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Desktop upgrade - Can SSD and SATA hard disks work together? and more relevant queries

Hi All,
I have got a new 128 GB SSD, I have an i3 8GB ram machine... it has 2 Sata hard disks ... 2 TB + 1 TB... runs Win 10.

I installed win 10 on the SSD... and I am using it since a month... the machine has become faster .. I can feel the difference...

but recently it just stalls... it has started since last 2-3 days... happened 5-6 times till now.

I want to know if a SSD & SATA work good together.
one of my friends suggested I remove all applications like Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc and install them on SATA...

SSD should only have windows...

I want your opinion on this.

Thanks,
Prasadh

Dustin Saunders

You most certainly can run them together, but you want all your applications on the fast SSD data store not just Windows.

I install all applications and games on SSD and then all files, profile data, music, etc. on the slower 10k 2TB data store. If I have some items on C:\ that take up space, I may move the folder and then symlink them.

When you say it stalls, can you describe what happens? If you have task manager open can you see the IO on the disks? Does it just stop launching applications?

Prasadh Baapaat

ASKER

HI Dustin...
stalls means complete freeze...

I cant even start Task manager to kill a stalled application...

the only way is for me to shut down machine using power button...

I am confused by this....that's why I posted this question here

and yes I also installed a official SSD Dashboard program from Kingston... it gives the health parameters etc... its says SSD works fine...everything is good on that side.

Dustin Saunders

I don't see any reason to believe having the additional applications installed on the SSD would cause that problem.

Are you in AHCI or IDE SATA mode in Bios? Supposedly IDE will resolve that sort of issue with some SSDs.

Have you updated all relevant drivers (SATA, LAN, etc.)?

dbrunton

The problem isn't likely to be your combination of SSD and SATA drives. That's a common practice as Dustin describes above.

Instead of Task Manager try Process Explorer https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx and see what applications and processes are taking up your CPU usage.

SOLUTION

rindi

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Prasadh Baapaat

ASKER

HI All,

I checked the BIOS and the settings are:
Chipset SATA Mode is AHCI

plus UEFI Boot is enabled

@rindi I will check defrag settings & if SSD firmware is up to date

Prasadh Baapaat

ASKER

@rindi
I turned off the defrag... but it got turned off for all 3 Hard disks (1 SSD & 2 SATA)... is it ok?

I checked the firmware for SSD and it is up to date.

Prasadh Baapaat

ASKER

Here is the used / available space on all disks

rindi

Yes, you can turn off defrag for disks. It isn't necessary at all, and with SSD's it really kills them. On normal disks defrag doesn't help much anyway.

Prasadh Baapaat

ASKER

ok then... so as of now I will wait for a day or two.... will check if the freeze happens again... if not all is well :)

Thanks all for your inputs, will update later.

Thanks,
Prasadh

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Gary Case

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SOLUTION

nobus

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Prasadh Baapaat

ASKER

Hi All...
well it became worse and the machine stopped working... ultimately I had to reinstall Win 10 again...

The new comment of @garycase is helpful and also of @nobus.

The fans are working fine, but the machine can do with a dust cleaning :)

Thanks,
Prasadh

nobus

tx for the feedback Prasadh