Using the SanDisk SDSA5DK-016G-1006 SSD Cache with ???

[Quantum_C0wbell]

I have replaced the original system spinning hard drive with an SSD (Windows 10 on a Samsung 850). I also have added two regular hard drives (non-SSD): one for data/documents (1TB)  and the other for photos (2TB). The original system also came with a 16GB SanDisk SDSA5DK-016G-1006 SSD on the motherboard that was used for caching the now-removed original WIndows OS hard drive.

Currently the SanDisk SDSA5DK-016G-1006 16GB is enabled in device manager. However, I was wondering if there is still any benefit to using this cache drive since the main drive with the Windows 10 OS is also an SSD (Samsung 850).  For instance, does the SanDisk SSD cache also support the two data drives? or just the OS SSD drive?

[old_geekster · Accepted solution]

@Quantum_C0wbell , welcome back to the forum.

Since I wasn't certain myself if it would work with your SSD, I went directly to SanDisk for an answer:  https://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6790/~/using-expresscache-software-in-a-ssd-plus-ssd-...

Apparently, it will not work.  You should definitely use Samsung's Magician software to tweak your SSD for the best performance:  https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/magician/.  I use it with both of my Samsung drives.

I don't believe that you will get much benefit from it with your backup HDD drives, either.

Please click the Thumbs up + button if I have helped you and click Accept as Solution if your problem is solved.

[Quantum_C0wbell]

Old_Geekster, Thanks for the very useful information. Concurrently I had been looking into why I was getting "Hard Disk Error" messaging at boot up in recent times... I ended up replacing the original 2TB spinning hard drive with the Samsung EVO 850 250GB SSD to see if the error would go away (it didn't).

Turns out, the SanDIsk cache SSD was the culprit. I removed it per this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddHxZ69FWcI and the hard disk error "3F6" went away when I next powered up. And wow, it's like having a new computer - so much faster (plus there's 20GB of RAM installed).

I'll next download the Samsung utility you recommended and add that into the picture. By the way I used Macrium Reflect (full version) to clone the Windows 10 OS from the 2TB drive to the Samsung SSD; it worked well although I should mention that I needed to manually drag and drop the 3 non-recovery related partitions on to the Samsung (otherwise there would not have been enough space on the SSD to proceed with the cloning). I'm well backed up and don't need those two recovery-related partitions.

[old_geekster]

You are very welcome, @Quantum_C0wbell!  Thank you for the very good update on your situation and the additional information.  I have always used Samsung's Data Migration software to clone my drives, since I buy all Samsung products.  Macrium Reflect (full version) is also very good.