Experience with SSDs

I’ve been using my BBxM with an SSD for over 3 years, I think, so I decided to replace it with a new one, to try to reduce my chances of losing data. The old one was a SanDisk Ultra Plus 64GB. Since it has served me very well, I decided to replace it with a SanDisk SSD PLUS 120GB, which seem to be available from multiple sources at the moment for just over GBP25 including shipping. It arrived yesterday. I updated my copy of HForm, quit all unnecessary apps, and plugged the new one in. (I’m using two no-name USB-SATA adapters, which were very cheap from eBay.)

The first pleasant suprise is that my PSU was able to power both drives.

HForm formatted the new drive quickly and easily.

I copied all the files from the old drive to the new one in batches.

Finally I renamed the drives so that the old one was “44” and the new one “HardDisc4”, and rebooted.

Everything appears fine. I’m running with the new drive. The transition couldn’t have been easier.

So this is just to let everyone know that using an SSD on a RISC OS machine is easy and free of problems, at least in my experience.

I have no connection with SanDisk, Western Digital, or any of the suppliers, except as a happy customer.

Agreed. SSD and mSATA drives work very well on a Raspberry Pi using an appropriate USB converter.

So, so, much better than fussing about with SD cards.

How do you get the BBxM to boot off of the SSD? I’m guessing you still need the SD card for some initialization but interested in getting an SSD for my BBxM and my PandaBoardES.

Yes, you still need the SD card as a boot device, including storage of the RISC OS ROM image of course, but the SSD is used for eveything thereafter. The instructions for booting the thing off SD card still all apply, unchanged, and are the only way known to boot the things.

It does make me wonder whether I had to do anything to get the SSD to appear a a device on the icon bar. I don’t think I did, but of course it’s years ago now.

How do you get the BBxM to boot off of the SSD? I’m guessing you still need the SD card for some initialization but interested in getting an SSD for my BBxM and my PandaBoardES.

I can not help with BBxm and PandaBoard, but the Raspberry Pi 3B+ boards can be persuaded to boot without an SD card. But, my expereience is that it is not worth the effort and confusion. So, as Chris C says, I still have the RISCOS ROM Image and CMOS files on the FAT formatted SD card (and a handfull of other files that the Pi needs)

In a RISCOS Task Window, type

*configure filesystem SCSI

*configure SCSIFSDrive 4

OK, I got an SSD and a USB→SSD adapter. It shows up in !HForm. When formatting, do I make it bootable? Am I pretty much going to leave the FAT32 partition files that initialize the PandaBoardES on the SD card and everything else on the SSD? I was impressed how fast files copied over while testing the SSD under RISCOS!

When formatting, do I make it bootable?

It think it has to be, but I am not 100% sure. I certainly have all my SSDs set to be bootable and it works.

With regard to the files on the SDcards, there are two options:-
– leave the original SDcard as it was and just ignore the RISCOS files.
– use a new FAT formatted SDcard with just the files from the original Loader ‘partition’.

In either case, I have the SDcard icon disabled on the task bar by *RMkill SDFSfiler in the boot sequence.

Is there any RISC OS hardware that has SATA support ‘natively’ without going through a USB adapter?

It’s a bit of a shame the Pi doesn’t support it, but at least with the 3 you don’t get an SD card sticking out!

Is there any RISC OS hardware that has SATA support ‘natively’ without going through a USB adapter?

ARMX6/mini.m (one SATA port), and Titanium (four SATA ports).

Thanks. I may have to look into an ARMX6, if/when I can find the funds and time.. I had a lot more of both before kids!

ARMX6/mini.m (one SATA port), and Titanium (four SATA ports).

Completely forgot IGEPv5 (one SATA port).

Well I copied all the data over to my SSD after making it bootable in !Hform. Ran the configure commands and everything works! saw the red LED light on the SATA adapter light up while booting and opening apps. Thank you!

Experience with SSDs seems to be generally good, even if it’s interfaced via a SATA-USB adapter. I certainly noticed an immediate speed-up to my BBxM when I changed from spinning rust.

It’s now very cheap. with top-name 120 GB SSDs not much over 20GBP, and SATA-USB adapters much cheaper than that.

Also worth mentioning the diminutive “mini.m” machine that we sell, which offers eSATA connectivity for a range of SATA devices (including multi-disc enclosures). mini.m is 99% the same DNA as ARMX6, just in a smaller, cheaper form factor. Kind of depends whether you’re after a complete desktop machine, or a tiny, portable box that you can expand up from.

Another interesting route is that FAT32FS can be used with ARMX6/mini.m SATA (but not others) to handle FAT32 format discs, which can then be connected to other platforms, offering a useful bit of flexibility. In fact, the very first “native” SATA device I brought online with my prototype ARMX6 was a FAT32 formatted drive that I’d been previously using via a USB→SATA lead!

A small side note, though, regarding the recent “super cheap” SSDs. RISC OS doesn’t have any support for TRIM command etc, so may (will) generate more write cycles to the disc. Cheap SSDs may be using low grade TLC or QLC flash with limited lifespans, often without any SLC cache (found on the better drives). Long term, this may be less than ideal. I still personally prefer MLC drives if I can find them for RISC OS use, but they’re not easy to find any more. Also, not all controllers are created equally, and we’ve seen a few oddities with different drives over the years.

Hi,

This week, I ordered the Kingston – SA400S37/240Go and an external case with sata-usb adaptator. The packet arrived this morning… And surprise!!! I received the 480go version instead of the 240go I ordered and paid for 😊. Unfortunately, riscos does not support more than 256gb. Is there a way to partition the ssd and make riscos recognize two SSD’s of 240gb instead on one initialized to 256gb?

Thank you for your help.

François

Another interesting route is that FAT32FS can be used with ARMX6/mini.m SATA (but not others) to handle FAT32 format discs

Isn’t this old information? IIRC, Fat32FS has been extended to also be able to use ADFS and SDFS discs directly, not only SCSI/USB. Although I think that it needed some clever user interaction.

In either case, I have the SDcard icon disabled on the task bar by *RMkill SDFSfiler in the boot sequence.

Hi, could s.o. clarifies where to put this *RMKill SDFSfiler statement in the boot sequence?

Thank you.

EDIT: I put the command at the end of !Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesktop and it works

|Start RISCOS !Boot 0.72 Miscellaneous options
| -————————
|
| Misc
|
|—————————-
|
| Put other things which need setting up here.
|
RMKill SDFSFiler
|End

I hope this is the right place for it.

François

I *Unplug SDFSFiler than killing it; it seems “cleaner” that way.

I *Unplug SDFSFiler than killing it; it seems “cleaner” that way.

I thought that until I had trouble with an upgrade and was advised to use rmkill instead.

See this topic, third post from the bottom:
https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/11/topics/11389

It is also possible to write a couple of lines of BASIC to remove/hide the SDFS iconbar icon (or un-hide it). We do this to avoid confusion on “vanilla” ARMX6s where the OS ROM-card is :1 and :0 is the “spare” SD socket. These days, it is rarely needed because most machines ship with an extra drive in the slot (hey, extra backup storage is always good). It shouldn’t be necessary to completely kill the filing system. Also, on a Pi, it might affect cmos stuff, although that probably only needs sdiodriver and not sdfs.

I thought that until I had trouble with an upgrade and was advised to use rmkill instead.

Ahh, yes, if you don’t replug everything before a ROM upgrade then you’re asking for trouble :)

I also have BootFX unplugged so I’ve learned to reinit everything before changing the ROM.

Also, on a Pi, it might affect cmos stuff, although that probably only needs sdiodriver and not sdfs.

CMOS is fine with SDFSFiler killed/unplugged.