FAQs

The capacity is shown in "Megabyte" (same with Hard Disk Drive, 1MB = 1000KB). In Windows environment or DOS mode, 1MB equals to 1024 KB.  Therefore 1GB is approximate 953MB.
The actual available memory on the device is less than what is listed on the package. This is due to small discrepancies in file format and algorithms used by various operating systems. In addition, a portion of memory space is reserved for system files and data sectors for better performance.

1. Virtual memory is a memory management technique that provides from windows system.
DRAM is a limited resource, whereas for most practical purposes, virtual memory is unlimited.
When the memory being used by all the existing processes exceeds the available RAM, the operating system moves pages of one or more virtual address spaces to the computer’s hard disk. In Windows systems, these “paged out” pages are stored in one or more files (Pagefile.sys files) in the root of a partition. There can be one such file in each disk partition. Please refer to Microsoft official website page as below：
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2160852/ram-virtual-memory-pagefile-and-memory-management-in-windows

2. How to release the capacity from your hard drive?

2-1 Portable HDD：Please process it with normal format.

2-2 System HDD：My Computer(right click)>Properties>Advanced system settings> Advanced(sheet) > Setting > Advanced(sheet) > Virtual Memory(Change…) >Cancel the item「Automatically manage paging file size for all drives」

We infrequently release new versions of SSD firmware that addresses compatibility issues and improves the stability of usage. Customers can verify their firmware version through the SSD Widget before updating to the latest version! NOTE: updating the SSD firmware will erase all data stored on the drive. Please remember to back-up all data before performing firmware update!

Please download the tool with the following link: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat.exe

Step 1: Select the disk drive to be formatted.

Step 2: Click on Start to begin formatting. The FAT32 file system will be displayed after the formatting is complete.

Due to the variation between test parameters and methods used by each SSD test application and the differences in test environment setups, the same model of SSD drive may have different speed results when tested with different software on the same platform.

1. Please check that the AHCI Mode is enabled under the SATA option in the BIOS. If it has been set to IDE Mode previously, then we suggest not turning on the AHCI mode as the system may not boot properly. The AHCI mode must be enabled before installing the operating system; AHCI drivers must be manually loaded when installing operating systems other than Windows OS®.

2. Manually update the AHCI driver to the latest version (please download the latest drivers according to the chipset model from the official websites of AMD/Intel/Nvidia; for Intel chipset users, we recommend installing the Intel Matrix Storage).

3. Test the speed with the ATTO Disk Benchmark tool.

The SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) technology was first proposed in the ATA-3 standard and was jointly developed by Quantum and Compaq. It is used to monitor the working status of hard drive and can automatically monitor the working status of hard drive through the motherboard BIOS. Although SMART has a unified reporting standard for mechanical hard drives, it does not include solid state drives, therefore SSD SMART parameter settings are not consistent between manufacturers. This will result in error messages being displayed when accessing SSD SMART data with test programs or other drives. Generally, programs that access SMART data (e.g. diskinfo, HD tune, etc.) default to reporting HDD status, since some of the SSD attributes overlap with HDD.

As an example, in the following diagrams the ID05 attribute for normal HDD is defined as “Reallocated Sector Count”, however for SSD the ID05 is defined as “retired block count”, which is fundamentally different.

ID05 attribute for HDD

ID05 attribute for SSD

The test program will use the default “Reallocated Sector Count” value to access the raw data from the device (retired block count), and when the raw data exceeds the range of values defined by the program, a warning message will be displaced. The data accessed by test programs currently available online is not indicative of the drive’s actual status; even the diagnostic software released by the SSD manufacturer is not suitable for use with other manufacturers’ SSDs, since each vendor defines SSD attributes differently. Therefore, the SMART data does not accurately reflect the SSD service life and drive usage status.