Hi Phil, thanks for all your help so far! Slight correction, the erase first said it estimated 6 minutes, then as it started erasing it then said it would take 32 minutes, but it actually completed in 7 minutes. But still, as you say, it does still seem slow compared to erases you've done before.
My new SSD - IDE works, AHCI doesn't
- Thread starter Merlin5
- Start date
its normal for startup times to slow a little as windows fills up with programs ect,a fresh clean install usually takes around 8-12 seconds to desktop,with additional programs/services it takes around 20-25 seconds which is perfectly normal
different manufacturers of motherboards vary in post times from pressing the button to the bios post screen then into windows,updated bios's may speed the time up
did you test with samsungs own magician software's secure erase? maybe that would be better suited?
different manufacturers of motherboards vary in post times from pressing the button to the bios post screen then into windows,updated bios's may speed the time up
did you test with samsungs own magician software's secure erase? maybe that would be better suited?
No I haven't even opened the envelope containing the Samsung software disk .
Is it worth me erasing the disk again using the Samsung magician's eraser and reinstalling windows to see if it would make a difference? I wouldn't mind doing it as I haven't gotten too far beyond the basic OS install.
I just dont know why it took so long,, It was like it was rewiting all the cells with the length of time it took, and rewiting all cells is bad for ssd's. Thats why a full format is a no no for ssd's.
Also is it crystal disk that will tell you if the partition is aligned up properly?
Well I'm around tomorrow and maybe I can erase the disc with samsung software and reinstall windows. Question really though is, are those ATTO and HD Tune stats I posted above lower than they should be, or, as they should be given my sig rig? I'm also going to do a BIOS update. I'm going to use my pendrive and convert it from NTFS to Fat32, which is what it needs according to the Gigabyte Q-Flash page.
http://uk.gigabyte.com/webpage/20/images/utility_qflash.pdf
Is that the safest way to flash my BIOS?
http://uk.gigabyte.com/webpage/20/images/utility_qflash.pdf
Is that the safest way to flash my BIOS?
Cool, thanks. I still feel that the HD Tune numbers are perhaps on the low side though. I'm hoping to try and get transfer rates to be in the 200's and access time to .1ms. But I guess I'll know for sure after a BIOS update, new erase, and new windows install. My third windows install since getting this SSD! Maybe third time lucky
I wouldn't secure erase again mate just check that the alignment is correct using AS SSD, and check that it doesn't say "Bad" within the red ring Ive marked, as it will slow down the ssd if its not aligned.
Also is there any firmware updates for the samsung 830 out yet?
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Thanks phil, I'll download AS SSD later and check for alignment. I'm off out now, I'll check this thread on my phone.
At 0.5 my read and write figures are only over 6000 and 7000. Isn't that too low if yours at 0.5 are all over 24000? I don't know what the numbers mean though, if higher is better?
this is an old screenshot i have of a crucial m4 i once owned,it shows sata2 speeds and sata3 speeds but on an intel board,amd boards/sata ports are slightly slower but not by much
At 0.5 my read and write figures are only over 6000 and 7000. Isn't that too low if yours at 0.5 are all over 24000? I don't know what the numbers mean though, if higher is better?
Well, I flashed to my board's newest BIOS and it's made a big difference! 
AHCI reboot time now 28 seconds (knocked 8 to 10 seconds off), and now, IDE is actually slower at 34 seconds. Big improvement in HD Tune and I now have my 200+ MB/s transfer rates and .1ms access time. ATTO showing bigger numbers in each transfer size, and AS SSD showing alignment is ok. Not sure why it's still in german when I'd enabled english. I'm much happier now. Is that a decent AS SSD score?
http://i50.tinypic.com/25i86iw.jpg
** Please resize image to no more than 1280px wide before replacing image tags - thanks **
AHCI reboot time now 28 seconds (knocked 8 to 10 seconds off), and now, IDE is actually slower at 34 seconds. Big improvement in HD Tune and I now have my 200+ MB/s transfer rates and .1ms access time. ATTO showing bigger numbers in each transfer size, and AS SSD showing alignment is ok. Not sure why it's still in german when I'd enabled english. I'm much happier now. Is that a decent AS SSD score?
http://i50.tinypic.com/25i86iw.jpg
** Please resize image to no more than 1280px wide before replacing image tags - thanks **
Can you guys check if I've got my SSD in the correct SATA port, as it's a bit confusing in BIOS.
My motherboard has six SATA ports labelled 0,1,2,3,4,5.
In BIOS, I set it to AHCI before installing the OS, and I set 'OnChip SATA Port 4/5' to 'As SATA Type', and the description of that is "Set SATA Port 4/5 mode as SATA Port 0-3".
In the Samsung manual it suggests having the SSD in the lowest numbered port. I'm assuming that would give the best performance.
Because of the 'OnChip SATA Port 4/5' to 'As SATA Type', I put my 830 in the port actually labelled on the motherboard as port 4. So do I assume that is now port 0, i.e, I'm already in the lowest numbered port as per the 4/5 SATA type setting? But then, if ports 4 and 5 (two actual ports) are simulating ports 0 to 3 (four ports), how can it do that? Or am I completely misunderstanding what it means.
The SSD doesn't work in my physically labelled 0 to 3 ports (it says disk failure in those), and only works in ports 4 and 5. So I have my DVD and 1TB Caviar Black in the physically labelled ports 0 and 1. Is that how it should be? As the PC boots, it shows this order for a couple of seconds:
0000 1TB HDD,
0001 Optiarc DVD
0002 Samsung 830 SSD.
It's like I can't get the SSD to be first in the order, and my OS is installed to the 830. But it does show priority to the samsung as the first hard disk when in BIOS, so maybe it's ok?
My motherboard has six SATA ports labelled 0,1,2,3,4,5.
In BIOS, I set it to AHCI before installing the OS, and I set 'OnChip SATA Port 4/5' to 'As SATA Type', and the description of that is "Set SATA Port 4/5 mode as SATA Port 0-3".
In the Samsung manual it suggests having the SSD in the lowest numbered port. I'm assuming that would give the best performance.
Because of the 'OnChip SATA Port 4/5' to 'As SATA Type', I put my 830 in the port actually labelled on the motherboard as port 4. So do I assume that is now port 0, i.e, I'm already in the lowest numbered port as per the 4/5 SATA type setting? But then, if ports 4 and 5 (two actual ports) are simulating ports 0 to 3 (four ports), how can it do that? Or am I completely misunderstanding what it means.
The SSD doesn't work in my physically labelled 0 to 3 ports (it says disk failure in those), and only works in ports 4 and 5. So I have my DVD and 1TB Caviar Black in the physically labelled ports 0 and 1. Is that how it should be? As the PC boots, it shows this order for a couple of seconds:
0000 1TB HDD,
0001 Optiarc DVD
0002 Samsung 830 SSD.
It's like I can't get the SSD to be first in the order, and my OS is installed to the 830. But it does show priority to the samsung as the first hard disk when in BIOS, so maybe it's ok?
Update: I disconnected my 1TB HDD tonight but left the SSD connected and I got a disk failure message during boot. It seems windows somehow installed a 100mb system reserved partition to my 1TB HDD instead of the SSD, and that my HDD starts the boot process and then the SSD takes over. That would account for the SSD not working in the other sata ports, because I'd also disconnected the HDD last night which was needed for starting the bootup. That means I have to start all over, erasing everything, reinstalling windows, windows updates and SP1 again, etc. 
I'm going to delete the HDD partition then disconnect the HDD before installing windows to the SSD again. I'm guessing the SSD should work in port 0 then.
I'm going to delete the HDD partition then disconnect the HDD before installing windows to the SSD again. I'm guessing the SSD should work in port 0 then.
No your fine,keep all disks connected and set dvd drive as first boot device then pop in windows disk and do a startup repair,might need to do it twice,once done set ssd/os as first boot device and that's it
Ah, nice. That start up repair, what does it do, does it remove the system reserved partition from the HDD and put it on the SSD then? In my BIOS btw, there's no option for setting SSD as first boot device, only says HDD. In hard disk priority though, it shows my SSD and HDD.