Check out Windows tweaks for saving up your SSD’s write cycles.

The flaw

Using the flaw in the modern, popular SSDs like Samsung and Crucial, security researchers were able to bypass hardware decryption without a password. Carlo Meijer and Bernard van Gastel from Radboud University conducted the research.

They successfully modified the firmware or used a debugging interface to modify the password validation routine in SSD drives and ultimately, decrypt “hardware encrypted” data without password. The test was successful in getting data out of Crucial MX 100, MX 200, MX 300 and Samsung 840 EVO, 850 EVO, T3 Portable, T5 Portable etc.

According to the report, the researchers were able to reverse engineer the firmware of those SSDs. In theory, the hardware encryption was similar to software implementations. In reality, many of those implementations have critical weaknesses as many models allow complete recovery of the data without any knowledge of any secret.

Windows BitLocker is also vulnerable to this issue as it enables hard drive encryption by default.

How the flaw works

In the case of Crucial MX 100, MX 200 and Samsung T3 Portable, the researchers, using the device’s JTAG debugging interface, successfully modified the password validation routine. Then, the routine would allow access to the data regardless of right/wrong password.

In the case of Crucial MX 300, researchers had to use a modified firmware as the JTAG debugging interface was disabled by default. After enabling, the same method decrypted the password without any problem.

Samsung 840 EVO and 850 EVO SSDs were a bit difficult to crack. Depending on the SED specification in action, the researchers had to connect to the JTAG debug port or issue a wear-level concern, allowing them to recover the cryptographic secrets required for unlocking the drive.

How to stay secure

The SSDs that are currently on the market aren’t secure enough to protect your data once crook(s) get their hands on. Before you dump an SSD, you have to make sure that the drive doesn’t contain any important data.

If you’re using BitLocker, make sure that you disable the hardware encryption feature from “Group Policy Editor”.

Go to Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> BitLocker Drive Encryption >> Operating System Drives >> Configure use of hardware-based encryption for operating system drives.

Change the value to “Disabled”.

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SSD is a highly optimized solution for using under heavy load. Yet, you have to worry about its lifespan. Yes, unlike HDD, there’s a limited amount of data you can write to your SSD before it dies. Here are some of the important tricks that you should follow to reduce the data writings on your SSD.

Why SSD wears out

SSD is made of small flash cells. Each of the cells holds the datum “1” or “0” that consists of all the data you put inside it. Each cell has a limited number of writings. When a cell changes its value, the writing cycle is used. When all the writing cycles are used, that cell is basically useless. It can’t hold data anymore.

For any SSD, there’s a limit how much data you can write on the SSD. This can be counted as TBW (Terabytes Written). I wish the SSD companies out there would provide TBWs of their products. However, here’s a basic TBW to keep in mind.

The TBW value can vary from SSD to SSD dramatically. These values are for a rough estimation. There are tons of reviews available on a large range of SSDs. Feel free to check them out for a more accurate result.

• 60GB SSD – about 30 TBW.
• 120GB SSD – about 60 TBW.
• 240GB SSD – about 120 TBW.
• 480GB SSD – about 240 TBW.
• 960GB SSD – about 480 TBW.

Again, these are rough estimations. For the exact value for a specific SSD, you should check out the reviews available in the internet.

Windows tweaks

Windows is one of the most popular operating systems all over the world. In the current world, it’s pretty common to use an SSD as the boot drive for a faster boot performance. Truth be told, by replacing just the HDD of your 10-years-old machine with an SSD can turn the machine a lot faster, even to compete with the modern hardware!

In the case of Windows, there are a number of features that the operating system uses to perform better. For HDD, these options are pretty useful. However, when you’re using SSD as the boot drive, those settings have no effect. The performance of SSD is so fast that using prefetch, superfetch, auto defrag etc. won’t have any advantage.

Windows tweaks for SSD

Strangely, Windows tends to keep HDD tweaks active, even if you’re using an SSD! Here are all those options that you should disable.

• Superfetch – It’s a new service that’s introduced with Windows 10. It predicts what app you’re about to use next depending on your usage info and preloads the app in the system memory. It’s essentially a better version of “Prefetch”.
• Prefetch – A method to increase the startup performance of Windows and other apps by loading app data into the memory.
• Auto defrag – Moves the file portions around the disk into nearer places so that the entire file is accessible faster. This is very beneficial for HDDs as the one single file, on the physical disk, can be scattered into different pieces all over the place.
• Hibernation – Hibernates the computer and saves the current state into the system. SSD performance is very fast to allow you boot instantly. If you’re using this feature frequently, you should not disable the option.

These are HDD specific tweaks that you have to change. Additionally, a few more tweaks will help.

• NTFS memory usage
• Large system cache
• System files in memory – Drivers and kernels must remain on the physical memory.
• Pagefile

Other important things are not to install all your large programs (games and others), changing the “Downloads”, “Documents”, “Videos”, “Pictures” etc. folder location to a different storage etc. All the options should help you enjoy the maximum SSD longevity.

How to apply the tweaks

Here’s a simple tool that allows you to perform all the tasks very easily. Get Tweak SSD. Get the free version as it’s enough for doing the job.

On the “SSD System Optimization” tab, you’ll find out all the available options.

Just apply the tweak and voila! Mission accomplished!

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