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Crucial Storage Executive, Version 3.38

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#1 ·
Crucial Storage Executive, Version 3.38

Description:
Crucial Storage Executive
 
#2 ·
Crucial Storage Executive is a recent introduction compared to other SSD Toolboxes and it shows

review by alphac

Pros
Provides SSD SMART Status , total TB written, firmware information (for all manufacturers)

Shows overall drive health and model number detection is available

Has over-provisioning settings

Can wipe an encrypted drive using PSID number from the physical drive. This means if you purchase a used drive you do not need to worry if it was encrypted, you can make it clean again rather than having to unlock it.

Version 3.2 or higher adds Momentum cache that uses RAM as cache

Cons
Software is relative new compared to other manufacturers' software, the first version came in January 2015.

No OS Optimization options (disable Superfetch/prefetch , turn off drive indexing to reduce writes to SSD , option to turn off hibernate and/or pagefile , option to turn off system restore)
* The Samsung software puts that you are using AHCI on their main page while Crucial thinks it is a good idea to tell you what Windows version you are using and how much memory is used.
* A link to the Windows 8 "Optimize" function (for people that don't know about it) would be a good addition that would require minimal resources in the installer.
* TRIM check

No benchmarking , no performance charting (see Samsung, Intel, Sandisk, Plextor software)
* Benchmarking is not that large a problem since many aftermarket solutions exist such as AS SSD, Crystaldiskmark, Anvil storage Utilities, ATTO, HDTach/ HDTune, etc.

Bloated toolbox file size, it comes in about 180-190MB for the installer which is ten times the size of Samsung Magician 4.* (~18MB), and about triple that of Intel SSD Toolbox (~ 80MB), and larger than Sandisk's SSD Dashboard (~100MB). * Combine this with the failed downloads that happen every so often when you download from Crucial's site (http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-storage-executive) and it's outright annoying. Micron's site has the same software branded MIcron at https://www.micron.com/products/solid-state-storage/storage-executive-software but is similarly slow to download from. I suspect it is because it uses Java (many .jar files are used and Windows Firewall pops up Java(TM) Platform SE binary).
* I don't expect Plextor's Plextool level of "lightness" at under 10MB WITH a benchmark tool included , since the Plextor tool refuses to give drive status on anything not from their company. However, the bloat is obvious

The SSD firmware update "on next boot" goes into a bootloop after the first time you use it on reboot. You must manually select your OS partition from the boot screen if you ever use a firmware update. It's an oversight

Conclusion
Crucial needs to cut the bloat and make their download server more reliable.
Some rudimentary OS optimizations could be added (a toggle for superfetch,prefetch, indexing, write cache buffer, hibernate,etc). I'd prioritize lightening the software though.

ProsCons
Shows SSD health, Momentum Cache options , Overprovisioning , wiping functionBloated software size , its newcomer status shows , no SSD optimization or benchmarking , download fails often from Crucial's consumer site

Ratings
Overall4
 
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