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Samsung Magician Software for SSD Drive Management FAQ
Samsung magician software is the tool developed by Samsung to manage its SSD drives. This tool can be very useful for you if you have Samsung SSD and having so much data stored in it.
This is great tool to manage and customize Samsung SSD. This tool is totally free to download and use without any advertisement.
Once you download, install and start using your Samsung Magician Software you will find it very useful.
In this post, we have discussed about Samsung Magician Software in details. This article is all about Samsung Magician Software questions and answers.
Many of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)s are covered in this post so don’t forget to check answers to your questions.
You can also ask you question related to Samsung Magician Software as well as you can answer to questions asked in comment section below.
Table of Contents
Samsung Magician FAQ
Ques: What is Samsung Magician Software?
Ans: Samsung Magician is a software developed by Samsung for its internal as well as portable SSD to monitor drive health, maximize driver performance and customization of Samsung SSD.
Ques: Do I need Samsung Magician Software?
Ans: If you own Samsung SSD then you must try Samsung Magician Software at once as it has multiple features to customize, secure & boost the SSD performance.
Ques: Is Samsung Magician free?
Ans: Samsung Magician software is totally free to download and use so you need not to pay anything to use it. But it will only work with Samsung drives as it doesn’t support other brand drives.
Ques: Does Samsung Magician really work?
Ans: Yes, Samsung Magician Software really work for Samsung SSD. But it doesn’t support other brand drives. So it will only work with Samsung SSD but will not work with only other brand drive.
Ques: How to download Samsung Magician Software?
Ans: Samsung Magician Software is free to download and use. You can download it from Samsung official Website. You can also download Samsung Magician Software from this website also.
Ques: How to update samsung magician software?
Ans: Samsung Magician is very easy to update. You can update it from its dashboard. Open Magician software in you PC or Mac and click on Update option given left bottom of your software dashboard. Make sure your PC or Mac is connected to internet.
Ques: Failed to update Samsung Magician Software?
Ans: If you are unable to update Samsung Magician Software using built-in update option in the software then you can try to download and install the latest version from the Samsung official website manually.
Ques: Samsung magician software doesn’t recognize SSD?
Ans: Make sure your SSD is showing in File Manager of your PC. If it is not showing in File Manager then check the connections properly. Follow the steps if SSD is showing in File Manager:
- Check your SSD is supported by Samsung Magician Software from the supported device list.
- Make sure your SSD is working and not damaged.
- Try to restart you PC and reconnect SSD.
Ques: Samsung magician software requirements?
Ans: The minimum requirement for Magician software are as follows:
- Samsung original SSD (Internal or Portable) connected to your PC.
- Windows 32bit or 64bit PC OR also work on Mac book.
- Windows 7/8/10 home or Pro version.
- For more information refer Samsung Magician Software Installation guide.
Ques: Samsung magician software user manual?
Ans: You can download the official documentation on how to install and how to use it properly from the download links given below.
- Download the Samsung Magician Software official user manual.
- For more information refer Samsung Magician Software Installation guide.
Ques: Samsung Magician Software secure erase?
Ans: This software provides you many security features which are as follows:
- Activate Encrypted Drive to protect private and sensitive data.
- Magician lets you review your drive’s current security settings.
- It also helps you with the security setup process.
- Permanently delete sensitive data without compromising the functionality of your SSD.
How to use Samsung Magician — installation, features and optimization of manufacturer’s SSDs
Solid-state drives have long occupied the niche of storage media of relatively small capacity, although a 64/128 GB flash drive can no longer be classified as such. But the turn of full-fledged disks has come, gradually replacing traditional hard drives. Having a sufficient number of undoubted advantages, such SSD drives are not without drawbacks, while some of them can be partially eliminated if specialized software is used. The Magician utility from the well-known South Korean brand Samsung is one of such programs. Distributed free of charge, it is compatible with most home-made SSDs from the 470 series. Unfortunately, it does not work with SSDs from other manufacturers. But with its help, you can distinguish the original disk from the non-original drive.
Samsung Magician — what is this program
Mass transition to SSD drives is constrained by the only serious factor — the limitation of the number of data rewriting cycles for a specific section of the drive. For this reason, such media are used primarily as system disks that host an operating system that does not require write operations so often.
In order for such a drive to last for a long time, it is necessary to configure the operating system in order to minimize the number of accesses to the media. And, of course, keep an eye on when this indicator reaches critical values so as not to lose important data. It is also advisable to study the performance of the hardware in order to know what to expect from the new drive. Finally, you need to keep an eye on the release of new versions of firmware and drivers for SSD drives, which also provide an opportunity to improve their performance.
So, specialized software copes well with the first and last of the tasks described, in our case, the Samsung Magician utility. It does not require the user to have specific knowledge, allowing a few simple settings to optimize the operation of the disk subsystem, taking into account the characteristics of solid-state storage media, as well as perform performance tests of such drives.
An overview of the utility’s capabilities will be discussed in more detail below, and the presence of a Russian-language interface will help you quickly master the capabilities of the software product.
Installing Samsung Magician
As usual, we recommend downloading the installation file from the manufacturer’s official website. It is also acceptable to use time-tested file hosting services.
After downloading the installer, run it, select the interface language (Russian is available), after which the utility installation wizard starts. You just need to follow his prompts. To begin with, accept the terms of the license agreement, and then decide on the directory in which the program will be installed.
When the process is completed, click the «Finish» button. Restarting the computer is not required, the utility can be used immediately after installation.
Program setup will be described below, but we will focus on the importance of Samsung Magician updates. After launching the utility, on the main screen at the bottom left you will see the Update button.
By clicking on it, you will see the current version of the software (at the time of this writing, the latest version was 6.3.0). If a download icon appears next to the inscription, this means that a more recent version of the program is available. Click on this arrow and the program will update automatically (requires network access).
Please note that Samsung Magician updates will apply to a specific SSD, and only from Samsung. If there are several disks, they can be selected in the main program window.
CAUTION. If RAPID Mode is enabled for the selected SSD, you will not be able to install a software update for it, even if it is available.
During the update procedure, it is desirable that all other applications be closed, and during this time it is not recommended to perform any actions that can lead to a computer freeze.
How to use the Samsung Magician utility
The utility interface is quite simple and clear: on the left is the menu window, on the right is the working window. There are three main sections in total. Consider the work of each of them.
All drives (ALL DRIVES)
There is one subsection here — Drive Information. When you start the program, it is launched. The utility scans the disk subsystem and displays information regarding the parameters of each of the detected SSD drives. Here you can also run a performance test of your solid state drives, evaluate its condition (temperature, amount of recorded data, and other information).
Drive management (DRIVE MANAGEMENT)
Includes five subsections:
- Drive Details displays information about the selected drive (drive serial number, interface used, firmware version number). It also provides an assessment of the condition of the disk and its current temperature. At the top there is a S.M.A.R.T. button, by clicking on which you will be able to export the parameters of your media;
- Performance Benchmark is a subsection that allows you to accurately assess the performance of an SSD drive. Select a drive and click the «Start» button to start the testing procedure, which consists in performing write / read operations in a certain sequence and in random order.
During testing, do not run any other programs. The results obtained in the Samsung Magician can be compared with the passport data, usually the discrepancy is small. When using CrystalDiskMark, for example, the results in most cases are large, which can be attributed to the peculiarities of the measurements. You can also view the results of previous tests;
- The Diagnostic Scan subsection appeared in the program starting from the sixth version. It allows you to scan the drive for read/write errors. Verification can be carried out according to the accelerated procedure or in-depth. If erroneous sectors are found in Samsung Magician, you can try to get rid of them, although this is not always possible and depends on the severity of the error;
- subsection Over Provisioning allows you to improve the performance parameters of the disk subsystem as a whole, by reserving part of the RAM and using it as a cache. This option allows, firstly, to increase the speed of the drive, and secondly, to extend its service life by reducing write operations.
The recommended value set by default in Samsung Magician is 10%, but you can also enter your own value, up to 50% of the disk capacity;
- Performance Optimization — a subsection that also allows you to improve the performance of the drive by activating the RAPID mode or the TRIM status.
DATA MANAGEMENT
The Secure Erase subpartition is a means of securely erasing data from the drive. Usually, when a drive needs to be sold/traded, it needs to be cleared of any traces of your activity. Normal formatting deletes data, but not completely, it can be partially restored. The Secure Erase feature present in Samsung Magician allows you to permanently delete data. But to start the procedure, you must first create a boot disk on a USB flash drive. To do this, insert the media into the slot, wait for the system to recognize the drive, select it and click the «Start» button. For the Secure Erase function to work, you need to boot from a USB flash drive, for which you will have to set the appropriate OS boot method in UEFI / BIOS.
PSID Revert is a subsection whose main function is to handle errors that occur during data encryption on the disk. Use the function with great care, as there is a possibility of deleting important data stored on the drive.
The Encrypted Drive subsection provides data encryption using the BitLocker function. If an operating system is installed on the SSD, Samsung Magician will provide a clean installation with support for data encryption.
Note that system transfer (HDD cloning) cannot be performed using Samsung Magician. There are other utilities for this (for example, Samsung Data Migration). But in fairness, we note that moving Windows 10 from HDD to SSD does not always work correctly, because there are a lot of nuances due to which some functions, procedures or programs on the SSD will not work correctly.
Conclusions
As you can see, the Samsung Magician interface is simple and clear, and the latest version of the program has new sections that expand its functionality. So if you want to improve the performance and resource of your SSD drive or just understand its capabilities, then the utility from Samsung will be very useful to you. Given the high cost of SSDs, it is worth taking advantage of any opportunities that extend their lifespan. Compared to other popular utilities that have roughly the same capabilities, Samsung Magician works more correctly when it comes to drives from the same manufacturer.
The most common mistakes that users make when using an SSD / Habr
Hello, Habr! We have already written more than once about how to properly operate Kingston SSDs in order to achieve maximum performance from them with a long MTBF. However, we still see comments where users express their opinion about the unreliability of SSDs in general, as well as write to us about bad experiences with their use.
In the latter case, such unsuccessful purchases make PC users doubt the reliability of our devices as well. As a result, over the years of the existence of the blog on Habré, we have accumulated enough material to look at the problem of operating SSDs from the other side. This time we will not talk about “how to do it right”, but on the contrary, we will analyze the most common mistakes that SSD owners make and try to understand which of them can really lead to rapid wear of solid-state solutions.
The most common description of the problem, as a rule, sounds like this: “I installed an SSD drive in my computer, and after a year of operation (or even earlier) it started to slow down,” or “read / write speeds turned out to be noticeably lower than those declared by the manufacturer.” What is the reason for such situations?
Problem one: re-optimizing SSD
Many users of all brain neurons refuse to trust the manufacturers of operating systems and components, believing that the developers are not focused on providing them with a quality product. Therefore, after reading numerous tips on the Internet, people begin to optimize the drive just installed in the PC with the help of numerous tweaks and improvers. The priority is the desire to achieve maximum performance from an SSD solution.
Many tips for «optimizing» Windows for SSDs state that you should avoid unnecessary wear on the SSD by minimizing the number of writes. But these concerns about wear and tear are clearly exaggerated. With the same success, you can put the drive under glass, and then it will simply live forever. Otherwise, you don’t need to be afraid to put programs on the SSD and worry that the browser cache is located on it (some users, for example, transfer the browser cache to the HDD drive, after which the whole point of installing an SSD is lost).
On this issue in particular, Kingston, for example, tests its products in common user scenarios at the device manufacturing stage. And this, in turn, allows you to achieve maximum stability of the drive for future home use. Worrying about the imminent failure of the drive is simply irrational, because the manufacturer has taken care of this in advance.
TIP: Don’t waste time optimizing your SSDs! None of the tweaks will improve the performance of your drive, and some are completely harmful to the operation of the drive: they cause brakes, slowdown and other overlays in the operation of the device. Yes, there are many guides on the Internet to improve the performance of SSDs, but we do not recommend following most of them. Windows 7, 8 and 10 will automatically perform the necessary optimizations.
Please note that starting with Windows 7, the operating system automatically enables TRIM for all drives it detects as SSDs and disables defragmentation for them on its own. In addition, Windows 7, 8, and 10 automatically disable the SuperFetch service for high-speed SSDs. As a result: you do not need to configure anything manually — Windows itself will do everything that is needed for the SSD to work properly.
Problem two: disabling the paging file
Continuing the over-optimization story, let’s take a look at the most surreal tips for «reducing the load» on an SSD drive. Some users deliberately turn off the paging file, believing that they already have enough RAM. Recall that the swap file is used to store data that RAM places into virtual memory in case of overflow. For example, if you have a program minimized for a long time and it does nothing, its data may be moved from RAM to the swap file.
TIP: You don’t need to disable the paging file! Without it, some programs simply will not work properly: they may start to crash or even refuse to start. Keep in mind — if you have a lot of free RAM, Windows will automatically give preference to it, so the paging file will not slow anything down. Yes, in theory it could cause more writes to your SSD and take up some space on it, but that’s not a problem with today’s SSDs. In addition, Windows automatically manages the size of virtual memory.
Issue Three: Disabling Indexing or Windows Search Services
Some SSD performance guides recommend disabling Indexing Services, which speeds up searching for data on the drive. The reason why this needs to be done is absurdly simple — you have an SSD, which means that search on it works many times faster than on a traditional HDD. However, this is not quite true.
TIP: You don’t need to disable Indexing and Search Services yourself. Indexing creates a list of files on your drive so you can instantly search for the data you need. If indexing is disabled, Windows will have to scan the entire SSD and look inside the files, which will require additional time and CPU resources. As a result: you will have the feeling that the SSD is not at all fast, contrary to the promises of the manufacturer.
Fourth problem: writing speed drops sharply
As a rule, this situation is observed in two cases: 1) you are trying to write a large amount of data, and the SLC cache of your drive is not enough to fit them all; 2) you have filled the capacity of the drive to the eyeballs, while you do not have the TRIM function activated (this problem most often occurs when using SSDs with outdated operating systems), or the drive has no capacity reserve.
To solve the first problem, Kingston SSD, for example, uses a combination of two types of caching (static + dynamic), which allows the drive to work stably in any situation.
To solve the second situation, part of the flash memory is made inaccessible to the user, and this ensures that the drive is never completely full — that is, there is always free capacity to maintain a stable write speed. In addition, SSD controllers have garbage collection algorithms that look for partially filled blocks and merge them, reclaiming as many empty blocks as possible. Note that the reserve capacity (as a rule, it is about 7% of the total NAND capacity) and «garbage collectors» (a simplified analogue of TRIM) are in all Kingston drives, as well as support for the TRIM function itself.
TIP: Do not fill the drive with data to the last megabyte! Keep a small margin to ensure you have enough empty blocks to keep performance high. And one more thing: capacious files that do not require quick access, it is more logical to store them on the HDD (for example, movies and music), rather than stuff them into flash memory.
Problem five: controller firmware is not updated
Windows Update automatically updates your hardware drivers whether you want to or not, so you don’t have to search for new drivers from your motherboard manufacturer’s website to improve performance and stability. But with controller firmware, the situation may be different.
Please note that many SSD manufacturers offer their own utilities to maintain their SSDs. For example, Kingston has Kingston SSD Manager. With the help of this utility, you can literally check in one click if the latest firmware for your drive controller has appeared, and install it in just one click without risking anything.
It is worth noting that Kingston does not often release firmware updates for its SSDs, as the manufacturer brings to the market a ready-made solution that does not need constant “finishing”, such as computer games that receive a lot of patches in the early days release.
TIP: Keep your SSD up to date! It is clear that you can not update the firmware without taking into account the recommendations of the manufacturers, but in this case you will deprive yourself of the additional features and improvements that are brought to the drive with such updates: bug fixes, improved compatibility, improved performance, reduced power consumption (which is important for laptops), etc.
Issue six: NVMe drive performance is slower than advertised
One of the common problems that occurs when installing NVMe drives in PCs and laptops is not enough speed. And this happens by no means through the fault of the manufacturer, but through the carelessness of the user. Let’s take a closer look: what is the reason for the situation?
The M.2 slot can be found on motherboards with an LGA 1150 processor socket and higher, but on older motherboards (using, for example, Intel 8th and 9th series system logic for Haswell and Broadwell processors), only two are used for data transfer PCI-E 2.0 lanes. As a result, we get a bandwidth of up to 1 GB / s, which makes users bewildered “but where are the speeds of 2-3-4 GB / s promised by the manufacturer?”.
In the case of Skylake motherboards, motherboard chipsets allocate two to four PCI-E 3.0 lanes for NVMe drives, which allows for a throughput of 3.94 GB / s. But here, too, you need to carefully look at what other interfaces the M. 2 slot shares the bandwidth with (the motherboard manual will help with this), otherwise the possibility of cutting the NVMe speed is still likely. You should not lose sight of the fact that if only two PCI-E 3.0 lanes are used for the drive, the throughput of the drive will be limited to a threshold of 1.97 GB/s
TIP: If you want to get the best performance out of your NVMe solution, carefully study your motherboard and drive specifications.
Problem seven: Incorrect drive partitioning structure selection
When installing an operating system on an SSD (or adding an SSD to an existing system), a thorny question arises: which partitioning structure should I choose? Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT)? Do not rush to hype in the comments — for some PC users this is still a serious stumbling block, so we will not bypass it. Unless … we will not go into technical details and will immediately move on to the recommendations.
Of course, GPT is a newer and more reliable sectorization standard that we recommend using on high capacity drives. Compared to MBR, this protocol is more resistant to data corruption, supports a larger number of sectors (128 versus four for MBR), and allows the SSD to maximize its performance in terms of complex performance. But … there is a caveat: if you are still working with outdated operating systems (in the spirit of Windows XP or Windows Vista), it is more logical to opt for MBR.
TIP: For high-capacity SSDs running Windows 7, 8, or 10, we recommend using GPT partitioning. Otherwise, you will make your drive less reliable and productive, and later you will write comments about the unreliability of solid state solutions, reproaching manufacturers for excessive exaggeration and product marketing.
What is the result?
But how to properly operate SATA SSD and NVMe SSD? The main advice will be very simple — install them on your PC and laptop based on Windows 7,8,10, and then just forget that they need additional optimization. Do not forget to check for firmware updates in order to receive updates in time that increase the stability of the devices.