This drive is from my deceased brother and I am only now investigating it. There is some useful software on the drive and it looks like "not much data", so I'm pretty sure my brother was using this as the OS and programs drive, and the HD also in the machine was the data drive and backup OS. (If the C:\ drive failed, just disconnect it and use the slower HD as "C" until a new SSD could be installed.
In any event, if I keep all the programs on this SSD as a OS drive, then 7 GB is not a lot left over, as my lab programs would subtract another 2 GB or so. However:
A) I'm not sure I can easily change the over-provisioning % without losing the programs and OS (reinstallation needed?). That could be problematic...
B) I'm not sure reducing the over-provisioning is a great idea, anyway?
Depending on you all's recommendations, I probably could bite the bullet and delete lesser useful programs.
Thanks in advance!
Samsung Magician Software
https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/magician/
Samsung utility to manage SSD drives
I would recommend taking a backup of the SSD before modifying anything, just in case.
Ping!....................
Clone the drive onto another, newer drive (Samsung 870 EVO, or one of the NVDE in an appropriate enclosure), swap the drives, put the old one somewhere away from mag fields and such, just in case something needed gets deleted in error.
I used the 870, a plastic external box to house and host it temporarily, and DiskGenius because it’ll clone the boot drive while booted, handy but slow.
My original drive is an actual drive (!), a WD from 2013, it’s been in use since then.
Note: after the drive swap, the computer may yield an error about correcting drive errors. Don’t Panic! Let it finish!
Free Drive Cloning Applications
ExplainingComputers (the beloved Captain Kangaroo of tech)
1.03M subscribers
324,556 views
September 24, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gTJw8ehkVc
time index for DiskGenius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gTJw8ehkVc&t=343s
I am a big believer in SpinRite from Steve Gibson and GRC.
While nothing can low level format a drive anymore, I have use the latest Spinrite to refresh old SSDs.
It is at www.grc.com and is well worth supporting. He writes in assembly and the entire executable is about 300k.
I don't believe you can modify the OP allocation; that's generally reserved for the SSD controller and attempting to change it risks losing your data.
Personally I would elect to get a replacement SSD and copy/clone the data over to it, and set the old one aside as a DR (disaster-recovery) backup/reference.
Ok, back “in” to check replies...