Restoring Intel X25-M G2 160GB SSD performance

MythicFrost said:

Hi,

I have an Intel X25-M G2 160GB SSD and would like to restore its performance to brand new. How can I do this?

I figure formatting it won't do anything since it won't free the blocks/pages in the SSD.

EDIT: I think I've put this in the wrong section but o well.

Click to expand...

I thought 2nd generation was free of this problem. If not I guess you could do a reformat and zero all data. I'd be interested in other perspectives.

***see posts below***

I thought you were never supposed to write zeros to an SSD, or was that only restricted to the G1's?

Did some research for you

Read this article instead:

http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-SSD-Reconditioning.html

SmilesLots said:

If not I guess you could do a reformat and zero all data. I'd be interested in other perspectives.

Click to expand...

Read this thread

This article is interesting also (as noted by kirreip). Virtual Rain doesn't think it would work, however.

MythicFrost said:

Hi,

I have an Intel X25-M G2 160GB SSD and would like to restore its performance to brand new. How can I do this?

I figure formatting it won't do anything since it won't free the blocks/pages in the SSD.

Click to expand...

The 2nd Generation X25-M is so new I am surprised you have to restore it's performance.
.
.

dissolve said:

I thought you were never supposed to write zeros to an SSD, or was that only restricted to the G1's?

Click to expand...

Exactly.

The way to restore an SSD to "as new" condition is to mark all blocks as empty. Not fill them up with useless data.

SSD's acknowledge the "Secure Erase" ATA command to mark all blocks as free.

This should not be confused with securely erasing a hard drive which is intended to overwrite the individual data bits on the platter with 0's or 1's. Writing to all cells on an SSD shortens its life and actually marks all blocks as used. The complete opposite of what you want to achieve.

Topper said:

Read this thread

Click to expand...

+1

VirtualRain said:

Exactly.

The way to restore an SSD to "as new" condition is to mark all blocks as empty. Not fill them up with useless data.

SSD's acknowledge the "Secure Erase" ATA command to mark all blocks as free.

This should not be confused with securely erasing a hard drive which is intended to overwrite the individual data bits on the platter with 0's or 1's. Writing to all cells on an SSD shortens its life and actually marks all blocks as used. The complete opposite of what you want to achieve.



+1

Click to expand...

That link is a terrific guide, thanks for writing it VirtualRain. I've been looking for something like that.

The Intel G2 does not lose performance as much as the Indilinx drives like Samsung or OCZ Vertex (not the new SandForce ones) but they do!
I've mine for more than 9 month now and although I don't really notice a performance decrease during the normal day to day work, substantial writes and reads fell a little. Going to restore the drive in the next weeks.
That's likely to be an act of an hour max, due to CCC backups.

Goes together with standard cleaning methods like blowing out the computer with compressed air.

I have not noticed any decrease in the 3-4 months I have had mine. I have filled mine on a few occasions even. If I were you I would consider downloading and running Onyx to repair permissions, clean your caches, and also maybe zapping your pram. Also make certain you have _updated_ the firmware to the newest one. I noticed a 5-10% increase in performance after I did that.

^ I agree. Having the same drive in my MacPro it is hard to believe you need to do much to the drive. It could be a system issue.

I don't think the performance impact over time is great either... I intend to restore mine only when I want to re-install OSX anyway (such as when they release 10.7).

Use HDDErase 3.3

PC-based though.