Intel SSD 530 NAND Write Problem

[fZhan14]

Hello, everyone:

I bought an Intel SSD 530 120G for my laptop several days ago. It worked well with the OS Win8.1 Pro x64.

When I paid attention to the NAND writes, something make me confused.

The situation is as follow:

The SSD with the OS is the first(primary) Disk, and the HDD is the second one. I have moved the cache of IE, chrome and Firefox to the Hard Drive using IE setting or mklink command, and verified it correctly. With the explorer working, the written data stream from cache is produced in the HDD partition theoretically, also I have got this conclusion through the System's Resource Monitor and the Diskmon from Microsoft website. When I cached several Movies embedded in any explorer without other operation separately, there are lots of written data traffic produced in the HDD partition, and just little data wrote in system disk(SSD), it's no doubt. Finally, each test(using one kind of explorer) improved less than 200Mb in Total Host Writes which is normal for system operating, but this process also consumed about 3Gb SSD's Total NAND writes in total in the CrystalDiskInfo 6.0.1. Also I have got the same result with the newly Intel SSD Toolbox, AIDA64 3.20 and CrystalDiskInfo 6.0.1. In fact, this written data traffic produced by explorer's cache in HDD is calculated into the SSD's total NAND writes.

Actually I'm not care of the SSD's wear, and I'm sure it couldn't reach the limited lifespan with normal usage until next generation product arrives. This accidental discovery confused me now, and the result above make me suspect the theory, Putting IE/Chrome or System cache into other medium/drive saving your SSD's wear.

Q:Here, I want to know what makes this strange condition happen, the drivers, system's bug, bad support for old mainboard, the system's setting&config or the special system log?

Testing condition:

Thinkpad R400(GM45 motherboard)/P8700/8Gb RAM/Intel 530 SSD+Hitachi 7k500/Intel 5300 AGN/Win 8.1 Pro X64 with the Win 8.1's Default config and drivers, except trunning the service Superfetch off mannually.

I could make sure the location of explorer cache(IE, Chrome, Firefox) in HDD, also the written data traffic in HDD, and the vast imprived NAND writes in SSD simultaneously.

Thanks for your help.

[NFrah]

I've made a windows service to read a small part of file and keep the ssd awake.

This is a workaround to avoid the high NAND writes on SSD.

The setup can be downloaded from below link. (500KB)

Setup Disk SSD Read Service 1.0.0.exe

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxBcEftvtBxlQVRtbW8tNTJPNkE/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxBcEftvtBxlQVRtbW8tNTJPNkE/view?usp=sharing

Details about the tasks the service implements:

Once every 100msec, it reads a 4096 byte chunk of its own executable file, bypassing windows caching, into a memory buffer.

It alternates the location of chunk to be read between start of file, and middle of file.

It then sleeps for 100msec, then performs same action until turned off.

(Sleep means it doesn't use cpu usage during that period, program uses less than 1% cpu, mostly 0%)

Because it reads its own file, you can install it on a folder on drive that has SSD. (typically C:\ drive if ssd contains OS).

In a second, you should see approx 36 to 40KB/s activity on ssd.

Your hdd light will blink quickly while it's working.

Service needs .Net Framework 3.5 to be enabled/installed.

Advantage to running as a service is that it starts as soon as windows finishes loading, even before you login or even after you logoff/lock screen.

In task manager it should appear similar to below when pc is idle, 1% and 40KB/sec reads.

I would appreciate your feedback and a note if it solves the issue for you.

[DLuka1]

php_monkey has created a service: https://github.com/deadbabe/diskpoll GitHub - deadbabe/diskpoll. It reads random 512 bytes from disk and has configurable schedule. 500 ms is enough to get problem solved.

[NFrah]

I used 500ms and 300ms in previous tests, but on my Intel 535 ssd it didn't seem to solve the issue.

I later saw Cristi's message regarding the script that had 125 ms and configured 100ms in my service.

[BKell9]

I used the php_monkey service with 200 msec. 500 msec didn't work. My Total NAND Writes/Total Host Writes ratio went from 24:1 to 1:1

Intel 535 SSD

[idata]

same here, i have 2 SSD intel 535 (240gb per unit) buyed in november 2015, and the principal ssd (windows 10) with the caches (chrome, streams, etc etc) is in a mechanic disk, but the nand writes constantly rises (15gb per hour)

EDIT : 1 hour late Total nand writes increases to 9263gb