[SOLVED] Question about adding an ssd to system

[thecdn]

I currently have a 1tb hd that has a win 7 partition (gaming,work) five linux partitions and a large shared storage partition. I use pclinuxos's grub.

I just added a new intel 180gb ssd drive to my system. Set it as the default boot drive and installed win 7 on it. My original hd is there as the secondary, with the original c: drive showing up as e: and the storage partition as f:

If I run redombr from the livecd will I be able to install grub to the mbr of the ssd, using the settings from my pclinuxos partition on my (now) second drive?

I've never used an ssd before so I'm just trying to double check things so I don't do something dumb and have to start over.

Thanks.

[muungwana]

ssd drives behaves the same way traditional,rotational drives do.You dont have to see them any differently.

If things work,then they would have worked even if you used traditional hard drive.
If things dont work,then they wouldnt have have worked even if you used traditional hard drive.

People usually add additional options to fstab for ssd drives to help prolonging their lives.I cant think of any option but there are threads here that talk about them.

[Crow]

I'd just put an SSD in my work laptop and haven't seen a difference in the way to install. Speed is another thing, is the best upgrade I could have done to my laptop     I've seen some difference in the battery, seems to me it last longer but I haven't test it.

[tschommer]

I put a new SSD in my desktop pc and am also very happy.

I read up before installing, and the main thing was to be careful that the created partitions are correctly aligned, but it was not a problem with GParted, because the appropriate settings are standard there.

[agmg]

In addition to what said, you have to make sure that TRIM is enabled for your ssd.

From Wikipedia
TRIM command allows an operating system to inform a solid-state drive which blocks of data are no longer considered in use and can be wiped internally.

In my installation it wasn't enabled by default but it's easy to do.

To do that, your partition(s) must be formatted with the ext4 filesystem and add the "discard" option to your fstab:

kdesu kwrite /etc/fstab (root password)

Example:

# Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=aa5efeff-2e22-434f-8e19-0f1e25ea22ab / ext4 defaults,discard 1 1

You may also consider adding the "noatime" (which also implies "nodiratime") option to reduce unnecessary disk writes (unless you really care about last access times).

noatime - Don't update inode access times on the filesystem.
nodiratime - Do not update directory inode access times on the filesystem.

Some articles I found useful:
http://apcmag.com/how-to-maximise-ssd-performance-with-linux.htm
http://techgage.com/article/enabling_and_testing_ssd_trim_support_under_linux/
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives#Introduction

[Just17]

# Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=aa5efeff-2e22-434f-8e19-0f1e25ea22ab / ext4 defaults,discard 1 1

How does one find out what the "defaults" are?

I recall reading somewhere that the 'defaults' for SSD automatically include 'discard' .....  but cannot confirm this so far.

I also have added 'discard' to the fstab line ......  but wonder if it is necessary.

I did come across this

Warning: Users need to be certain that kernel version 2.6.33 or above is being used AND that their SSD supports TRIM before attempting to mount a partition with the discard flag. Data loss can occur otherwise!

Info here
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives#Mount_Flags

[agmg]

defaults Uses the default options that are rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async.

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

Unless PCLinuxOS uses other defaults, discard should be added for SSDs.

[Just17]

defaults Uses the default options that are rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async.

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

Unless PCLinuxOS uses other defaults, discard should be added for SSDs.

tuXfile created: 12 October 2003
Last updated: 5 September 2009

Last updated more than 3 years ago ........

Any idea where the info is held on which options are applied by 'defaults'?

[agmg]

defaults Uses the default options that are rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async.

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

Unless PCLinuxOS uses other defaults, discard should be added for SSDs.

tuXfile created: 12 October 2003
Last updated: 5 September 2009

Last updated more than 3 years ago ........

Any idea where the info is held on which options are applied by 'defaults'?

Plus, it's referring to the ext2 filesystem.

Try cat /proc/mounts

You've made me wonder so I searched it out

Also: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt

[Just17]

defaults Uses the default options that are rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async.

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

Unless PCLinuxOS uses other defaults, discard should be added for SSDs.

tuXfile created: 12 October 2003
Last updated: 5 September 2009

Last updated more than 3 years ago ........

Any idea where the info is held on which options are applied by 'defaults'?

Plus, it's referring to the ext2 filesystem.

Try cat /proc/mounts

You've made me wonder so I searched it out

Also: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt

That link (undated?) gives me this

discard         Controls whether ext4 should issue discard/TRIM
nodiscard(*)      commands to the underlying block device when
         blocks are freed.  This is useful for SSD devices
         and sparse/thinly-provisioned LUNs, but it is off
         by default until sufficient testing has been done.

which leaves it open ......  has the default been changed yet?   I have no idea ....

Going a little OT now .....  but for mounts that are not specified in fstab .....  such as user mounts of partitions, which are mounted under /media/disk or whatever, the discard option is not specified apparently.

So, if a data partition residing on a SSD is mounted in user space it would appear that Trim is not activated.

I don't have an option at present to try mounting an OS without the 'discard' being explicitly added to the fstab for a SSD partition .....  but would be inclined to believe that the defaults for SSDs do not include it presently.

[agmg]

I have read many articles regarding TRIM and enabling support for it with the ext4 filesystem, so I guess the defaults still don't include the discard option.

[thecdn]

I've run redombr from the livecd several times, with both hd's as the boot disk, and it won't 'take', the win 7 install on each hd boots right away. (The mbr on my original 1tb drive got blown away when I had restore windows on it - long story).

Would a clean install of pclinuxos give a better result installing grub to the mbr?

[Just17]

You can install Grub to the MBR of a HDD manually, from a terminal .......

In a terminal, as root, type   grub

then at the grub prompt (grub>) type

grub> find /boot/grub/menu.lst

That will return info on all partitions in which it finds a menu.lst file

The first number is the HDD number starting at 0, followed by the partition number starting at 0.

So (hd0,0) is the first partition on the first HDD;  (hd1,2) is the third partition on the second HDD.

Let us say you get back a list and decide that (hd0,2) is the partition you wish to control booting.

You would then issue the command

grub> root (hd0,2)

and then to install to the MBR of the first HDD use the command

grub> setup (hd0)

{If the install has been successful it will be reported. If you get errors please copy and paste them into your next post}

grub> quit     (to exit the programme)

[thecdn]

You can install Grub to the MBR of a HDD manually, from a terminal .......

That did it thanks. I guess I couldn't 'redo' what didn't yet exist on the hd's.

[Just17]

You can install Grub to the MBR of a HDD manually, from a terminal .......

That did it thanks. I guess I couldn't 'redo' what didn't yet exist on the hd's.

Great!
Glad all is well now 

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