I was re-reading Anand's SSD articles in preparation for recommending a good bang-for-buck SSD/HD combo for a new system build, when I came across this statement:
(See http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=9 and scroll to the last paragraph.)
To me this doesn't make sense. As I understand, an ATA storage device just presents a bunch of accessible data blocks to the host OS, which is responsible for partitioning the blocks in whatever arrangement it chooses. The partitions are simply ranges of blocks set aside, and the partition table is itself written to a range of blocks that is hard-coded into the OS. The storage device has no way of knowing how it is partitioned, and so it cannot exploit the unpartitioned space to provide additional wear leveling and spare space.
Unless Anand is referring to some special utility that Intel provides, which can somehow communicate with the SSD controller directly to inform it of unused space. Can anyone confirm this?
P.S. Hi everybody! This is my first post in this forum in about six years. My career has taken me away from computer hardware/support and into software development, but I still like to maintain enough knowledge to help a few old clients and built myself a good bang-for-buck PC every couple years.
Intel ships its X25-M with 7.5 - 8% more area than is actually reported to the OS. The more expensive enterprise version ships with the same amount of flash, but even more spare area. Random writes all over the drive are more likely in a server environment so Intel keeps more of the flash on the X25-E as spare area. You’re able to do this yourself if you own an X25-M; simply perform a secure erase and immediately partition the drive smaller than its actual capacity. The controller will use the unpartitioned space as spare area.
(See http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=9 and scroll to the last paragraph.)
To me this doesn't make sense. As I understand, an ATA storage device just presents a bunch of accessible data blocks to the host OS, which is responsible for partitioning the blocks in whatever arrangement it chooses. The partitions are simply ranges of blocks set aside, and the partition table is itself written to a range of blocks that is hard-coded into the OS. The storage device has no way of knowing how it is partitioned, and so it cannot exploit the unpartitioned space to provide additional wear leveling and spare space.
Unless Anand is referring to some special utility that Intel provides, which can somehow communicate with the SSD controller directly to inform it of unused space. Can anyone confirm this?
P.S. Hi everybody! This is my first post in this forum in about six years. My career has taken me away from computer hardware/support and into software development, but I still like to maintain enough knowledge to help a few old clients and built myself a good bang-for-buck PC every couple years.
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