Intel 320 series SSD and Windows Vista

[palladium]

Hi all,

My Seagate boot hard drive died three times in 3 years (RMA-ed twice), and while it is still under warranty, I decided I had enough of PC downtime and now I plan to use my new replacement drive for storage. In the mean time I'm thinking of getting an Intel 320 series SSD (160GB) as a boot drive.

My question is apart from TRIM support (which apparently can be done with Intel SSD Toolbox), does Windows 7 offer any additional benefit for an SSD drive? I'm reluctant to spend NZ$250 on a Win7 license just to get TRIM support, but if 7 offers significant advantages compared to Vista on an SSD (e.g. performance, longetivity....) then I might consider doing it.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Not aware of any limitations. Probably a marketing gimmick.

 

[winoutreach5]

Hi,

Solid State Drives perform very well within a Windows 7 environment. There is a great MSDN blog post discussing the Support and Q&A for Solid-State Drives that may prove beneficial as you consider your options.

In addition, Microsoft has a Microsoft PowerPoint deck detailing the Windows 7 Enhancements for Solid-State Drives that you may also find interesting and beneficial to your boot volume decision process.

Jessica
Windows Outreach Team -- IT Pro

 

[Concillian]

It's not a big difference. It's certainly not worth plonking down a wad of cash just to get the SSD benefits.

Win 7 has a select few marginally useful features, but is largely Vista Rev 2 with a different name because of the stigma associated with the Vista name.

 

[pitz]

The OP's question wasn't really answered -- just how bad will a SSD's performance degrade, if TRIM isn't available because its not built into the OS.

My grandma's Vista laptop needs a SSD upgrade, and while I could upgrade her to Windows 7 at the same time -- she's a rather cranky old person, and at 93-years-old, changing the OS, or even upgrading her to a newer email package is very problematic.

So would a SSD's performance on a Vista machine degrade by a whole ton without TRIM? Or would the degradation mostly be benchmarks only?

 

[bryanW1995]

You won't see enough of a difference to notice, as long as you get a quality ssd. Intel g1 and g2's in particular were excellent even in benchmarks without TRIM, and I assume that the 320 series is the same. In fact, anything with garbage collection will keep the drive working great as long as you try to leave about 10% free space on it at all times (this is good advice for hdd's as well, though they need a lot more than 10% available to operate at peak efficiency).

And to answer the OP's question, you can manually TRIM via intel's ssd toolbox anytime you want in Vista. Regarding alignment, GC, etc, those can be issues, but for the high cost of the upgrade to win 7 there aren't many scenarios at all that would justify it. What are you planning to use the computer for?

 

[biostud]

When you install the intel toolbox it will ask you to set automatic TRIM once a week, and it takes <10 secs to run it.

 

[Concillian]

The OP's question wasn't really answered -- just how bad will a SSD's performance degrade, if TRIM isn't available because its not built into the OS.

That wasn't a question in the OP at all.

My question is, apart from TRIM (...), does Windows 7 offer any additional benefit for an SSD drive?

I edited out the words in parens to make his question more clear.
His question actually specifically excludes TRIM

There are several other topics in this forum that have covered your question though, and the answer is that modern drives have good enough garbage collection that TRIM is not at all necessary unless you are writing (and overwriting) multiple times the size of your SSD per day.

 

[suklee]

OP, I have an Intel 320 series 120GB SSD running on Vista 64. No problems so far. I just had to re-set the BIOS to AHCI using a little trick since I had it in IDE mode when I first installed Windows. I also installed the latest Intel RST drivers for a supposed performance boost, and I've scheduled a weekly TRIM using Intel's SSD Toolbox.

I too didn't want to fork out the money for W7, after already having forked out $$$ for Vista retail

 

[rhyando]

Hello all,

i want to share my HP elitebook 8460p with SSD 320 series problems.

Hard drive Specifications :
1. Model Number : INTEL SSDSA2BW160G3H
2. Model SERIES : INTEL SSD 320 SERIES 160 GB (show as 8 MB in intel SSD toolbox)
3. Serial Number : BAD_CTX 0000013F (shown in intel SSD toolbox)
4. Firmware : 4PC10365

PROBLEMS :

1. Bluescreen error in windows vista enterprise 32 bit after automatic update in my company.
2. After restarting the notebook i got the following message in the startup "REBOOT AND SELECT PROPER BOOT DEVICE". My windows wouldn't even start.
3. I connect my SSD into another computer as secondary drive and boot to the windows. Check in the disk management, i found my harddrive is only 8 MB. Many of the forum called this "8 MB BUG". Note : my SSD harddrive is not shown in my computer.

SOLUTIONS TRIED :

1. HP software & driver : I downloaded "Intel Solid State Drive (SSD) Firmware Update" on website "http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=5056943&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=5056942&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2097" and trying to do install SP52887 directly from windows and it says "setup status : this harddrive model is not supported : ST380013AS" which is my first harddrive (not the SD). The most updated firmware, i try to install SP5508 and it says "update status : This harddisk model is not supported". SP52887 installer is also comes with disk images to update firmware from boot process, i also do this and it says "your harddrive is having the latest firmware, no upgrade is needed". So, i think i have no luck with HP software & driver.
2. Intel SSD toolbox : I downloaded Intel SSD toolbox from website "http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18455&lang=eng%20" and i cannot update to the latest firmware because of i have the latest firmware already. The only thing left is "SECURE ERASE" and it's the last thing i want to do because it will delete all the data in the SSD hard drive.

QUESTIONS :
Anybody know how to fix SSD 320 series harddrive without secure erase it ?

 

[hhhd1]

Some people are using ssd with windows xp and are happy with it.

And the new windows 8 is about to be out in few months.

All you will have to do is do some things manually, like disabling defrag.

 

[philipma1957]

Hello all,

i want to share my HP elitebook 8460p with SSD 320 series problems.

Hard drive Specifications :
1. Model Number : INTEL SSDSA2BW160G3H
2. Model SERIES : INTEL SSD 320 SERIES 160 GB (show as 8 MB in intel SSD toolbox)
3. Serial Number : BAD_CTX 0000013F (shown in intel SSD toolbox)
4. Firmware : 4PC10365

PROBLEMS :

1. Bluescreen error in windows vista enterprise 32 bit after automatic update in my company.
2. After restarting the notebook i got the following message in the startup "REBOOT AND SELECT PROPER BOOT DEVICE". My windows wouldn't even start.
3. I connect my SSD into another computer as secondary drive and boot to the windows. Check in the disk management, i found my harddrive is only 8 MB. Many of the forum called this "8 MB BUG". Note : my SSD harddrive is not shown in my computer.

SOLUTIONS TRIED :

1. HP software & driver : I downloaded "Intel Solid State Drive (SSD) Firmware Update" on website "http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=5056943&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=5056942&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2097" and trying to do install SP52887 directly from windows and it says "setup status : this harddrive model is not supported : ST380013AS" which is my first harddrive (not the SD). The most updated firmware, i try to install SP5508 and it says "update status : This harddisk model is not supported". SP52887 installer is also comes with disk images to update firmware from boot process, i also do this and it says "your harddrive is having the latest firmware, no upgrade is needed". So, i think i have no luck with HP software & driver.
2. Intel SSD toolbox : I downloaded Intel SSD toolbox from website "http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18455&lang=eng%20" and i cannot update to the latest firmware because of i have the latest firmware already. The only thing left is "SECURE ERASE" and it's the last thing i want to do because it will delete all the data in the SSD hard drive.

QUESTIONS :
Anybody know how to fix SSD 320 series harddrive without secure erase it ?

I believe the answer is your data is lost.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2241459

 

[ShintaiDK]

TRIM doesnt help in any way with degrade. Also Intel got a superiour garbage collection on the X25/320 series.

TRIM simply clears the blocks before a write. Just as the garbage collection. TRIM is a performance benefit command, specially for SSDs with poor garbage collection.

 

[samuel1]

It's not a big difference. It's certainly not worth plonking down a wad of cash just to get the SSD benefits.

Win 7 has a select few marginally useful features, but is largely Vista Rev 2 with a different name because of the stigma associated with the Vista name.

Concillian hit the nail on the head. Apologies for the shameless plug, but if at all possible I would avoid an `upgrade` to Windows 7; in all this time I haven't seen any significant improvements that outweigh the problems introduced with 7:

Why Windows Vista is Better Than Windows 7

TRIM support is my only concern, and it is my understanding that TRIM is not supported with Vista. However, there's no official confirmation of that fact either way that I am able to locate.

 

[tweakboy]

Seagate is nasty along with maxtor, for storage, imo

Seagate used to be good #1 with its old cheetah etc. but when maxtor bought Seagate maxtor known for their drives dying,, maybe they should have retired