Well, I FINALLY got everything more or less sorted out, and the system seems to be stable now.

First, my WEI, then a 'snapshot', if you will, of the various bits of storage media I work with.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the setup now, and 4.7 is a darned site better than the 3.~whatever it used to be. And yes, that does represent nearly 4 terabytes (TB) of storage.



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Glad you got there in the end.

Think you hold the record for the most drives

One question, is 55.7 GB the size the SSD has given you after formatting or is the little 99.9MB drive a small partition on the SSD?

They are both on the new SSD. Something Windows 7 did on it's own, without prompting. I guess the tiny partition is where Windows places useful data like BitLocker encryption data and the boot manager/files. As to why it's only showing up as 55GB, I have no idea. But it seems to work now (for the most part).

You always lose space after formatting, the FAT or File Allocation Tables, actually takes space to create, so the bigger the drive the more you lose. 

That little drive seems odd though, was it hidden to start with?

I know Windows tends to leave some of the drive behind, don't know why that is but I have never seen one that has Data on it, they have all been blank and hidden for me, maybe its something to do with SSD, interesting.

The "missing" drive space is probably on a "super-hidden" partition, used by the government, for various nefarious purposes.

Quote from: DaveMorton on November 21, 2011, 21:37:09 PM
The "missing" drive space is probably on a "super-hidden" partition, used by the government, for various nefarious purposes.

Yup... that'll be it

Not totally sure but I do believe a 60GB drive is actually 64GB and the extra 4GB is used a temp swap drive to speed up data storage due to the weird way they work.

But it's only 99.9MB so maybe I'm wrong and you lot aren't paranoid. You're only paranoid in they're NOT talking about you.

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get me.

Actually, OCZ sells this drive as a 60GB, but I've done the calculations, and it's 60,000,000,000 bytes, based on 1000, which translates to only 55.9GB, based on 1024 - It's the same old thing, trying to make something sound better than it really is when you're selling it.

But the whole "CIA stole 4Gig from my drive" sounds cooler.

Think I'm going to order this SSD, same price and specs as the OCZ but comes with an adapter bracket, also shed loads of positive reviews.

Any thoughts? 

http://www.ebuyer.com/268693-corsair-120gb-force-3-ssd-cssd-f120gb3-bk-cssd-f120gb3-bk

Looks like a good buy.

Has the speed of an OCZ Vertex (£160) and a price of an OCZ Agility (£130).

My Dad has the Agility. Not sure of the difference between "Sandforce Controller" and "MLC NAND Flash" but I think this is how they differ. I may be comparing apples and oranges as this is where I lose it. 

Well after doing a bit more digging around I'm having second thoughts about the Corsair 120GB drive, I found lots of unhappy people who are getting nothing but problems with it.

Reviews

Then I went looking at the OCZ Agility 120gb reviews and I found the same type of thing but it must be said, fewer problems over all with the OCZ.

Summing up, lots of people are getting BSOD from SSD's many are complaining of the drives disconnecting by themselves, file corruption is another problem as is getting the BIOS to even see the drives. One must also be prepared to update the firmware a few times a year because none of the manufacturers seem to be able to get it right.  

I'm actually thinking SSD isn't right yet and there are many problems with them, it's a shame because I really want one, Ho Hum.

If its going to be an SSD it's looking like this one

http://www.ebuyer.com/268244-ocz-120gb-agility-3-ssd-agt3-25sat3-120g-agt3-25sat3-120g

But I have the feeling its not going to be a smooth journey. BUT I like a challenge 

Since I can't really find any software to help diagnose my problem, I've decided to test the drive in the same way that I initially discovered that there may be problems. But this time, I'm going to do it the "smart" way (I think/hope!). I'm keeping 7 on it's current drive for now, and I'll set up a dual boot system with XP on the SSD, and just run in XP until I either see a problem, or until the middle of January, whichever comes first. If no problems, then I'll have the fun of "trading places" with the Windows installs (oh, joy!). If I see a problem with the Xp install, then it's back to the OEM for the SDD. And tears. Lots of tears.

I have been keeping an eye on the SSD market and the only ones I would trust is the OCZ and Intel ones.

Been reading some of the reviews and noticed one with a plextor reference. Not seen them for sale but I bet they're pricey.

I'm surprised at needing drive firmware updates. Thought they'd pretty much sorted the teething problems.

I only have experience of one and all was plain sailing. So far anyway.

@ Dave, that does sound like a reasonable plan, I hope you can get to the bottom of the problem without having to RMA.

@Snowy thanks for the info.

Well I noticed that Amazon dropped the price of the OCZ to £125, best price I've seen it and I couldn't say no, its been ordered and will be here soon

Great news, Data! Just make sure to apply any firmware updates, and everything should be "hunky dory"!