KVR Audio

Wopelka · Post by **Wopelka** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:38 am

I'm told that SSD is subject to a limited amount of data rewriting. Is it safe to have your DAW and plugins installed, together with your Windows system, on the main SSD partition of your computer? If not, how best to handle this specific issue? Thanks in advance.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:57 am

Wopelka wrote:I'm told that SSD is subject to a limited amount of data rewriting.

True, and the controller does it's best to work around that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling

Wopelka wrote:Is it safe to have your DAW and plugins installed, together with your Windows system, on the main SSD partition of your computer?

It's not less safe than to trust it to hold all your Word documents and family snapshots

99% of the OS, DAW and plugin files are written once and never updated. So these sectors of the SSD are not subject to rewrites & wear. It's only the "hot data" that is rewritten all the time you should be scared about. But some controllers will periodically move the static data to even out the wear across the whole device. I've read somewhere that to wear out the whole device you'd need to do an unrealistic large amount of writes non-stop for a whole decade. By that time your terabyte drive is replaced anyway with a device that can hold peta-bytes.

On a system based on one single SSD I'd try to run it without any page file. Your main RAM should be big enough to hold everything you need in a session, so there's no need for any virtual memory stored on disk (i.e. the page file) to enlarge it.

sbj · Post by **sbj** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 10:37 am

I use this program to avoid unnecessary writing to my SSD

https://www.abelssoft.net/apps/ssd-fresh/

There is a free version and one that cost 10 euro

Straight forward and easy to use

Wopelka · Post by **Wopelka** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 10:58 am

Excellent. Thanks for the answers so far.

Don't DAWS write on disk in order to manage their tasks, particularly with regard to latency issues and memory management?

2ZrgE · Post by **2ZrgE** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:06 am

Wopelka wrote:I'm told that SSD is subject to a limited amount of data rewriting. Is it safe to have your DAW and plugins installed, together with your Windows system, on the main SSD partition of your computer? If not, how best to handle this specific issue? Thanks in advance.

A hard disk isn't safe either, you know.

I use an SSD for my full system for about 2,5 years now. If it dies, it dies (like a HD). But the comfort is worth the risk (VSTs and samples load really fast, booting etc very quick). I don't know if statistically a SSD breaks faster than a HD, and I don't care because a SSD is so much better.

There are three rules though: backup, backup, backup.

2ZrgE · Post by **2ZrgE** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:09 am

sbj wrote:I use this program to avoid unnecessary writing to my SSD

https://www.abelssoft.net/apps/ssd-fresh/

There is a free version and one that cost 10 euro

Straight forward and easy to use

Normally you get such a program for free with your SSD (for example Samsung SSD Magician).

But despite the name (and description) those programs cannot do magic (and are just for the anxious people anyway).

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:13 am

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8239/upda ... d-die-size

Worst case scenario for a Samsung 850 Pro is halffull discwrite every day for 5 years.
Most likely scenario,it'll outlive you.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:18 am

The first-generation 4Gb SSD on my Asus eee still works, 7 and a half years on. I think I'd trust a modern one.

el-bo (formerly ebow) · Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:19 am

these days ssd's are guaranteed to write huge amounts of data on the daily. if in doubt, pay a bit more for a 'pro' drive that is guaranteed for even bigger amounts, and for more years

either way, a proper backup workflow will still be necessary; if a drive fails within guarantee they can replace it, but that won't stop you losing data

MFXxx · Post by **MFXxx** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:37 pm

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac ... 900/review

http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-8 ... 2gb-review

I see this as particularly inexpensive in terms of SSD and compatibility 180 GBP and 10 year warranty on the pro versions.

As far as benchmarks go it does have an incredibly high rewrite life time, so you should be fine.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-512GB-S ... B00LF10KTO

Personally run a 120GB SSD for main os,daw, plugins. 500SSD (above) for main data files ie NI, Serum
and another data drive for everything else. For audio recording I currently use a WD150GD Raptor, however have a spare 120SSD and may give this a go to see how it performs...personally believe the technology is now here and if you have the right interface hardware and choose the best SSD you should be fine. However nothing is guaranteed so backups is always your friend.

sprnva · Post by **sprnva** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 9:12 pm

I've had a 128GB Crucial M4 as my main boot drive for almost 3 years. No DAW work but Windows, apps and games.

In the 13000+ hours it's ran I've written almost 12TB of data to it and it's health status is at 97%. Now I'm looking to replace it with a 256GB disk as space is getting tight and the prices are coming down. Bottom line is your SSD will probably outgrow it's usefulness long before you can wear it out.

That said, unlike a hard disk where you might have some chance of salvaging data in the event of a hardware failure, you're pretty much out of luck with SSDs. If it packs up it'll likely take all your data with it. So I'd strongly recommend some kind of regular backup system so you won't get caught short in case anything happens.

DAW and plugins on SSD, is it safe?