[dba-SQLServer] Indexes not all listed

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue Dec 22 08:49:08 CST 2009


 >Part of my issues were that my test involves USB drives an it  could just be the bus problems.

This is absolutely true.  There are NO USB drives (or flash memory cards for that matter) that even 
approach the speeds of flash solid state drives.  The SSDs have an entirely different controller 
internally, they have massive amounts of cache ram, and they interface via the SATA II interface.

 >On anandtech.com they did an  extensive review on flash ssd and why they slow down over time.

And all of that is absolutely true, even with the fast flash drives that I mentioned and am using. 
Windows 7 has built-in stuff (trim) for sensing that it is using a flash and dynamically 
manipulating the drive to perform housekeeping that keeps the flash drive working at its full 
potential.  Even here the flash drive has to have firmware that supports that.  For Vista there are 
tools available that do the same thing, though I am not familiar with how they are used.

Bottom line, Flash drives are NOT rotating media, they do have issues and they do require special 
handling, particularly if you are using them with older OSes.  You cannot expect to just "drop one 
in" and see all of the advantages forever.

That said, much of the issue comes from *writes* over time.  As you all know, my Database From Hell 
is a read-only database, completely static.  Thus I have every expectation that *for this database* 
I could use flash drives without experiencing the issues that flash drives are so famous for.

Last week I rebuilt my Windows Media Center HTPC.  I decided to upgrade it from Vista to Windows 7 
(as a student I got a license for $29).  It was not an upgrade in the classic sense, I did a clean 
install, but I did so on my 30 gig OCZ Vertex SSD.  I upgraded the firmware of the flash drive, then 
did a clean install of Windows 7.  So I am now using a modern SSD as the boot drive for Windows 7. 
I placed all of the TV recordings out on a rotating media, and I am pulling the movie content from 
my server upstairs in my office.  So far the system is fast and stable, much more stable than Vista 
MCE was.  We shall see how it holds up over the long term.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Francisco Tapia wrote:
> Your milage may vary.
> 
> Like I said my expiriance is very different from what Colby had as  
> results. Part of my issues were that my test involves USB drives an it  
> could just be the bus problems. But I have not seen performance like  
> Colby mentioned I even triedthat speed boost in vista whichwas  
> supposed to be fast by moving in readonly files to a 4gb drive and  
> make it available to the os quicker than the sata drive.
> 
> On the machine with the ssd drive as the primary drive I am unsure if  
> this drive was intel or some other type. On anandtech.com they did an  
> extensive review on flash ssd and why they slow down over time.
> 
> Sent from my mobile




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