How SSDs Really Work

[ThunderRd]

Really good read at ARS:

Solid-state revolution: in-depth on how SSDs really work | Ars Technica

Gives you an idea of the clever technology behind your shiny new SSD.

[booman]

Is there a LOT of big technical words so I have to look them up in the IT dictionary? Or is it an easy read?

[edit] I'll answer my own questions... so far it an extremely easy read!!!

[edit again] I'm slowing getting distracted as I read CPU, registers, latency and techie terms, but I'll read on. Don't get me wrong... I am a techie person, but reading about it is difficult for me..

[edit again] I got distracted by the "Dwarf Fortress" review and started reading it, but that was rather bland and I got bored of it.

[edit ugh] Transistor Gates? now the history of processing.. I push on

[edit] ok, the beginning was an extremely easy read

[booman]

Watched a nice video on how a transistor works: clicky

[Daniel ~]

It's the part where they have to erase an entire page to change a single punctuation mark...that gets me. AND THAT is still way faster than a mechanical drive!!

[booman]

Ok, I give up, the article got better when it started talking about RAID and comparing an SSD drive to a flash drive...

[booman]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

It's the part where they have to erase an entire page to change a single punctuation mark...that gets me. AND THAT is still way faster than a mechanical drive!!

So true, I wonder if... the time comes when the drive starts slowing down, can we format it with all zeros and start over fresh with the original speed?

[Daniel ~]

Interesting question Boo!

I don't know is my answer! ":O}

[robbie]

Front page worthy?

[Aedan]

Originally Posted by booman

So true, I wonder if... the time comes when the drive starts slowing down, can we format it with all zeros and start over fresh with the original speed?

If you have an OS that supports TRIM (and it's configured right!), then the OS can help to tell the SSD when blocks are no longer used. That means that deleting a file will erase the block(s), so they are fresh again. This means you don't lose performance from deleting a file, but you will with an overwrite (IE, when you update your CV or patch a file).

Really, to make the most of an SSD, the filesystem needs to be aware of how it's configured. As far as I'm aware on Linux, ext4, btrfs, JFS, and XFS all support TRIM if you're using a 3.7 kernel. For ext4, you would need to add the "discard" flag to your mounts in fstab.

[booman]

Awesome Aedan, can you post a short step-by-step for Daniel?

[Daniel ~]

Yes Please! ":O}

[booman]

A really really short one just for Dan

[chrisbard]

01010101.01101101.10100100 / 666

[Aedan]

Originally Posted by booman

Awesome Aedan, can you post a short step-by-step for Daniel?

You want me to post a how to edit fstab? Getting that wrong will prevent Daniel's machine from booting! Might be easier for Daniel to post his /etc/fstab and then we edit it, and Daniel can copy it back.

Less prone to errors that way.

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by Aedan

You want me to post a how to edit fstab? Getting that wrong will prevent Daniel's machine from booting! Might be easier for Daniel to post his /etc/fstab and then we edit it, and Daniel can copy it back.

Less prone to errors that way.

You beat me to it

Also, if we see his fstab we know what filesystem he is using on the SSD.

[chrisbard]

show us your fstab!

[robbie]

Originally Posted by chrisbard

show us your fstab!

LOL do it NOW!!!

[Daniel ~]

Thank you. Now if some one will tell me how to access the Fstab...Yes...I'm really that dumb.":O}

[ThunderRd]

Dan, it's in /etc.

Go to /etc, open /etc/fstab in your file editor, copy it and paste it here, and we'll edit it for you.

[booman]

yeah, we'll erase your whole hard drive for you... then give you a bunch of Terminal commands to re-build it from scratch