Samsung Evo 850 question

[sw rec]

The new build is progressing slowly (maybe surely. Hard to tell.) Anyway, got my Samsung EVO 850 SSD, along with a really AWFUL set of "install instructions." If I had grandkids, I'd give them this sheet to color! There's also a disc, and according to the pictures, you use an e-sata to USB connector (not included) and run a disc optimization on an existing PC? (This could be tricky...both of mine are dead because of the lightning strike.) Since this is a new, ground-up build, do I treat this thing like any old SATA drive, and just commence to installing Windows? There are no hard-copy instructions at all.

[Darryl Ramm]

First thing with any SSD is check the firmware us up to date.

Next thing is work out what over-provisioning you want and you can use Samsung's Magician's software to do that on another system to do that before you start doing anything else. Magician will also check the firmware for you, so just go there first.

Then treat it like any other SATA drive. If you want to use a USB/Sata aapter to move stuff to it your choice, or just do a new full install on it. Just like any other drive.

You should install the Samsung Magician software on you new Window system, it's useful for diagnostics, upgrading firmware etc.

[sw rec]

Tricky part, again, is, no working computers here. Just an i-pad. I'm guessing that updating firmware after the OS is installed is probably a bad idea? (There was no sata-usb cable like it showed in the cute little "instruction" sheet.)

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by sw rec

Tricky part, again, is, no working computers here. Just an i-pad. I'm guessing that updating firmware after the OS is installed is probably a bad idea? (There was no sata-usb cable like it showed in the cute little "instruction" sheet.)

It's maybe more of a risk if there is an update available, but if applying the update on a existing drive was trashing lots of drives we would be hearing hell about it. Also it's quite likely you have no firmware updates. I don't think there are actually any 850 Evo firmware updates, but the point is to always check. Some have been really important on older drives. They are listed on Samsungs web site for use outside of Magician.

[sw rec]

Update. Installed it, loaded OS (Win 10) just like I always have with a standard spinner drive. Works great. Very fast. And QUIET! Love it! Thanks for the help.

[albee1952]

Much the same experience with the 840 EVO too. Installed the OS, ran the Magician software and never looked back. Even when recovering from a drive image done from a spinning drive, the magician software sped it up considerably(in fact, I ran that software on my first SSD, a Samsung 830, and performance got way better). My only warning regarding the software is; if your external drives(on USB or firewire) suddenly disappear, uninstall and re-install Magician.

[sw rec]

I never did run Magician on it. Now that everything is working splendidly, would you recommend doing it now, or will it mess things up?

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by sw rec

I never did run Magician on it. Now that everything is working splendidly, would you recommend doing it now, or will it mess things up?

Having run it on all my SSD's(5 of them), the oddity of external drives disappearing is the ONLY issue I can report(and removing and reinstalling solved that). As always, you could(should?) save a drive image BEFORE running Magician so you can recover easily if something goes awry for you

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by sw rec

I never did run Magician on it. Now that everything is working splendidly, would you recommend doing it now, or will it mess things up?

There is no need to, except to play. But it's kind of nice to know Magician works on your system and with that your drive, any errors could be found, firmware upgraded in future etc. It should not make any difference to performance unless you say change the overallocation or force a manual TRIM (which you can't do on modern Windows OSes as they don't need it). And most folks would not notice any difference.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by sw rec

I never did run Magician on it. Now that everything is working splendidly, would you recommend doing it now, or will it mess things up?

Best advice I can give is once its working, don't bother with it. Earlier this year an 850 pro firmware bricked all the drives that installed it. So it can happen, the benefits are negligible at best. If its not broke, don't try to fix it!!