[RESOLVED] General ssd/eMMC info?

Hi i have a few questions i would like answered about ssd and eMMC usage in linux.

So i am currently trying to get trim to work and could use some feneral info on how linux maintains ssd's, as i just learned of fstrim and i have yet to get it to work without errors.

Also i had to reinstall zorin a time or 2 and noticed a considerable drop in performance until i manually partitioned the drive with diskpart "sorry it's what i know, im new to linux" anyway after i deleted all partitions the live usb failed to auto partition the drive, and i had to partition it before it would install. I am curious as to what caused the performance hit?

Hi, this is why I don't use SSDs! Interesting read on this thread:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/75061/s ... for-my-ssd

From what I have learned you should not format to any journaling File System (Ext 3 or Ext4) so you should stick with Ext2. When using a Partition editor and merely deleting all partitions will prevent Any Operating System from being installed. It is also advised not to have any swap partition on the SSD as this will cause numerous rewrites. Towards the end of the article the user reports that using Ext4 can shorten its life to 8 months.

See also this post I responded to:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13610&hilit=+Trim

You should also be using GPT instead of mbr.

http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/

Good luck!

Thank you for the quick response!

I am using ext2 and it is gpt but i havnt had any time to figure out the manual drive options in setup so i cant remove the swap yet but i will get there eventually, i found the perfomance drop very interesting but the little time i spent with the newest install seems to have fixed the performance.

I will check the link you sent after work thanks again.

Nearly forgot, DON'T touch eMMC machines with a barge pole - they are worse than Celeron/Sempron machines - if anything goes wrong with those critters you have to bin it - I'd rather spend hard earned cash on an old dual-processor notebook. eMMC is about as useless as a Chromebook!

Yea, i have one that has a sandisk inand, i was suprised at the performance but i am thinking of selling it and getting a "real" system

Swarfendor437 wrote:Hi, this is why I don't use SSDs! Interesting read on this thread: Towards the end of the article the user reports that using Ext4 can shorten its life to 8 months.

I read this post as using an SSD.
related stuff

Code:

https://wiki.debian.org/SSDOptimization

my configuration is as below and no hassle


what I did was to see if TRIM could be performed by my SSD brand/type


shall we call it a hoax?

+++

Hi zorinantwerp, even with advances, and if ever I did get an SSD I would buy an HDD too - SSD for the system ('/') and nothing else, HDD for '/home' and 'swap area' with SSD Ext2 and HDD Ext4.

For what its worth, I have been using SSD's for about 3 years now, on Zorin 9 11 12 and Linux Mint 18 and Windows 10. I also had many questions about write cycles, Trim, Swap, over provisioning and so on. In the end I just bit the bullet and went for it. I just do a 'Default' install, 'system' and 'home' on one partition with about 4GB swap onto 64GB and 120/128GB SSD's and mSATA SSD's (mini SSD's in Micro PC's) across 5 different machines.

As far as I know Ubuntu (+ derivatives like Zorin Mint etc) from about 16.04 (don't quote me on that) run 'Trim' automatically about once a week in the background. On Zorin 9 (14.04?) I would run it myself from time to time but now on Zorin 12 and Mint 18 I don't worry about it. The command I ran was: sudo fstrim / -v and this was on ext4 partitions. I just don't even think about it anymore.

The first SSD I got was a Samsung Pro 128GB with a 10 warranty for about $140 AU. I also go a 1TB HDD for around the same cost around that time so cost per GB difference was enormous but the speed difference was also, my boot time after 'POST' screen went from about 60 + seconds to 12-15 seconds, enormous also. I also have some other brand SSD's at cheaper cost/size. Any large files I save to a NAS or HDD's.

The way I see it, by the time these drives are spent the cost difference will be closer and/or newer technology arrives, meantime I really enjoy that speed especially when booting up.
My 5 year old 2TB HDD recently died and $90 AU replaced that. I looked at smart data and self tests in the "Disks" utility and it had about 1 year and 4 months of 'up time' on it at the time it died. My Samsung SSD currently has about the same 'up time' with no 'failures'.

If the cost isn't an issue a 'large enough' SSD for your OS and HDD's for storage is the way to go, or 1TB SSD if you have a pile of cash burning a hole in your pocket. Time will tell but I expect my SSD's to last for some years yet, even if they start failing I would still replace with SSD again (or M.2/NVMe) as the cost has already come down from when I first purchased mine.

I suspect there is some confusion, mis-information, lies, false beliefs and so forth around these devices, I am most happy and would add that short of a new PC, SSD's have been the single largest performance improvement I have ever experienced from an upgrade.

Also, there are other things to consider, reduced power consumption, shock/impact resistance, weight and temperature reduction, especially for notebooks, space, noise, no moving parts...

I love SSD's what more can I say, cost per GB compared to spinning HDD's is, for now, the main question imho.

A screen shot of my Samsung 850 Pro self test data.

MBMz10 wrote:run 'Trim' automatically about once a week in the background.

have you checked your SSD's are fit for TRIM (see command earlier)

anyway thanks for your recap which is fine reading and makes sense

provided you have a gigabit ethernet connection for speed I believe you'll see the day the only sound from your NAS will be the internal fan

cheers

Looks good to me.



However, getting back to the original posters question, I had the same head spinning / brain hurting at all the do's and don'ts of SSD's and sort of just 'did it' and thus far it has been very positive for me and that is the moral of my story.