TR Forums

Obviously I need to be able to do this on Windows 7/Server 2008 R2. Because, you know, the built in native TRIM isn't good enough or something.

Let me explain-

I have a test Hyper-V server that you gerbils helped me pick out SSDs for a while back (the samsung 830's are flipping amazing for this workload BTW). My existing board doesn't have SATA 6G so I tracked down a IBM 1015 which I then cross flashed to a LSI 9211 8i because all the cool kids cross dressflash RAID controllers these days. Even in IT mode however there is still a SAT layer which prevents the TRIM command from being passed.

I'd rather not run these without TRIM and would gladly run something once a week/month that would accomplish the same thing.

I know you could do this on XP Intel's toolbox for example, but I'm not entirely sure how one would go about this now days and with a Samsung drive. Any thoughts?

Isn't there a tool like "Samsung SSD Magician" or something which allows manual TRIM/garbage collection execution?

Samsung's "SSD Magician" software (their equivalent to Intel's Toolbox) includes an "Optimization" function that explicitly sends Trim commands down to the drive (assuming the hardware / drivers don't get in the way). I haven't tried it on your particular setup, of course, but it seems to work as advertised on a more vanilla system. (Windows 8, btw, replaces the automatic disk defragmenter with an "optimizer" which defrags HDs and sends Trim to SSDs; I expect the server edition will do the same)

I was sure it wasn't going to be that simple, I figured it was going to pass along the TRIM command and the command would not pass the SAT layer and I would not collect $100. When I ran the tool it filled the drive and then cleared it, I then re-ran ASSD and the performance was identical as before. I assume that if it filled the drive and then failed to truly clear the deleted data from the pages the benchmark would have reflected that so apparently it's working as intended?

Well, that was easy!

For anyone interested in the details of the controller: I bought a M1015 on Ebay for $100, it's a rebadged 8 port 6G LSI controller. A 9220-8i to be exact, it even has the LSI branding and model number on it. You can flash it to a 9220 if you like but you don't have IT (pass through) functionality with this model. You can instead flash it to a 9211 IR or IT. IR allows for pass through and raid, IT only for pass through but you can leave out flashing the bios so it acts like a dumb HBA and the system boots faster. I actually flashed mine to IR because by default it will act in IT mode when drives are plugged in but I can still create arrays if I so desire. No BBU/memory but it's a competent controller.

Thank you gentlemen!

Bumping an old post. Can you re-confirm trim is working with the 9211 IR firmware in HBA mode? I mean after you've worked with it for a while?

Thanks