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Level 1

1 points

Should I send my Samsung Evo 840 SSD back?

It has been brought to my attention on here that the Samsung Evo 840 SSDs have a design flaw. Apparently the read times start to slow down! I have two of them, both 1TB. One I have had for almost a year and the other one I received just the other day.

I can't run a speed test on the first one (oldest) as it is my boot drive and Black Magic Disk Speed Test can't access it due to it being read only apparently. The other 1TB SSD I am using as a drive to store, access and edit photos. I did run a test on that drive and all appeared to be fine, but I have now just read that testing the drive can hurt it!!

So two questions;

1. Is it right that I shouldn't run a speed test on an SSD?

2. How can I test the boot drive to make sure the read performance is as it should be?

The computer starts up pretty fast - 35 seconds to the login screen.

Thanks.

Posted on May 30, 2015 2:16 PM

23 replies

theposco Author

Level 1

1 points

May 31, 2015 6:09 AM in response to The hatter

The hatter wrote:

For your main system drive? or for your "emergency maintenance" bare minimum system?

Up to you. There are lots of discussion. Messy? No. I've been using TE for years, just not Yosemite.

I have actually now put Yosemite on a 32GB USB, I watched a video on how to do it. No personal files, just the OS (via Apple App store download).

I obviously don't want to install Yosemite, only use the disk utility whilst the SSD boot drive is offline. So do I choose my startup disk as the USB and then there will be an option to use Disk Utility? If that is so, do I then need to "Repair" the boot SSD in Disk Utility? So that is safe to do, it just tidies things up like you would defragment a drive on a PC using the defrag tool?

Or should I use a clone of the SSD drive to access Disk Utility?

May 31, 2015 9:02 AM in response to theposco

The required information is provided in plain language on the site of the developer of TRIM Enabler, here:

https://www.cindori.org/trim-enabler-and-yosemite/

The movie version:

Kernel extension signing, a feature Apple implemented in the last version of mavericks (10.9.5) and every version of Yosemite 10.10.x, fights the installation of TRIM Enabler. The new and more convoluted way you have to install TRIM Enabler (if you choose to Install it) can sometimes mess up your Mac's ability to start up.

Read the article directly from the developer, and toss that 15-minute blinding, rambling YouTube Video in the Trash.

--------

What has been recommended by Readers on this forum is that TRIM-ing unused blocks in Real Time is not a requirement, as long as you have a way to TRIM deleted data from time-to-time.

Booting from an alternate, older System (10.6.8 to 10.9.4) with TRIM Enabler installed, and seeing it "TRIMing unused blocks" in Disk Utility (Repair Disk) when TRIM Enabler is correctly installed works almost as well.

TRIM is less of an issue on a Boot-Drive only (with only a trivial amount of User data) because System files are re-written more slowly, and the drive fills with deleted data more slowly.

May 31, 2015 8:55 AM in response to theposco

I have LaCie 1 TB SSD thunderbolt 2 RAID for my video media. The most common reason for slower performance is degrading efficiency is the directory . I use Disk Warrior to rebuild my directory once a month, and after that the disk runs with full efficiency. I recommend you buy Disk Warrior to keep you disks in peak performance. I have discussed this issue with DW developers and they say this is common issue.

theposco Author

Level 1

1 points

May 31, 2015 12:29 PM in response to innocentius

OK, I have updated the firmware of the two 1TB Evo 840 SSD drives in my Mac Pro (Yosemite 10.10.2). That was a bit of a pain in itself as of course you can't use Samsung's Magician utility software to do this on a Mac (at least not at time of writing). The only option I had was to create a Boot compact disc with the firmware ISO download on this page: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/us/html/suppor t/downloads.html

It took a while to get it to boot from the disc though, I had to change the extension "iso" to a "dng" and then when it did boot into DOS it got stuck at the "scanning" stage. I had to abort and power off. I then read that you can use the Magician Software in Bootcamp without a problem so I did that and it was a piece of cake!

Trim Enabler is now up and running and thankfully I didn't have any problems (I hate doing things like this that I don't fully understand).

TRIM will be more necesarry I think as I eventually intend to use both 1TD Evo 840 SSDs for storing and editing photos, so they will fill up. I will probably get a blade SSD for the OS.

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 31, 2015 3:17 PM in response to The hatter

PS: throwing a bit to say "yes" or not is not a huge change.

Running a computer isn't a highwire act, but still requires a safety net!

So never run a system without "adequate" backup. Make that backupS.

Not relying on one method. Be able to pop in a drive and go. able to restore.

TimeMachine as much as it has improved since 2007 isn't trouble or error-free.

And drives fail or power goes out (Got UPS?)

Thinking different doesn't work when dealing with interfering with an SATA 3.1 specification for how SSDs work, doesn't need FUD and mis-information confusion over "well, it has backround GC."

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 31, 2015 3:35 PM in response to theposco

Congrats! huge step forward. a new level of confidence and trust in your equipment and knowing how it works.

The reason I first installed Windows was to use WD Lifeguard and dealing with Seagate Cheetah firmware back when.

Some owners of Crucial SSD's oncde were hit with "unsupported" on Macs (not sure now even why or how but SSDs have their own controllers built in that of course need and run thru firmware, as every controller does).

I am so tempted by the 850 EVO now $178 and knowing it is an improved model with some tweaks, I have too many already.

Anythng you put on that blade will make a difference and know it helps audio tracks libraries and plugins, or Aperture and Lightroom, or for VM images. Putting a graphic catalogue index - any database index - on SSD makes a difference. All in the name of reducing seeks and latency, more IO's'. and nearly 3x faster than a standard EVO 850 on a more costly SATA III controller

theposco Author

Level 1

1 points

May 31, 2015 3:34 PM in response to The hatter

The hatter wrote:

PS: throwing a bit to say "yes" or not is not a huge change.

Thinking different doesn't work when dealing with interfering with an SATA 3.1 specification for how SSDs work, doesn't need FUD and mis-information confusion over "well, it has backround GC."

Sorry, not sure I follow all of that, although I do understand backups are vital.

theposco Author

Level 1

1 points

May 31, 2015 3:54 PM in response to theposco

One thing I forgot to mention was that I noticed the SSDs were readable in Bootcamp, I don't think Mac formatted HDDs normally are though are they? I wondered why this would be. Just curious rather than needing to know.

Should I send my Samsung Evo 840 SSD back?