SSD optimizer best practice for 2 SSD's and not infrequent repartitioning

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Level 1

15 points

SSD optimizer best practice for 2 SSD's and not infrequent repartitioning

My question has to do with the proper use of SSD optimizers for my 2 SSD/multiple and not infrequent repartitioning of them.

I have a mid-2009 Macbook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66 GHz, and 8 GB Ram, and I replaced the internal DVD player with a 256 GB Samsung SSD 840 PRO a long time ago, and several years ago replaced the internal HDD with a 512 GB Crucial CT512MX100SSD1. I run SnowLeopard 10.6.8 on the currently unpartitioned Samsung, which I use as my working disk (I keep it "over provisioned" with Disk Alarm.app set to 25 GB). The Crucial is partitioned. One partition is for a Carbon Copy backup clone of the Samsung working drive. Another partition is for music/movies, and a third partition of 45 GB usually remains free.

I'm now planning on doing a lot of home recording with Garage Band and Melodyne, so I'm going to move the music/movies to an external HDD.

OK, I have actually been actively running BOTH Trim Enabler 2.2 AND Chameleon 0.9.4 AT THE SAME TIME for several years. They are both "on."

Trim Enabler Details:

"2 SSD's found" and "the patch is active and Trim is active. Everything looks super." Samsung :9089 hours powered on; Power cycle count: 4244 times. Crucial 4202 house powered on, Power cycle count: 1611 times. Both disks say the SMART support is "Enabled."

Chameleon Details:

"Physical Memory: 8 GB, Sleep Mode: Default, Trim: For any." And Chameleon says for both SSDs "SMART: Yes, Disk Status: OK, Power Management: Yes, Write Chache: Yes, Sudden MOtion Sensor: On, Disable Local ™: On, Disable Time Machine: On, Noatime: off, Set Sleep Mode: B, On."

1) I believe someone told me that running Trim Enabler and Chameleon at the same time was not only OK, but helpful from some reason. I don't recall, and now I'm having my doubts. If it is redundant, has it resulted in more "wear and tear" on the disks?

2) Also, if it is redundant, which should I use, and what settings and best practices should I use to maintain both disks, and current and evolving partitions on the disks?

Thank you!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Late 2009

Posted on Oct 5, 2015 9:25 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,105 points

Oct 5, 2015 1:54 PM in response to stu m

running Trim Enabler and Chameleon at the same time was not only OK

the way both of these work is by patching the Apple kernel extension. "Patching" in its most primitive form means picking up a few machine instructions and replacing them with a Jump to an extension routine, then jumping back.

The first one of these add-ons you execute will patch the Apple kernel extension. The second one may patch the patch, with unknown results, or it may see that there is already a patch in place. It may decide that patch is "my patch" or it may decide that it does not understand and do nothing, or it may produce an error.

The bottom line:

Running with TRIM Enabled is all you need to do to maintain good performance.

Pick one such TRIM extension and use it exclusively. They are very similar, possibly even the same patch code.

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Answer 2

stu m Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 5, 2015 11:16 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Ok, thank you Grant. I guess I will go with Chameleon because the version seems to have more functionality and choices than the Trim Enabler. Do you have any suggestions about any of the Chameleon choices below?

Sleep Mode: Default, Trim: For any."

"SMART: Yes,

Power Management: Yes,

Write Cache: Yes,

Sudden MOtion Sensor: On,

Disable Time Machine: On,

Noatime: off,

Set Sleep Mode: B, On."

Option B "stores copy of memory to persistent storage (the disk), and will power memory during sleep. The system will wake from memory, unless a power loss forces it to restore from disk image."

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Answer 3

Oct 5, 2015 2:34 PM in response to stu m

The defaults on those settings all seem fine to me ... Unless you have some pressing reason to choose some others.

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Answer 4

stu m Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 5, 2015 1:15 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you Grant. I just been reading that there seems to be some difficulty actually removing/uninstalling either of these applications. I don't know if the just "reappear." Hope not. Anyway, I turned off Trim Enabler and it says "The patch is not active, but Trim is working. You probably have an Apple SSD, which supports Trim by default." (I have two aftermarket SSD's). Then I went to Chameleon and it apparently turned itself off automatically when I turned off Trim Enabler. Then I rebooted and Trim Enabler still says "the patch not active but Trim is working...." All a little confusing. I'm now thinking of dragging Chameleon from the Applications folder to the trash, emptying trash, rebooting, and turning Trim Enabler back on. Final thoughts?

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Answer 5

stu m Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 8, 2015 2:57 PM in response to stu m

I did it and my system is now very noticeably faster. Also did a pram and smc reset, so maybe that was it. Thanks. I marked your last response as the solution. Thank you.

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