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

Posted on 2016-10-25

3 solutions

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Last Modified: 2016-10-30

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

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Question by:Prasadh Baapaat

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14 Comments

LVL 13

Expert Comment

by:Dustin Saunders

ID: 418591692016-10-25

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?

LVL 10

Author Comment

by:Prasadh Baapaat

ID: 418591842016-10-25

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.

LVL 13

Expert Comment

by:Dustin Saunders

ID: 418591942016-10-25

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.)?

LVL 49

Expert Comment

by:dbrunton

ID: 418591952016-10-25

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.

LVL 88

Assisted Solution

by:rindi

rindi earned 125 total points

ID: 418592832016-10-25

If you have stalls, that is probably due to some other problem. test your hardware (RAM using memtest86+, the conventional disks using their manufacturer's diagnostics, those tools you'll find on the UBCD, and the SSD using the SSD's diagnostic, also make sure the SSD's firmware is up-to date).

http://mirror.sysadminguide.net/ubcd/ubcd536.iso

Besides that also make sure that you have disabled things like defrag on the SSD. That is a sure SSD killer. Make sure your BIOS uses AHCI or SATA mode, and not IDE mode. SSD's only work properly in AHCI/SATA mode.

LVL 10

Author Comment

by:Prasadh Baapaat

ID: 418592982016-10-25

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

LVL 10

Author Comment

by:Prasadh Baapaat

ID: 418593092016-10-25

@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.

LVL 10

Author Comment

by:Prasadh Baapaat

ID: 418593142016-10-25

Here is the used / available space on all disks

LVL 88

Expert Comment

by:rindi

ID: 418593182016-10-25

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.

LVL 10

Author Comment

by:Prasadh Baapaat

ID: 418593302016-10-25

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

LVL 70

Accepted Solution

by:garycase

garycase earned 250 total points

ID: 418597662016-10-25

"... I want to know if a SSD & SATA work good together." ==> An SSD * IS * a SATA drive. It's just solid state instead of mechanical (i.e. no rotating platters). But they both have the same electrical interface (SATA).

And yes, of course you can mix solid state and rotating platter drives.

By the way, there is NO reason to turn off defrag => you should turn it back on. Windows 10 will NOT defrag any SSDs that are attached. If you look at the defrag schedule you'll see that any SSDs have a small blue symbol by the drive ... this indicates that Windows "knows" they're SSDs, and the "optimization" it will do on those drives is simply keep them TRIM'd.

LVL 92

Assisted Solution

by:nobus

nobus earned 125 total points

ID: 418597832016-10-25

the hanging of the system can be caused by many things - but one of the main causes is overheating
so check if all fans are running - and clean the system from dust
you can install speedfan to monitor the temps : http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

LVL 10

Author Closing Comment

by:Prasadh Baapaat

ID: 418658752016-10-30

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

LVL 92

Expert Comment

by:nobus

ID: 418659022016-10-30

tx for the feedback Prasadh

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