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SSD toolkit for XP


kasfruit

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AFAIK a trim program sends the LBA addresses of free sectors to the SSD. To do this it has to be able to examine the filesystem.

So, whether it works for FAT32 doesn't mean it would work for NTFS - it will either refuse or try to interpret it as FAT32 and trash your drive.

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No. It won't work on NTFS. Nor, BTW, can it be run at all, unless from plain Real Mode DOS (not from  9x/ME, nor from NT-OSes). RLoew was very careful. But It does have an option to trim all zeroed-up sectors, throughout the disk, regardless of the filesystem present, IIRR. Why don't you download the package (nowadays it's for free) and actually read the documentation included, instead of just guessing, with all due respect?

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Sorry yes, it would have helped if I'd actually bothered to look at the documentation which came with the program!
It does clearly say it's intended for FAT32 partitions only.
:blushing:

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On 8/2/2020 at 3:25 PM, Dave-H said:

The late great Rudolph Loew produced a "TRIM" program which works in DOS!

Well there you go!

If he can do that, why can't someone write a similar tool which runs within Windows NT (instead of DOS) and operates on NTFS?  The basic operating principles can't be too much different, can they?  In other words, TRIM is TRIM, regardless of OS or filesystem, because it's an intrinsic function of the drive itself.

c

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  • 3 months later...
On 8/3/2020 at 6:52 AM, RainyShadow said:

AFAIK a trim program sends the LBA addresses of free sectors to the SSD. To do this it has to be able to examine the filesystem.

So, whether it works for FAT32 doesn't mean it would work for NTFS - it will either refuse or try to interpret it as FAT32 and trash your drive.

Yeah I found out that last part the hard way, one or two years ago. Using some tool that suggested it knew what it was doing, but in actuality wasted my time forcing me to re-image 2 systems and such. Problem was that I did not immediately notice the filesystem damage, and thought all was well, for a while.

Also a system in IDE mode instead of AHCI was unnaffected. Can TRIM not be communicated in IDE mode? Or was it just a coincidence?

PS. As I wrote before: I use and have used Crucial M4 drives of various subtypes/sizes under Windows XP. I update firmware once in while, but don't use manual TRIM or anything. Apart for the above trashing incident, which I blame on that software, it always works well.

Edited by gerwin
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44 minutes ago, gerwin said:

Also a system in IDE mode instead of AHCI was unnaffected. Can TRIM not be communicated in IDE mode? Or was it just a coincidence?

My drive is connected to the IDE port of the mobo through a SATA>IDE adapter, trim works fine.

It has two NTFS partitions and the toolkit does two steps when optimizing - one for each partition.

 

P.S. try to do a chkdsk before trim, that trashing may have been due to previous errors in the filesystem.

Edited by RainyShadow
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3 minutes ago, RainyShadow said:

My drive is connected to the IDE port of the mobo through a SATA>IDE adapter, trim works fine.

It has two NTFS partitions and the toolkit does two steps when optimizing - one for each partition.

 

P.S. try to do a chkdsk before trim, that trashing may have been due to previous errors in the filesystem.

Thanks.

I am positive the extend of the filesystem damage was in no relation to any possible pending chkdsk problems. That would mean all 3 AHCI configured systems had pending chkdsk issues, and some of them loads of chkdsk issues, with windows system files. Whilst in reality, I hardly ever have such issues. In all cases it concerned a FAT32 C-partition. The NTFS D-partitions remained OK IIRC.

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3 minutes ago, gerwin said:

Thanks.

I am positive the extend of the filesystem damage was in no relation to any possible pending chkdsk problems. That would mean all 3 AHCI configured systems had pending chkdsk issues, and some of them loads of chkdsk issues, with windows system files. Whilst in reality, I hardly ever have such issues. In all cases it concerned a FAT32 C-partition. The NTFS D-partitions remained OK IIRC.

So, the trashing occured only on one partition, is this correct?

If used clusters are (because of some error) marked as free in the FAT (on FAT16/32) or in the $Bitmap file (on NTFS), invoking trim will just erase these clusters - no questions asked.

 

Or, maybe your SSD toolkit really doesn't work with FAT32 (but then why would it even attempt to optimize that partition?)

If you have a spare drive available, you could try testing this on various partition types.

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yes: 3 AHCI mode systems: C partition FAT32 affected, about 1 to 5% of files gone. D partitions NTFS on same disk seemingly unaffected IIRC.

1 IDE mode system, same partition configuration. Not affected.

I am not at home to check which 3rd party toolkit it was. And in hindsight it is obvious I should have been more careful. I was updating SSD firmware and for a moment TRUSTING that the TRIM tool would work, and could considered everything done. Tested it a bit. seemed OK. did the other systems. Then later reboot problems and me re-imaging the c-partitions.

Edited by gerwin
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On 12/1/2020 at 12:09 PM, assenort said:

I wish this thing was compatible with Win XP x64 too, unfortunately it is not.

Intel SSD Toolbox 3.3.7 is compatible with XP-64 and you can choose in list of compatible SSD what you need. I see some used Intel SSD from list on ebay go cheap.

Here is list of Intel SSD with detail description. Obviously MLC and MLC-HET memory type are desirable.

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On 8/1/2020 at 7:16 AM, kasfruit said:

what good SSD can we purchase now for XP ?? do we have to purchase 5 years old SSD's that will be hard to find ??

now a 120GB SSD does cost less than a 64GB USB memory stick so it's a good time to get some.

I have checked all mainstream SSD manufacturers websites and downloaded their SSD optimizing tool but it doesn't run on XP.

they don't even have a link for the legacy versions

the Kingston website says that its tool works from W8 and up however I installed it with no issues

Kingston is not my first priority nor am I sure their utility with a vintage looking has support for TRIM

I know there are some after market tools for SSD but I think they will not be as good as the original one from the SSD manufacturer

 

 

 

 

Which Kingston version works on Windows XP?
I have looked for tools from other manufacturers and none of them work for me, it would be good to have a list.

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