Disk performane - date of installation and data

[docrobin]

Disk Performance data is showing nicely now since the registry changesI made enabled the counters.

The first line is "Total Data Read nn GB NNN GB since installation (dd/mm/yyyy)"

This is invaluable information, particularly for SSDs. But, is it correct? I installed my SSD back in August, 2012. Later, I discovered HDS and bought the Pro version. The "date of installation" shown for the SSD was 10/12/2012, which might have been the installation date of HDS. It certainly is not that of the SSD. Similarly, an HDD I have had 4 years shows date of installation as 1/1/2012.

Recently, without any changes on my part, the date of installation for the SSD has changed to 30/12/2012. The "GB since installation NNN" has also dropped to a lower figure.

I therefore think that this data is erroneous. The dates of installation are not being picked up properly for the devices, and the amounts read and written since installation are not correct either.

Or am I misinterpreting what "date of installation means, or is this whole section not being displayed properly because the installation dates are wrong and therefore so are the total data read and written measures?

docrobin

[hdsentinel]

I can make sure the devices (HDD or SSD) do not provide any kind of date when they first used.

So the "date of installation" means the very first date when Hard Disk Sentinel finds the particular device.
This is (in general) the date of installation of the software - but if the device is added since that, then the date of installation of the device itself.

Did you update firmware of the SSD? If so, Hard Disk Sentinel may use it as a very new device because the firmware update may have changed some internal structure, S.M.A.R.T. value reporting and so, which would make it useless to continue with the previous values. So in this situation, Hard Disk Sentinel treats it like a new device (not yet installed) and this may cause that the "date of installation" changes.

For some SSDs, there may be internal counters of total written data available. If there is a such counter available, Hard Disk Sentinel displays the total amount of data written on the main page. This is the total data written in the lifetime of the SSD, completely independent from installation of the device and/or Hard Disk Sentinel in this computer.

[docrobin]

>I can make sure the devices (HDD or SSD) do not provide any kind of date when they first used.

Thank you. I did not know that.

>So the "date of installation" means the very first date when Hard Disk Sentinel finds the particular device.
>This is (in general) the date of installation of the software - but if the device is added since that, then the date of installation of the device itself.

OK.

>Did you update firmware of the SSD? If so, Hard Disk Sentinel may use it as a very new device because the firmware update may have changed some internal structure, >S.M.A.R.T. value reporting and so, which would make it useless to continue with the previous values. So in this situation, Hard Disk Sentinel treats it like a new device
>(not yet installed) and this may cause that the "date of installation" changes.

I updated the firmware of the SSD before I bought HDS. What I did have to do is run SFC /scannow late December. I don't know what effect that might have had.

>For some SSDs, there may be internal counters of total written data available. If there is a such counter available, Hard Disk Sentinel displays the total amount of data >written on the main page. This is the total data written in the lifetime of the SSD, completely independent from installation of the device and/or Hard Disk Sentinel in >this computer.

Right. The program SSDlife Pro tells me that this sort of data is not made available externally for the Crucial M4 SSD. So, does HDS get its throughput data from Windows counters and SMART?

hdsentinelSite Admin Posts: 788Joined: 2008.07.27. 16:00Location: Hungary

Thanks for the info.

[hdsentinel]

> So, does HDS get its throughput data from Windows counters and SMART?

Yes, the S.M.A.R.T. of Crucial M4 does not have internal counter to show total amount of written data. For other SSDs, there may be attributes for example "Lifetime writes", "Total LBA written" and so. If any of these present, Hard Disk Sentinel immediately show the total amount of data written on the main page below lifetime stats.

For all devices (like this SSD), the Performance page shows total write / read statistics, which are based on Windows performance counter objects. Because these work differently, the measurements require that Hard Disk Sentinel need to be active (even minimised) to monitor the total amount of data transferred.

It may be a good idea if you could configure installation date for the particular device.

[docrobin]

Excellent idea. I shall look them up later. Thanks for the help.

RB