SSD question about overfilling the drive

Hello,

I heard that in order to keep the SSD at its best health, you have to keep 10% of its size empty and not overfill it with data.

Now my question is about a Samsung 128GB SSD. I have 2 partitions on it and threfore should I keep each partition 10% empty i.e. Partition A (80GB), 8GB empty? Or can I fill both partitions in any combination, but so that the 10% is free of the orginal size (128GB), when the free space in both partitions is summed up?

Do you follow me here?

 

Samsung Magician also gives you the option of "overprovisioning" the drive so you don't have to worry about that. The object is that the SSD will use it for leveling, etc. It isn't necessary, but not a bad idea, either. I have the 256GB drive and use 16GB as overprovision. It uses the space to move data, while doing garbage collection and if and when the drive starts to fill..it reallocates some of your data into it, so it can function faster

 

Hey, thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded the program that you suggested, but it says that "Samsung Magician cannot communicate with the selected Samsung drive".

My SSD is Samsung PM800 120GB SSD. It runs under SCSI mode.

Should I update the BIOS of the SSD... or is this drive simply not supported by the program?

 

There's no need to do so - all SSDs ship with unaccessible space that fulfills the empty space requirements.

More unused space will of course improve performance, but at what point do you stop? Will you leave half the drive empty? How about 75% empty? Or even 90% empty?

 

~80-85% according to Intel's study in terms of 'bang for the bucks'.

 

The way SSDs do wear leveling and garbage collection, partitions are entirely virtual. They are not assigned to a specific place on the disk, and they can be moved around by the SSD controller at will. Total drive space is all that matters, and whatever free space you need/desire can be split between as many partitions as you want.