) is a drive designed to store and transfer information. The flash drive works very simply without batteries. You just need to connect it to the USB port of your PC.

1. Flash drive interface

At the moment there are 2 interfaces: USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. If you decide to buy a USB flash drive, then I recommend taking a USB 3.0 USB flash drive. This interface was made recently main feature is the high data rate. We'll talk about speeds a little later.

This is one of the main parameters that you need to look at first. Now flash drives are sold from 1 GB to 256 GB. The cost of a flash drive will directly depend on the amount of memory. Here you need to immediately decide for what purpose a flash drive is bought. If you are going to store text documents, then 1 GB is enough. For downloading and transferring movies, music, photos, etc. you need to take the more, the better. To date, the most popular are flash drives with a capacity of 8GB to 16GB.

3. Body material

The body can be made of plastic, glass, wood, metal, etc. Flash drives are mostly made of plastic. There is nothing I can advise here, it all depends on the preferences of the buyer.

4. Transfer rate

Earlier I wrote that there are two standards USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. Now I will explain how they differ. The USB 2.0 standard has a read speed of up to 18 Mbps and a write speed of up to 10 Mbps. The USB 3.0 standard has a read speed of 20-70 Mbps, and a write speed of 15-70 Mbps. Here, I think, nothing needs to be explained.

Now in stores you can find flash drives of different shapes and sizes. They can be in the form of jewelry, fancy animals, etc. Here I would advise taking flash drives that have a protective cap.

6. Password protection

There are flash drives that have a password protection feature. Such protection is carried out using a program that is located in the flash drive itself. The password can be set both on the entire flash drive, and on part of the data in it. Such a flash drive will primarily be useful to people who transfer corporate information in it. According to the manufacturers, if you lose it, you don't have to worry about your data. Not so simple. If such a flash drive falls into the hands of an understanding person, then hacking it is just a matter of time.

Such flash drives look very beautiful, but I would not recommend buying them. Because they are very fragile and often break in half. But if you are a neat person, then feel free to take it.

Output

Nuances, as you noticed, a lot. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. In my opinion, the most important parameters when choosing: the standard of a flash drive, the volume and speed of writing and reading. And everything else: design, material, options - this is just a personal choice of everyone.

Good afternoon my dear friends. In today's article, I want to talk about how to choose the right mouse pad. When buying a rug, many do not attach any importance to this. But as it turned out, this moment needs to be given special attention, because. mat determine one of the indicators of comfort while working at a PC. For an avid gamer, choosing a rug is a completely different story. Consider what options for mouse pads have been invented today.

Mat options

1. Aluminum
2. Glass
3. Plastic
4. Rubberized
5. Double sided
6. Helium

And now I would like to talk about each species in more detail.

1. First, I want to consider three options at once: plastic, aluminum and glass. These mats are very popular with gamers. For example, plastic mats are easier to find commercially. On such mats, the mouse glides quickly and accurately. And most importantly, these mats are suitable for both laser and laser optical mice. Aluminum and glass mats will be a little more difficult to find. And yes, they will cost a lot. The truth is for what - they will serve for a very long time. Rugs of these types have small flaws. Many people say that they rustle and feel a little cool when used, which may cause discomfort for some users.

2. Rubberized (rag) mats have a soft glide, but the accuracy of their movements is worse. For ordinary users, such a rug will be just right. Yes, and they are much cheaper than the previous ones.

3. Double-sided mousepads are, in my opinion, a very interesting kind of mousepads. As the name implies, these rugs have two sides. As a rule, one side is high-speed, and the other is high-precision. It happens that each side is designed for a certain game.

4. Helium pads have a silicone cushion. She allegedly supports her hand and relieves tension from it. For me personally, they were the most uncomfortable. By appointment, they are designed for office workers, since they sit at the computer all day. For ordinary users and gamers, these mats are not suitable. The mouse slides very poorly on the surface of such rugs, and their accuracy is not the best.

Mat sizes

There are three types of rugs: large, medium and small. It all depends on the taste of the user. But as is commonly believed, large rugs are well suited for games. Small and medium ones are taken mainly for work.

Rugs design

In this regard, there are no restrictions. It all depends on what you want to see on your rug. The blessing now on rugs that only do not draw. The most popular are logos computer games, such as dota, warcraft, ruler, etc. But if it happened that you could not find a rug with the pattern you need, do not be upset. Now you can order a print on the rug. But such rugs have a minus: when printing is applied to the surface of the rug, its properties deteriorate. Design for quality.

On this I want to end the article. From myself I wish you to make the right choice and be happy with it.
Who does not have a mouse or wants to replace it with another, I advise you to look at the article:.

Monoblocks from Microsoft have replenished with a new monoblock model called Surface Studio. Microsoft presented its new product recently at an exhibition in New York.

On a note! I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago where I reviewed the Surface monoblock. This monoblock was presented earlier. Click on to view the article.

Design

Microsoft calls its new product the thinnest monoblock in the world. With a weight of 9.56 kg, the thickness of the display is only 12.5 mm, the other dimensions are 637.35x438.9 mm. The display dimensions are 28 inches with a resolution greater than 4K (4500x3000 pixels), aspect ratio 3:2.

On a note! The display resolution of 4500x3000 pixels corresponds to 13.5 million pixels. This is 63% more than 4K resolution.

The monoblock display itself is touch-sensitive, enclosed in an aluminum case. On such a display, it is very convenient to draw with a stylus, which ultimately opens up new possibilities for using a monoblock. In my opinion, this monoblock model will appeal to creative people (photographers, designers, etc.).

On a note! For people of creative professions, I advise you to look at an article where I considered monoblocks of similar functionality. Click on the selected one: .

To everything written above, I would add that the main feature of the monoblock will be its ability to instantly turn into a tablet with a huge work surface.

On a note! By the way, Microsoft has another amazing candy bar. To find out about it, go to.

Specifications

I will present the characteristics in the form of a photograph.

From the periphery, I note the following: 4 USB ports, a Mini-Display Port connector, an Ethernet network port, a card-reader, a 3.5 mm audio jack, a 1080p webcam, 2 microphones, a 2.1 Dolby Audio Premium audio system, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. It also supports Xbox wireless controllers.

Price

When buying a monoblock, it will be installed with Windows 10 Creators Update. This system due out in the spring of 2017. This operating system will have updated Paint, Office, etc. The price of a monoblock will be from $ 3,000.
Dear friends, write in the comments what you think about this monoblock, ask your questions. I'll be glad to chat!

OCZ has demonstrated new VX 500 SSDs. These drives will be equipped with Serial ATA 3.0 interface and are made in 2.5-inch form factor.

On a note! For those who are interested in how SSD drives work and how long they live, you can read in an article I wrote earlier:.

The novelties are made using 15-nanometer technology and will be equipped with Tochiba MLC NAND flash memory microchips. The controller in SSD drives will be used by Tochiba TC 35 8790.
The lineup VX 500 drives will consist of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB. According to the manufacturer, the sequential read speed will be 550 Mb/s (this is for all drives in this series), but the write speed will be from 485 Mb/s to 512 Mb/s.

The number of input / output operations per second (IOPS) with data blocks of 4 KB in size can reach 92,000 when reading, and 65,000 when writing (this is all arbitrary).
The thickness of OCZ VX 500 drives will be 7 mm. This will allow them to be used in ultrabooks.

Prices of new products will be as follows: 128 GB - $ 64, 256 GB - $ 93, 512 GB - $ 153, 1 TB - $ 337. I think in Russia they will cost more.

Lenovo has unveiled its new IdeaCentre Y910 gaming all-in-one at Gamescom 2016.

On a note! Earlier, I wrote an article where I already considered gaming monoblocks from different manufacturers. This article can be viewed by clicking on this one.

The novelty from Lenovo received a 27-inch frameless display. The display resolution is 2560x1440 pixels (this is QHD format), the refresh rate is 144 Hz, and the response time is 5 ms.

The monoblock will have several configurations. The maximum configuration includes a 6th generation Intel Core i7 processor, hard drive up to 2 TB or 256 GB. Volume random access memory equals 32 GB DDR4. The video card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 or GeForce GTX 1080 with Pascal architecture will be responsible for the graphics. Thanks to such a video card, it will be possible to connect a virtual reality helmet to the monoblock.
From the periphery of the monoblock, I would single out the Harmon Kardon audio system with 5-watt speakers, the Killer DoubleShot Pro Wi-Fi module, a webcam, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, and HDMI connectors.

In the basic version, the IdeaCentre Y910 monoblock will be available in September 2016 at a price of 1800 euros. But the monoblock with the version of "VR-ready" will appear in October at a price of 2200 euros. It is known that this version will have a GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card.

MediaTek has decided to upgrade its Helio X30 mobile processor. So now the developers from MediaTek are designing a new mobile processor called Helio X35.

I would like to briefly talk about Helio X30. This processor has 10 cores, which are combined into 3 clusters. Helio X30 has 3 variations. The first - the most powerful - consists of Cortex-A73 cores with a frequency of up to 2.8 GHz. There are also blocks with Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of up to 2.2 GHz and Cortex-A35 with a frequency of 2.0 GHz.

New processor Helio X35 also has 10 cores and is created using 10nm technology. The clock frequency in this processor will be much higher than that of its predecessor and ranges from 3.0 Hz. The novelty will allow you to use up to 8 GB LPDDR4 RAM. Most likely will be responsible for the graphics in the processor power controller VR7XT.
The station itself can be seen in the photographs in the article. In them we can observe the drive bays. One bay with a 3.5" jack and the other with a 2.5" jack. Thus, it will be possible to connect both a solid state disk (SSD) and HDD(HDD).

The dimensions of the Drive Dock station are 160x150x85mm, and the weight is no less than 970 grams.
Many people probably have a question about how the Drive Dock connects to a computer. The answer is: this happens through a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port. According to the manufacturer, the sequential read speed will be 434 Mb / s, and in write mode (serial) 406 Mb / s. The novelty will be compatible with Windows and Mac OS.

This device will be very useful for people who work with photo and video materials at a professional level. The Drive Dock can also be used to backups files.
The price for a new device will be acceptable - it is $ 90.

On a note! Previously, Renduchinthala worked at Qualcomm. And since November 2015, he moved to a competing company Intel.

In his interview, Renduchinthala did not talk about mobile processors, but only said the following, and I quote: "I prefer to talk less and do more."
Thus, the top manager of Intel made an excellent intrigue with his interview. We just have to wait for more announcements in the future.

Hey Geektimes! The myths of ancient Greece rest in comparison to the misguided buyers of today's SSDs. What was relevant even during the appearance of SSD on the market and the development of this technology, many continue to transfer to modern products. Let's deal with these numerous discussions together and try to put an end to issues related to SSDs.

Where did these myths come from? Some believe that this is due to the peculiarity of the thinking of consumers who suffer from a lack of up-to-date information on this issue. Others believe that there is a certain element of conservatism in this - they say that the computer on the HDD works, well, that's good. Such users, for unknown reasons, are the last thing they think about replacing the drive when upgrading their computer. In general, be that as it may, a lot of myths about SSDs have accumulated over the years. Therefore, they must be dispelled, which we will try to do.

SSDs are unreliable and have a short lifespan

If earlier this was true, then today the situation has changed dramatically. A disc with MLC technology will easily serve you for 4-5 years (or maybe more), even with active use. What can we say about TLC drives, which boast even more impressive performance. And once every 5-7 years it is useful to change a working machine, because over time you will not be full with an upgrade of just one SSD.

Of course, there is a chance of getting a defective disk (which is very small), and no one is immune from the fact that something can happen to the drive. OCZ has a unique ShieldPlus end-user warranty program for this case, under which you can easily get a brand new SSD to replace a defective one. Recently, the program has been launched in Russia and Ukraine, so you can use it if necessary. But you probably won't need it.

As for the advantages of SSD over HDD, everything is obvious here. No one guarantees you that the same regular hard the drive will not start to "crumble" after a year, and during this time you will not get the speed and performance that you could get with a solid state drive.

What is the conclusion? Do not be afraid that the SSD will not last long. It is more likely that some other component will fail on the computer than the drive will “hoard”.

SSDs are very expensive

To be convinced of the opposite, just look at the sites of OCZ online resellers in Russia - SSDs can be easily purchased even for four thousand rubles. The era when 128 GB drives cost $500 and more is over: now for this money you can get a good, roomy and reliable drive.

Of course, the pricing policy for an SSD depends not only on the capacity, but also on the type of a particular disk, but here everyone already judges according to their needs. Only for office programs? No need to take a drive larger than 240 GB. Video processing, work with 3D and resource-intensive applications? Here you can not do without speeds above 1500 MB / s and PCIe Gen. 2 x8 - for example, as in RevoDrive 350.

Therefore, now everyone can afford a solid-state drive for every taste and budget. You don’t have to save up for several weeks or take loans, it already sounds ridiculous.

The system definitely needs optimization after installing an SSD

No one is forcing you to optimize Windows or OS X after installing an SSD. And is it necessary? All tips for optimizing the system are advisory rather than mandatory, and are aimed at advanced users who can feel the difference.

Now most of the tricks like disabling the swap file are no longer relevant, and the rest of the tips deprive the system of some useful functions. Therefore, in pursuit of disk performance and durability, users sacrifice the convenience and speed of the system, which is not at all logical.

Modern SSDs from OCZ work perfectly with operating systems without optimization and demonstrate the declared speed indicators and impressive operating times. So if you want to indulge in disabling hibernation and transferring user folders to the HDD - please, but at your own peril and risk.

After installing the SSD, be sure to reinstall the system

This myth is partly true, partly not. To get the best performance out of your SSD, it really doesn't hurt to reinstall Windows or OS X. But at the same time, you can completely migrate a deployed operating system from HDD to SSD and save yourself from unnecessary gestures.

Can you feel the difference? This largely depends on the workload of the disk and the system itself and other factors. Most often, users simply transfer data to a new drive and do not complain.

SSD needs constant monitoring

In general, it is periodically necessary to monitor the status of any devices, and a solid-state drive in this case is no exception. But the whole monitoring procedure is not much different from that for a regular hard drive - you installed one of the utilities and periodically open it to check the necessary parameters. OCZ has the SSD Guru program, with which you can also update software disk, and activate TRIM, and generally keep the drive under control.

As for some supernatural means of control, there is no need for them as such. Shaking convulsively over the SSD and blowing dust particles off it is also not worth it.

Buying a used SSD is easier than buying a new one.

It is not entirely clear where this myth came from, but here the logic is the same as, for example, with a new and used car. That's just in the case of SSDs, you can slip outdated models with worn out cells that will not last properly even one month. In addition, buying a used SSD may affect its speed characteristics (for the same reason), and you hardly need it.

What is also important is the lack of a manufacturer's warranty for supported drives. In fact, by purchasing such a disc, you are buying a "pig in a poke" and risk becoming a victim of your own savings.

SSD does not affect the speed of the computer

Take a MacBook Pro Retina (even if it's a 2012 model) and a modern MacBook Pro (2014) with an HDD. It is enough to check the boot time of the operating systems on both computers to see the difference - everything is much faster with an SSD. The welcome screen appears faster, programs load faster. In general, if the SSD did not affect the speed of the computer in any way, this type of drive would hardly have so many fans around the world.

Of course, myths about solid state drives many more, and their final disappearance, unfortunately, will take years. But it is in our power to make sure that the number of “enlightened” people grows, and not to allow other users to be misled.

When choosing a drive for their computer, more and more people prefer not ordinary HDD devices, but. The reasons for this decision are their main advantages, namely, high speed and reliability. However, it is important to consider another important parameter - the service life. Let's take a closer look and find out how long an SSD drive lasts and how to extend its use.

Calculate service life

To know exactly how much lives SSD disk, you need to correctly calculate this period. We will do this using the example of an SSD with MLC memory, since it is most often used in these media. According to the technical documentation, the average number of overwrite cycles is 3,000.

If we take a device with a capacity of 120 GB and 15 GB as the average daily amount of recorded data, then using the appropriate formula, we get 3000x120/15 = 24000 days or 65 years.

This number is theoretical, especially since in practice the volume of recorded information increases 10 times, and a preliminary estimate is 6.5 years. But this does not mean that after this time the SSD will become unusable and will not work. It depends on the intensity of its use, which is why manufacturers write the amount of recorded information in the service life column.

Also, for calculations, you can use special programs, one of which we will discuss below.

SSD Life Utility

A special program that allows users to check the status of the SSD and find out the remaining life of the SSD. The utility conducts a thorough analysis of the use of the media, and using a special algorithm calculates the approximate life of the SSD device. Depending on the intensity of use, the expected life varies.

In addition, using the program, you can find out any data related to the drive. Starting from general information about the model and manufacturer and ending with technical information, for example, about support for the TRIM function. All this will be displayed in the main window of the utility, which, by the way, supports most existing models of solid state drives.

AHCI mode

Before you start extending the life, you need to make sure that the SSD is running in AHCI mode, otherwise some of the useful features that affect the life and performance may not be available.

To check the current mode, and go to the "IDE / ATA controllers" section. Should be marked "AHCI".

Disable defragmentation

Defragmentation is designed to increase the speed of data access by reducing the number of movements of the mechanical head located inside the HDD. But, as you know, SSD drives do not have moving parts and they simply do not need this function. Moreover, it is to some extent harmful for these types of drives, since data is actually overwritten, which increases the number of cycles worked.

In order to increase the operating time of the device, you need to disable defragmentation.

You can do this in the following way:

Thus, you can quickly turn off defragmentation and thereby extend the life of the SSD drive installed on your PC.

Enabling TRIM

TRIM technology notifies SSD controller disk that when you delete any files, the used area of ​​​​the drive becomes free and can be cleared. Simply put, when you delete data from a conventional hard drive, they are not completely erased, but only marked with a marker and, if necessary, they can be restored until other information is written in their place. If we are talking about SSD, then thanks to TRIM technology, information is deleted immediately.

This technology is enabled by default in Windows 7/8/10. To check its status on the computer you need:

After that, you need to turn your attention to the existing text. If you see "DisableDeleteNotify = 0", then this means that the technology is enabled, if there is 1 instead of zero, then it is disabled.

Any operations with TRIM are performed by using the appropriate commands:

1. To enable, enter "fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0".
2. To disable "fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 1".

By enabling this technology, the life of the SSD installed in your device can be significantly extended.

Disabling indexing

Indexing is needed in the system for the fastest possible search for files on a PC. But how often do you use the search for something on your computer? Moreover, the increase in performance is no more than 10%, while reading operations are performed constantly, which you certainly do not need.

Consider the fact that you already have an SSD and these 10 percent will not affect the work in any way, and you will not even notice obvious changes.

Therefore, this function can be safely disabled:

After that, indexing will be disabled, and you will slightly increase the lifetime of the SSD drive.

Enable caching

A solid state drive will not only last longer, but also significantly faster if you enable caching.

To do this, follow our instructions:

Thus, due to the caching of records, the performance of the system will be improved.

Disk Clutter

Try not to litter the drive junk files, all sorts of garbage, a lot of music, movies, and then you don’t have to find out how long solid-state drives live and even more so keep track of it. Yes, it sounds incredibly simple, but this is often the cause of premature failure and slow media performance. Better if possible, move all these files to a mechanical HDD.

No need to fill the SSD more than 75%, because many drive manufacturers, including Samsung and Intel, say that this affects the performance of the system as a whole. It would be good to clean the operating room every few months Windows system via special programs like CCleaner. Such utilities will help you quickly get rid of garbage and trash that fills the memory of your hard drive.

swap file

As for the first option, it is very controversial. Personally, I do not recommend disabling it, even though computers equipped with 8 gigabytes or more of RAM can work fine without a swap file. But some programs may still simply not start, or errors will appear during their operation.

When using the second option, rewrite cycles are saved, but performance is lost, since the brake HDD is activated. Therefore, how to proceed is up to you.

Disabling hibernation

You can extend the life of your SSD drive by disabling hibernation. In short, hibernation is another function of the system, in which the amount of occupied RAM is reset to the SSD media in the form of the hiberfil.sys file.

After the system is resumed, the data is again rewritten to RAM to restore the previous state of the PC as accurately as possible. This, in turn, makes it possible to start the system much faster and increase the speed of work.

This process is harmless for conventional drives, but it can greatly affect the life of your SSD drive. This is due to the fact that hibernation overwrites a huge amount of information equal to the occupied amount of RAM.

Let's say your computer has 6GB of RAM. In this case, it is possible that the entire available volume will be overwritten and then deleted from the disk. That is, to increase the life of a solid state drive, you should not use hibernation.

However, I will not directly recommend disabling hibernation either. Because it's actually very useful feature, which saves and restores all the files you've been working on if Windows doesn't shut down properly.

Disabling system protection

Some sources say that in order to extend the life of the SSD, you need to disable system protection, but this is not recommended in any case. This is an extremely useful thing that, if necessary, will help you restore Windows in just a couple of minutes. For example, restore points are created before installing utilities or performing updates.

But if you decide to neglect your security and disable protection, then you can do this as follows:

This is the fastest and easiest way to extend the life of an SSD drive.

Drivers and firmware

All drive firmware and BIOS must be kept up to date, because with each update they allow your device to work more efficiently and efficiently. In addition, it is advisable to pay special attention to the drivers and update them in a timely manner, which will also make your SSD work faster.

Dumansky Maxim Vladimirovich 24557

When it comes to Solid State Drives (SSDs), you often hear about their unreliability and fragility from people who were interested in purchasing them, but came across information about the limited number of flash memory write cycles of the drive, which scared them.

Let's try to understand and information to the end and confirm or refute this opinion. First, let's look at the design of an SSD drive. It is a non-mechanical storage device, the word "non-mechanical" indicates that there are no moving parts in its design, there is no motor, no spindle, no plates, no heads. All its filling is Flash-memory blocks and a controller that controls the recording.

Prices in online stores:

Flash memory with the development of drives has changed to faster and cheaper. Initially, at the dawn of its appearance, SSDs had a small volume and were inferior to traditional HDDs in terms of write speed, but they more than compensated for this with a quick search for information, because. access to it is not slowed down by the physical movement of the magnetic heads. But in modern solid-state drives, the situation has changed and this speed is much higher. HDD capabilities. This is due to many factors, with the development of recording controllers and, in particular, with the evolution of flash memory itself.

Initially, SLC (single-layer cell) memory was used, it is expensive, but rather slow and has a resource of about 100,000 rewriting cycles. Then it was replaced by MLC (multi-layer cell, multi-level cell) memory, cheaper, faster, with a limit on the number of cell rewrite cycles of about 10,000, now it is the most common type of memory used in SSD drives. Less common is the latest type of flash memory - TLC (triple-layer cell, three-level cell), developed by Toshiba and used in top models of SSD drives, in particular in the M5 PRO series of Plextor drives, which, in addition to "fashionable" memory, also differ in Marvell recording controller with its own, modified, firmware. TLC differs from the previous two types in that it stores not 2, but 3 bits of memory at once in one cell, which increases the recording density and speed of access to information.

Prices in online stores:

But let's get back to the issue of memory lifetime. For TLC, the manufacturer (Toshiba) does not indicate the number of rewriting cycles, but for me personally, and I have the M5 Pro with this type of memory in my laptop, a five-year warranty from Plextor is quite enough (see the “round” on the packaging photo above). The fact is that in five years I have changed my computer and three laptops, so does it really matter to me what hard drive was in my computer or the first laptop five years ago? Moreover, even after the rewrite cycles have expired, in the foreseeable future, all information on the SSD will be available for at least another year in read mode.

Prices in online stores:

		compyou.com	9 970 R
		5 465 R

And yet, let's calculate at least an approximate SSD resource using the predominant type of MLC memory as an example. Let's take 10,000 cycles, multiply them by the capacity of a drive, for example, a budget one (up to 4,000 rubles) of 120 GB. We get 1200 TB. Now imagine that we write 10 GB of information per day to it, which, taking into account the peculiarities of the SSD, grows even up to 50 GB per day. Divide 1200000 GB by 50 GB and get 24000 days. So many do not live! ;) Well, even if the memory has only 1000 rewriting cycles, we multiply 120 GB by 1000 cycles and get 120,000 GB of usable space. We divide 120000 GB by 50 GB daily, we get 2400 days, respectively, which is about 6.5 years. Not the biggest drive, minimal rewrite cycles, overestimated daily traffic - and still 6.5 years! Why be afraid?

Take a look at the Estimated Estimated Remaining Service Time of the SSD

But the pleasure of working with an SSD, especially for the first time after installation, in contrast to the HDD, is simply hard to convey! When, after pressing the power button, windows loading 7, 4 lights appear, which never appear in the Microsoft flag, and then “op” - and a desktop with WiFi connected, mail pumped, loaded with antivirus, organizer and dropbox. And now the control shot of information directly to the brain - low power consumption, heat generation, resistance to shock, vibration and the complete absence of noise - additional advantages of SSD in addition to the main one - its speed.

"Are you still boiling"?!! ;)

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