OS raid0 ssd problem

[wibujo]

I have 2x Samsung 840 PRO 128gb SSD's (new)- I use for Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit OS. I had several games installed that I uninstalled. End result: I wasn't satisfied with the amount of unused disk space I gained from doing the game uninstalls. I went into BIOS and deleted OS raid0 which should have formated ssd's. Shut down PC. I cleared CMOS - started PC - went back into BIOS loaded optimized defaults - rebooted - went back into BIOS and loaded my OC settings - rebooted went back into HDD setup and set the ssd's to raid0 - rebooted and loaded OS. I have now have 189gb of unused disk space. I usually have 206gb after installing OS. This is without any other updates. How do I test ssd's to see if they have a problem? Or do I have the problem? Any help with this problem would be much appreciated. Thanks, wibujo

[profJim]

Re: OS raid0 ssd problem

You didn't say if you've manually set the over provisioning size for each of your ssd's.

I've never used a raid setup and I'm not sure how Samsung's Magician software will set up the OP space with an existing raid 0 array.
I currently have a 100GB boot partition with my single 128GB Samsung 830 ssd with the remaining unused space for the OP area.

[parsec]

Re: OS raid0 ssd problem

My question is, is there any difference in the used space after the latest OS installation?

First, what is the total capacity of the RAID 0 volume? As in right click on the volume in Windows Explorer, and select Properties. Two 128GB SSDs in RAID 0 should have a total capacity of 238GB, as Windows determines capacity. Or start Disk Management and check the RAID 0 volume, it should show the same capacity on the left, 238GB.

Disk Management will also show each partition size, and if any space is unallocated.

[wibujo]

Re: OS raid0 ssd problem

profJim, I'm not familiar with the over provisioning your talking about. Please forgive me for being a noob. I've always have used raid0 for my OS's. I've done at least 4 clean installs with my M4's and I always had 206gb of unused disk space left after install. Thats with no updates. Before install it did say I had 238 gb of unused disk space at the begining of windows7 install. Right now windows explorer says I have - used space 49gb - unused space 189gb. I bought one 840 pro @ newwegg and bought one @ bestbuy. One is made in China and one is made in Korea. I don't know if that makes any difference. I'm losing 17gb of unused disk space and wonder if one of the ssd's might be bad.

[profJim]

Re: OS raid0 ssd problem

Your Samsung numbers add up correctly with 189 + 49 = 238GB.
With your M4 raid0 setup, is it possible that after the initial win7 installation, you let windows disk cleanup delete some or all of the no longer needed installation files?

I think that Samsung's Magician software has a default over provisioning setting that will use about 10% of your total ssd capacity. You will have longer ssd life and better performance when you have a reasonable OP area. Most other ssd brands have a built in OP area that can't be modified.

There are several programs that report details about ssd and hdd health issues.
I like CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World

[parsec]

Re: OS raid0 ssd problem

OP is always a good thing for SSDs. When using a RAID array of Samsung SSDs, the Magician software OP feature may not work, but OP can always be done with Disk Management. But this is unrelated to the OP's issue, AFAIK.

As Prof Jim said, the size of your RAID 0 volume of your two SSDs is correct (238GB), so the SSDs are not at fault.

Free space on a disk volume is determined by overall capacity, minus used space. Your capacity is correct, 238GB, so time to look at used space.

What are you using to check free space, etc?

The usual causes of excessive used space are: Page file size allocation. Hibernation being enabled with large amounts of RAM (which you have, 24GB.) System Restore set to a high allocation amount.

Check your Windows installation, the folder sizes and what folders exist, any ".old" folders around?

Run Windows Disk Cleanup to remove unneeded files. Are you rebooting the PC, which can be necessary for Windows to see things correctly?

[wibujo]

Re: OS raid0 ssd problem

Thanks alot guys. My main concern was the missing disk space - the default over provisioning might be the culprit. I did get the disk info with windows explorer (picture of disk with pie cuts in it.) I have all window updates and motherboard drivers installed. Everything is working perfect. Thanks for the help. wibujo

[profJim]

Re: OS raid0 ssd problem

You're welcome, glad to help out.
The attached screen-shot is a summary that shows my ssd details.

[parsec]

Re: OS raid0 ssd problem

Thanks alot guys. My main concern was the missing disk space - the default over provisioning might be the culprit. I did get the disk info with windows explorer (picture of disk with pie cuts in it.) I have all window updates and motherboard drivers installed. Everything is working perfect. Thanks for the help. wibujo

The "default" over provisioning that Prof Jim mentioned is just the default size of the space that could be for OP. It is not applied to a SSD or RAID volume unless you manually choose to create OP space in the Magician software. You have not mentioned using the Magician software at all, or if it is even installed.

Unless you specifically created the OP space with the Magician software, or with Disk Management, there is no OP space on the RAID volume.

Since the Windows pie chart is showing 238GB as the total space for the RAID volume, you do not have any OP space set aside on your RAID volume.

Prof. Jim's example of his Samsung SSD is a perfect example of this. Note that his SSD's total capacity is 100GB in the Windows Properties display. The unallocated space is not included in the total capacity of the SSD. The real total capacity is 119.24GB, as seen in Disk Management.