I just installed a SSD with a SATA3 interface on my SATA2-only motherboard. Since I was out of cables, I had to use a leftover SATA cable from an older SATA1-only mobo (so I assume that it's a SATA-1 only cable, if such a distinction exists). Now, my searches here seem to indicate that things should work without problems, but I'm concerned about whether using an older cable will lead to decreased performance. I'm okay with the SSD topping at 3Gb./s (SATA2 speed), but will the cable make the drive go slower than that?
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I have a HP Compaq de5700 Small Form Factor desktop computer, and I am looking to upgrade it's hard drive.  When I open up the box, it clearly has available SATA connectors on the motherboard, but no indication as to which SATA version (1, 2, or 3).  The hard drive I am considering is a  SATA 3.  My concern is that if the motherboard also supports SATA 3 and I use an old SATA cable (v1 or v2), might there be problems?  This is a bare drive, so I don't expect that a cable will come with it, and I have not been able to find the manual for this machine.  Thanks.
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Here's my scenario -- both drives were working perfectly fine. I removed one of the drives for a while (building a new PC, didn't think I was going to use RAID anymore but changed my mind). I actually switch the SATA type to AHCI and was operating for about a week on the new system before deciding to re-enable RAID and reinstall the drive I had removed.   It's currently rebuilding, but I'm curious how it knows which one is the source and which one is out-of-date?
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How can I connect this laptop SATA HDD to regular desktop SATA cable? Please look at the picture for reference. I can't find any adaptors and not sure if any SATA dock has similar connector.    EDIT: An image of the drive with the interposer/bridge successfully removed.
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My motherboard is Asus P8B75-M. It doesn't have Intel Smart Response. But recently I bought a SSD. Since I mostly use linux I have Linux installed in it. But can I use it to speed up Windows also? How? I don't have Smart Response... (I run Windows 8.1). The SSD is only 64GB.
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I bought an SSD and I am going to set up my desktop system with a completely fresh Linux installation. SSDs are known to be fast, but they have a disadvantage: The number of writes (per block?) is limited. So I am thinking about which data should be located at the SSD and which at the HDD drive. Generally I thought that data that changes frequently should be placed on the HDD and data that doesn't change frequently can be put on the SSD.  Now I read  question, with a similar scenario. In the answers there is written: &quot;SSD drives are ideally suited for swap space...&quot; Why are SSDs ideally suited for swap space? OK, I see high potential for raising the system's performance, but doesn't swap data change frequently and hence there would be many writes on the SSD resulting in a short SSD lifetime?  And what about the /var directory? Doesn't its contents change frequently, too? Wouldn't it be a good idea to put it on the HDD?  Is there any other data that should not be located on an SSD?
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Is it possible to install the Windows system files on a small SSD and have all important folders (C:\Program Files, C:\Users) on a 2TB data drive?  I assume this is how one would use an SSD to achieve higher performance
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I upgraded my old computer with a Samsung EVO 850. I did a clean Windows 10 installation.  Installed Samsung Magic and fixed all the AHCI settings. Now I have full 6Gb/s transfer speed.  However, my problem is Windows "Optimize Drives" tool wants to defrag my SSD like a hard drive. As far as I know, this is bad.  The rest of the OS works fine, and my 3rd party programs see that it's a SSD.  CPU: Intel Core i7 (4th gen) Mobo: Asus P7P55DE_PRO RAM: 8GB
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Okay,  which was closed as being too localized and I understand the idea of that closure: Systems, environments and usage are all different. But my question is about using SSD for minimal write use, archival purposes. Meaning, instead of storing tapes, optical media (BluRay, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, etc…) or even a hard drive somewhere safe, what about SSD which uses NAND flash memory for storage? I assume the act of simply plugging in an SSD, copying data and then tossing the drive in safe/secure archival space disconnected from a system is a solid (no pun intended) way of storing long term data? I have worked with institutions that routinely archive things on hard disk drives in such a way. But as we all know a hard disk drive is one drop away from being wiped out. SSDs seem inherently much more resilient.  seems to state that modern SSDs — even those used on a daily basis — will outlast their own self-professed max lifetime. The reason I am asking this now is SSDs on a very basic consumer level are very cheap nowadays with — for example — 120GB SSDs going for as low as $40, I believe these things would be a good long term storage for things such as archived photos, videos and such… And will only get cheaper as time goes on.
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I've put a brand new SSD into my work computer and my IT department wants me to use BitLocker. I  on standard harddrives, but I was wondering - what's the performance impact of BitLocker like on a Solid State Drive?   Will it noticeably impact the speed with which I open my archive files in Outlook or open projects in Visual Studio?
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Please let me know if my question does not makes any sense as I am not sure if I am interpreting it correctly from my thoughts due to my lack of technical knowledge on this.   If I am using a motherboard which has a connection for a SFF-8087 to 4x cable such as this  connection.   I am still learning about SAS but was told to build a system from a potential employer utilizing these connections. However, I am just not sure I understand the concept on how the system will treat the SATA connections which are going into the SAS port via this cable.   Also what would be the advantage of doing it this way as opposed to just connecting the SATA drives directly into the SATA motherboard ports? I believe the built-in SAS connection may be an integrated RAID controller.   Although, yes I can just go ahead and connect all the cables that fit I would like to have a better grasp of what I am doing such as:   If a motherboard has SAS connections, should I automatically assume it has some type of RAID controller built-in or is this on a case by case basis? Do All RAID controllers have only SAS connections? Even though the SATA drives are connected via a SAS connection, are they still just treated as SATA drives or as SAS technology?
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When selling / throwing away / giving away HDDs I always use DBAN to do a DoD wipe first.  Is this still a valid thing to do on an SSD?  Will it have an adverse effect on the SSD's lifespan?
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Are SSDs comparable to HDDs for reliability and is there published research on this?  Also are all SSD manufacturers at a similar 'reliability level'?
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The old laptop won't work. So I'm looking to transfer data from my old laptop's hard drive, a 640 GB Momentus (I'm pretty sure the hard drive is fine),  to a new laptop.   I've researched and it looks like I'll need something like a USB to SATA/IDE cable. I've read and watched a couple of different demonstrations using different cables and sometimes using an external power supply. I'm not sure what exactly I need for my situation.   So, my question is what precisely do I need to buy in order to transfer data from my old Momentus 640 GB drive to my new HP EliteBook 8750p, and how exactly is this transfer made? From what I understand, after all of the connections have been made, it's a simple drag and drop.
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First, the situation:  I've got a Linux computer with two eSATA drive bays that accept removable SSD drives.  I'm trying to write a little GUI application that makes it easier for the user to mount/unmount/format/backup/etc the drives that he puts into these bays.  It all mostly works.  One small problem, however, is that I don't know how to find out any information about what's on the inserted drive(s) until after the drives have been successfully mounted.    So, for example, if the user inserts a drive that I can't mount (e.g. because it is unformatted, or formatted with an unexpected filesystem), all my app can say about it is "Drive failed to mount".  This isn't very satisfactory, because if the drive is unformatted, the user will probably want to format it... but if the drive contains data from an unrecognized filesystem, the user will probably NOT want to format it.... or at least, I want to be able to warn him that by doing so he'll be erasing potentially valuable data.  So my question is:  is there any method for querying some basic information (especially filesystem-type) from a drive that doesn't require that the drive already be mounted?  Or do I just have to try to mount it with various known filesystems until one of the mount attempts succeeds, and give a vague "be careful" message if none of them do?  In case it matters, the paths I use to mount the drives in the drive bays are:  /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.2-scsi-2:0:0:0 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.2-scsi-1:0:0:0
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My question:   Can anyone confirm or disprove the support of NVMe drives (like the Samsung 960) by the Sintech M.2 PCIe SSD MacBook adapters for macOS Sierra and High Sierra, or would you have any information that could help me confirm or disprove this support?  Below are the results of my research so far.    SSDs comparison  "Official" MacBook SSDs  Officially supported MacBook SSDs are really expensive. For example, with the Macbook Air/Pro 2013, 2014 and 2015 models:   : $299 for , $399 for , $649 for  : $524 for 256GB, $649 for 512GB, $949 for 1TB.   Equivalent PC SSDs  Globally, an officially supported MacBook SSD (PCIe M.2 AHCI with a proprietary 12+16pin connector) cost from about $1 to $2 per GB, while equivalent PC SSD (PCIe M.2 AHCI and NVMe with a key M connector) cost from about $0.4 to $1 per GB.  NVMe:   : $196 for 512GB (low quality) : $219 for 500GB : $316 for 480GB   AHCI:   : $300 for 480GB : $450 for 512GB   So standard PCIe M.2 devices seems to be up to 3x cheaper than the MacBook PCIe M.2 SSD. Plus, NVMe SSD are globally way faster.    NVMe SSD compatibility?  Connector adapter  At first for the connector, I often seen the   recommended to use the AHCI SSD above in a MacBook Air/Pro. The product page clearly stipules only compatible with a limited set of AHCI SSDs, but I do not see any reason for these "incompatibilities", as there is no other software/hardware standards for the PCIe M.2 AHCI models. It seems they simply give as compatible the list of the AHCI SSDs they've tested, and as incompatible the most known NVMe SSD models.  Interface compatibility  Then for the interface, what I understand from AHCI/NVMe is that it is only a controller interface, depending on the system drivers on the MacBook and not on the hardware itself.  Which seems to be consistant with:     I emailed the store which sell that adapter and problem is that macOS doesn't support 3rd party NVMe SSDs, but Windows 10 and Linux do.      -- From a  on a upgrade video with a AHCI SSD and the Sintech adapter.   So Sintech may have given these NVMe SSD as incompatible not because of the adapter incompatibility, but because of the destination OS incompatibility.  System support  Finally for the system, macOS now support NVMe SSDs, from unofficially OSX El Capitan (with a  to boot) and natively macOS High Sierra (even as boot, see an article about the  and a confirmation from the ).  I sent an email to Sintech to get more informations on their adapter. I got a reply with some references (added to this post), but no answer since.  Edit (23/06):     Unfortunately, we are busy in other projects, and still can't get new system to test it.     Similar researches  After I created this post, I seen there is some people with the same question in other communities, waiting at the same step. I share the links there in case of some of them got a return from a test with the Sintech adapter or an other one.  On    Por Chumjan (02/27/2016):     I think about to upgrade. Samsung 950 pro is interesting. But i'm not sure it can use for this model.  trumanhw (12/21/2016):     You can buy an adapter from M.2 to MBPr or Air for about $20... (...) The REAL question is if the NVMe protocol will be a hiccup (as in, I don't personally know that answer) ... and if it'll get the full speed of the 950. In principle, I don't see why it wouldn't. And I WILL be testing this out.  Fabio (06/10/2017):     [ About the patch ]. It is meant to be used on hackintosh but I think it might work on a macbook pro from 2015 with the adapter and a nvme ssd like the samsung 960/950 evo/pro. If someone tries or has tried it please let me know.
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I bought a new SSD for my Lenovo Thinkpad W530 (I am not sure if hadware is relevant). I installed 15.04 on the new SSD in EFI-only mode with manual partitioning (/efi, / and /home partitions, bootloader installed to /efi).  So far, so good. I then tried to insert my old drive because I wanted to copy some files on an external drive and then a new ssd drive. To my dismay, it refused to boot. I had to install repair-boot which solved the problem. I then inserted my new SSD and it againd refused to boot. Again, repair-boot solved it. What is going on? Is something written to some circuits on the motherboard in the laptop?
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I have an SSD with 64 GB and a 6 GB/s 1 Terabyte hard drive. I want to use the SSD only as a boot device and maybe for swap storage. On the 1 Terabyte hard drive, I want to have the main file system. As in Windows, I liked to have at least 2-3 Partitions example for music games programs and so on. Which partition layout do you recommend to me?