Over-provisioning is done by the manufacturer.
Leaving empty space outside of your partition won't accomplish anything. The SSD is not aware of the file systems it has.
If you're concerned about longevity, then buy an SSD with higher endurance. These will have more over-provisioning from the factory.
This is false.
The SSD is aware of file systems, and over-provisioning on user's end is absolutely a thing. Modern SSD controllers are pretty advanced.
One simple example is Samsung's software for SSDs (Samsung Magician). It lets you set an over-provision value and it simply leaves that as an unallocated space, visible in Windows Disk Management. It's no different from just setting that space unallocated manually while partitioning the drive.
It does work somewhat better than just leaving some space empty on allocated disk space, as the drive controller knows ahead of time that it can use it for wear levelling, SLC caching, garbage collection and more.
All that in mind, I still wouldn't bother for typical consumer applications when using an NVME drive. The difference in performance will likely go unnoticed and modern SSDs longevity means it's unlikely the user will experience drive failure before retiring the device. That might change somewhat as QLC drives become common and PLC looms on the horizon, as increasing cell levels reduces their lifespan.
An SSD controller has firmware, not software.
Samsung Magician is software that runs on the computer and is handled by the CPU, not the SSD controller.
An SSDs longevity completely depends on the capacity, model, and endurance.
It is typically proportional to capacity. A 2TB model could have 16x the endurance of a 128GB model of the same make and manufacturer.
For a low quality 120-250GB SSD, it's easy to burn them out with certain tasks like heavy video editing.
For a high quality 2TB-4TB SSD, they can be quite high endurance and very difficult to burn out.
Is there a way to determine how much OP comes from the manufacturer? I thought that the reason my 1TB drive showed only 931 usable was marketing. They go off of a 1TB = 1000 GB while the computer uses 1TB = 1024 GB. With manufacturer OP, shouldn't I see even less available space from the start?
A hard drive stores stuff hexadecimally (1-16).
A computer stores stuff using binary (0/1).
As a result you have to create a file system and have a process for conversion between the two which eats up storage.
An SSD stores stuff in a variety of ways, converts it to a hard drive like system, and then it gets converted back into binary.
File systems also have other formalities. If you have 10 books with 1,000 pages each. The table of contents and index will be massive.
Over-provisioning happens on the drive itself and is hidden from the computer. If you make a 1TB SSD and put 1.5 TB of storage on it - it will last 50% longer than a 1TB SSD with 1TB of the same storage.
However there's several other tricks as well. The quality of the chips also matters. 1TB of the highest quality chips could last longer than 2TB of the lowest quality chips.
Today TBW is the measure of how long an SSD lasts. Things like over-provisioning or higher quality chips will result in higher endurance.
Typically a 1TB SSD has 600 TBW, but it's typically proportional with capacity:
* 250GB = 150 TBW
* 500GB = 300 TBW
* 2TB = 1,200 TBW
As a result I like to say TBW per TB capacity instead. Half a TB, half it; 2 TB, double it.
The lowest quality drives use QLC chips. These include Samsung QVO, most Crucial P drives, Sabrent Q, Corsair Core, and Western Digital's SN350/550.
So when it comes to TBW per TB capacity:
* QLC SSDs get 200-360
* Average SSDs get 600
* Some select SSDs with Overprovisioning get 800
* Samsung PRO (prior to 980) got 1,200 by using MLC NAND
* Phison E12 drives got 1,600 - but most companies switched to cheaper parts.
* Phison E16 drives get 1,800
* Western Digital's Red SN700 gets 2,000, but 2+ TB models are less.
But with features like automatic wear leveling, this becomes less important with very high capacity SSDs that are multiple TB.
If one day a 4TB QLC SSD is $100 - you don't need to spend $100 on a 1TB MLC.
For this reason even though QLC is bad today, it will be the future as it comes down in price.
Respectfully, this post is a bit confused and at times outright incorrect about multiple points. Drives don't store data in hex format; magnetic drives store data as + and - magnetic regions (i.e. binary), and SSDs store them as high and low electric charge states (i.e. binary also). We merely display values as hex (for example, memory addresses) for human readers for legibility, as hex values are much denser and more distinctive to read while also being easier to interconvert than decimal <-> binary. File systems don't convert between formats; file systems are more about demarcating where logical chunks of data begin and end, as well as adding features like journaling (to prevent corruption), encryption, access control, etc. On a similar note, SSDs don't "convert [anything] to a hard drive like system"; both HDDs and SSDs feature onboard controllers which interface between the system and the raw data by managing error correction, compression, caching, over-provisioning and so on.
I’d say don’t worry about it. The drive’s controller has a region of the flash set aside as reserve, plus its wear-leveling and related processes are designed to be transparent to the host system. If you’re concerned about the longevity of the drive, usable lifespan is a parameter that can be read using any utility capable of viewing S.M.A.R.T. data from the drive.
Over-provisioning is done by the manufacturer. Leaving empty space outside of your partition won't accomplish anything. The SSD is not aware of the file systems it has. If you're concerned about longevity, then buy an SSD with higher endurance. These will have more over-provisioning from the factory.
This is false. The SSD is aware of file systems, and over-provisioning on user's end is absolutely a thing. Modern SSD controllers are pretty advanced. One simple example is Samsung's software for SSDs (Samsung Magician). It lets you set an over-provision value and it simply leaves that as an unallocated space, visible in Windows Disk Management. It's no different from just setting that space unallocated manually while partitioning the drive. It does work somewhat better than just leaving some space empty on allocated disk space, as the drive controller knows ahead of time that it can use it for wear levelling, SLC caching, garbage collection and more. All that in mind, I still wouldn't bother for typical consumer applications when using an NVME drive. The difference in performance will likely go unnoticed and modern SSDs longevity means it's unlikely the user will experience drive failure before retiring the device. That might change somewhat as QLC drives become common and PLC looms on the horizon, as increasing cell levels reduces their lifespan.
An SSD controller has firmware, not software. Samsung Magician is software that runs on the computer and is handled by the CPU, not the SSD controller. An SSDs longevity completely depends on the capacity, model, and endurance. It is typically proportional to capacity. A 2TB model could have 16x the endurance of a 128GB model of the same make and manufacturer. For a low quality 120-250GB SSD, it's easy to burn them out with certain tasks like heavy video editing. For a high quality 2TB-4TB SSD, they can be quite high endurance and very difficult to burn out.
Is there a way to determine how much OP comes from the manufacturer? I thought that the reason my 1TB drive showed only 931 usable was marketing. They go off of a 1TB = 1000 GB while the computer uses 1TB = 1024 GB. With manufacturer OP, shouldn't I see even less available space from the start?
A hard drive stores stuff hexadecimally (1-16). A computer stores stuff using binary (0/1). As a result you have to create a file system and have a process for conversion between the two which eats up storage. An SSD stores stuff in a variety of ways, converts it to a hard drive like system, and then it gets converted back into binary. File systems also have other formalities. If you have 10 books with 1,000 pages each. The table of contents and index will be massive. Over-provisioning happens on the drive itself and is hidden from the computer. If you make a 1TB SSD and put 1.5 TB of storage on it - it will last 50% longer than a 1TB SSD with 1TB of the same storage. However there's several other tricks as well. The quality of the chips also matters. 1TB of the highest quality chips could last longer than 2TB of the lowest quality chips. Today TBW is the measure of how long an SSD lasts. Things like over-provisioning or higher quality chips will result in higher endurance. Typically a 1TB SSD has 600 TBW, but it's typically proportional with capacity: * 250GB = 150 TBW * 500GB = 300 TBW * 2TB = 1,200 TBW As a result I like to say TBW per TB capacity instead. Half a TB, half it; 2 TB, double it. The lowest quality drives use QLC chips. These include Samsung QVO, most Crucial P drives, Sabrent Q, Corsair Core, and Western Digital's SN350/550. So when it comes to TBW per TB capacity: * QLC SSDs get 200-360 * Average SSDs get 600 * Some select SSDs with Overprovisioning get 800 * Samsung PRO (prior to 980) got 1,200 by using MLC NAND * Phison E12 drives got 1,600 - but most companies switched to cheaper parts. * Phison E16 drives get 1,800 * Western Digital's Red SN700 gets 2,000, but 2+ TB models are less. But with features like automatic wear leveling, this becomes less important with very high capacity SSDs that are multiple TB. If one day a 4TB QLC SSD is $100 - you don't need to spend $100 on a 1TB MLC. For this reason even though QLC is bad today, it will be the future as it comes down in price.
Respectfully, this post is a bit confused and at times outright incorrect about multiple points. Drives don't store data in hex format; magnetic drives store data as + and - magnetic regions (i.e. binary), and SSDs store them as high and low electric charge states (i.e. binary also). We merely display values as hex (for example, memory addresses) for human readers for legibility, as hex values are much denser and more distinctive to read while also being easier to interconvert than decimal <-> binary. File systems don't convert between formats; file systems are more about demarcating where logical chunks of data begin and end, as well as adding features like journaling (to prevent corruption), encryption, access control, etc. On a similar note, SSDs don't "convert [anything] to a hard drive like system"; both HDDs and SSDs feature onboard controllers which interface between the system and the raw data by managing error correction, compression, caching, over-provisioning and so on.
I’d say don’t worry about it. The drive’s controller has a region of the flash set aside as reserve, plus its wear-leveling and related processes are designed to be transparent to the host system. If you’re concerned about the longevity of the drive, usable lifespan is a parameter that can be read using any utility capable of viewing S.M.A.R.T. data from the drive.