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SSD Dilemma – Worth repartitioning???
Just bought an Intel X25-M 169GB and maybe took the wrong advise on partitioning it. I wanted to over-provision by 10% (15GB) for leveling, TRIM, mapping, endurance, etc. I was told by someone not to over-provision for risk of mis-alignment or controller problems, and instead to merely clean install W7 and let 7 format and align by itself. So I clean-installed W7 and all my numerous applications, updates, and tweaks.
Later I listened to a lecture by Intel’s Chief Engineer of the NAND Solutions Group at the IDF2009 conference. He stated with extreme confidence that partitioning ~144GB of the 150GB usable and leaving 5% (~7GB) unallocated – would not only improve performance but would also extend the life expectancy (endurance) by nearly three times: from 15TB to 42TB of endurance – 2.8 times improvement!
Now… Is it worth the time and risk of applying an SE (secure erase) to clean it, then reformat to a 144GB partition, and then clean install W7 again and let it do the quick-format to the 144GB user area – leaving 7GB unallocated. Intel recommended doing this 144-partition format on a NEW, BARE, UNWRITTEN drive – which mine is no longer. I hate messing around with SE wipes and the unknown issues that might arise when it is presently healthy and doing sequential READS @ 260MB/s. But knowing it could last 3 times longer is enticing.
How safe and reliable is SE? And what do the seasoned experienced owners of X25-M drives think? Any comments are appreciated.
garuda