Hybrid Drive - Doesn't support Trim?

[jimgfitzgerald]

I am running Windows XP as a virtual drive to run a couple of old software programs. Will it not run at all or just not efficiently or what? I have ordered a DVD drive caddie for my old 1TB drive I could use for Windows XP, but I have no idea if or how to set up a dual boot machine. I really need to ween off of those old programs.

[jimgfitzgerald]

Maybe I can just move the Windows XP virtual PC folder from the new SSD to my old hard drive and all will be OK. Could it be that simple? Actually, when I install the new SSD, I will simply clone my existing hard drive where the virtual machine already resides. I could just delete it from the new SSD.

[azazel1024]

Hmmm does look like Asus may have cheaped out. At some point I'll check the Sandisk eMMC within mine. I know at least according to Sandisk's specs for what is in the T100 that it supports TRIM, so it would be very odd if it didn't work. As for the Hynix module...that sucks. That said, it is at least possible it does still have garbage collection within the controller, even if it doesn't support TRIM. No easy way to check on that though.

Well, you could run the TRIM utility and then litteraly just idle the T100 for a few hours sitting on the desktop and then check again (sometimes a controller's garbage collection can take from minutes to hours to run at idle).

[i2McAbre]

Well, you could run the TRIM utility and then literally just idle the T100 for a few hours sitting on the desktop and then check again (sometimes a controller's garbage collection can take from minutes to hours to run at idle).

I did just that this morning... The Trim utility reported indeterminate, that the data had not changed, but that it appeared the system or some other program wrote over the data.

I also used FSUTIL to check the trim function, of course it reported it as on, so I turned it off to see what would be reported. I got the same "Indeterminate" from the Trim utility no matter what I did or how long I waited, actually no, I did get a couple that said I waited to long and should rerun the tool

Im going to check the specs at Amazon to see if the description says it supports Trim... And will probably email the ASUS techie that replied to my Amazon comment, and left me a message with a case number and his email... To simply ask him, conversationally if trim is supported... Hopefully he says no, so I can hit him with the crap drive specs and the fact that it came "connected" to an SD Controller, which is generic and "could" be why my avatar SDXC runs like crap...

[leeshor]

Maybe I can just move the Windows XP virtual PC folder from the new SSD to my old hard drive and all will be OK. Could it be that simple? Actually, when I install the new SSD, I will simply clone my existing hard drive where the virtual machine already resides. I could just delete it from the new SSD.

What you propose to do here, WILL work. Your VM software doesn't really care where the VM file is. Depending on the VM app you may need to move a folder than contains the VM file and a few other smaller files.

However, if XP is a VM there isn't really a problem as the underlying OS and FW will correct for any issues that would have come up running XP alone. (another) however, having one large file like that isn't great for the life of the SSD, just like having prefetches or swap files on an SSD isn't a good idea.

[azazel1024]

If you run a disk benchmarking tool, what kind of performance do you get on it? If it is more than 20MB/sec reads or writes it is not connected through the SD bus as Bay Trail only supports ~20MB/sec through its SD card bus interface.

[i2McAbre]

If you run a disk benchmarking tool, what kind of performance do you get on it? If it is more than 20MB/sec reads or writes it is not connected through the SD bus as Bay Trail only supports ~20MB/sec through its SD card bus interface.

I get just under 15 Mbps on my micro SDXC and just over 20 Mbps on the Hynix (just tenths of a sec difference)

[jimgfitzgerald]

What you propose to do here, WILL work. Your VM software doesn't really care where the VM file is. Depending on the VM app you may need to move a folder than contains the VM file and a few other smaller files.

However, if XP is a VM there isn't really a problem as the underlying OS and FW will correct for any issues that would have come up running XP alone. (another) however, having one large file like that isn't great for the life of the SSD, just like having prefetches or swap files on an SSD isn't a good idea.

I decided to delete the virtual PC. I want as good an install of the SSD as possible. I'll try to ween myself from Windows XP and see how that goes. I can always install a new virtual PC on the old hard drive later. My SSD should arrive tomorrow. My DVD hard drive caddie won't arrive for a couple weeks. Thanks for your input.

[azazel1024]

I get just under 15 Mbps on my micro SDXC and just over 20 Mbps on the Hynix (just tenths of a sec difference)

How are you checking? Crystal disk? ATTO? HD tune? Just a file copy? Run an actual disk benchmarking tool to see what the results are. I'll also assume that you mean MBps or MB/sec. Mbps mean megabits per second, which translates to around 2MB/sec for microSD and 2.5MB/sec for the Hynix, which would be abysmal beyond belief.

[i2McAbre]

Oke Doke Here is the information I have uncovered so far on this Hynix HCG8e 64Gb drive, for anyone else who is interested in the details. Below is an image of the actual chip.

New_and_original_H27UCG8T2BTR_BC.jpg

The part number is visible, but if by chance you cannot see it? It's;

Hynix 64Gb flash H27UCG8T2BTR-BC Flash memory chipset

I was able to locate a datasheet on this from Hynix, its a pdf but I dont know/think I can link to it... It identifies the chip in more detail;

H27UCG8T2BTR-BC
64Gb(8192M x 8bit) MLC NAND Flash
F20 64Gb MLC
NAND Flash Memory
Legacy TSOP (Thin Small Outline Package)

Product Feature

■ Multi Level Cell (MLC) Technology

■ Power Supply Voltage
- VCC / VCCq= 2.7V ~ 3.6V

■ Organization
- Page Size : 16,384 + 1,280(Spare) bytes
- Block Size : 4M + 320K bytes, 256pages
- Plane Size : 1024 + 42(Extended) blocks
- Device Size : 2048 + 84(Extended) blocks

■ Page Read Time
- Random Read Time (tR) : 65us
- Sequential Access (tRC/tWC) : 16ns(Min.)

■ Page Write Time
- Page Program Time : 1500(Typ.)

■ Block Erase Time
- Block Erase Time : 5.0ms(Typ.)

■ Hardware Data Protection
- Program/Erase locked during power transitions

■ Package
- Package type : TSOP
- Chip count : SDP
- Pin(Ball) count : 48
- Size : 12mm x 20mm x 1.2mm

■ Electronic Signature
- 1st cycle : Manufacturer code
- 2nd cycle : Device code
- 3rd cycle : Internal chip number, Cell type,
Number of simultaneously programmed pages
- 4th cycle : Page size, Block size, Organization,
Spare size
- 5th cycle : Multi-plane information
- 6th cycle : Technology, EDO, Interface

■ Reliability
- TBD

I am waiting on a reply from ASUS with regard to expanded support for this unit.