RSS 2011 & Wear Levelling

I've been after an SSD for a while now, but haven't bought one because Returnil is more important to me, and the last time I asked, Returnil and programs like Returnil shortened the lifespan of an SSD.

Just wondered if RSS 2011 had made any significant headway as far as wear levelling and the lifespan of an SSD is concerned?

And if not could you give me some idea as to how RSS 2011 will affect the lifespan? Will it drop the expected lifespan by a few % or will it trash the drive in a matter of months?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Also does RSS 2011 support TRIM?

Thanks In Advance

 

Hi,

There are some mitigating factors with RSS that are not present in the alternatives that can lessen this to a certain degree. The first is the use of Dynamic caching where changes are tracked within the available free space on the system. As the cache is not statically created and maintained, the start/end points of the writes may be different over time (ex: you are virtualized, but save some content to the real disk so the available free space is different than it was during the previous virtual session).

This does not address the majority of the cache which can be written to over many sessions as tracked information during this session overwrites anything that was there from a previous one. With the cache wipe option active, there will be more writes to all sectors within the cache due to the single pass overwrite.

We are working to address this in the RVS Lite series where the first part of the equation is already available: Creation and maintenance of the virtualization cache on a separate disk or partition for non-system disks (RVS Lite included multi-disk virtualization rather than just system virtualization).

This is not available yet for the system itself, but we continue to research solutions. The reason for the lag in development on this front is due to the structure of Windows and the limitations present as far as system specific virtualization is concerned (IOWs, non-system disks are much easier to virtualize than the system).

A way that you can level the writes with RVS Lite AND RSS/RVS Pro would be to keep the System as static as possible and move to a separation of System/Programs/Data so the changes take place on the program/data partitions or disks. What to expect:

RVS Lite 2011 (multi-disk virtualization version):
If you need to keep the program and data partitions on the SSD along side the System partition itself, then with the separation as described, you can divert the caches for the program and data partitions to a sacrificial platter drive (Extra drive bay, USB backup drive, etc) and keep changes on the system restricted to the absolute minimum needed to install your programs with their data diverted to the program partition folder or (more advanced) moving that to the data partition.

RSS/RVS Pro 2011 (system level only):
The configuration proposed above would also work here, but to minimize writes to the SSD itself, you can use the sacrificial platter drive idea to store/maintain your program and data partitions.

SSD and flash drive endurance have generally increased over time and should get better the longer the format stays popular. There is no real way to say other than that for most users, the drives should last as long as expected. For those who expect extremely heavy write operations, it may be good preparation (but not essential) to consider the separation idea presented above.

Mike

 

Thanks for your answer Mike, very informative.

 

Just one more question for you Mike if you don't mind.

The SSD I'm planning on getting is an OCZ Vertex 2E that uses the Sandforce controller.

Will having TRIM enabled cause any problems with RSS 2011? and if so will disabling TRIM affect performance?

I've emailed Faronics and Deep Freeze doesn't support SSD's that use TRIM technology, and it seems it's the same with Shadow Defender too.

 

Same reply as here:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=282678&highlight=TRIM

Mike

 

Cheers Mike