Quote Originally Posted by Ao1 View Post
No, but my replacement 830 has just turned up.

The relocation event ties in exactly with an increase in write speed. The relocation occured during idle time following the Windoze update. I thought the increase was due to the idle time, but the drive has still maintained faster speeds a day later. I therfore suspect that both read and write speeds will be impacted before the sectors get relocated, and I would guess that this is exactly what caused Christopher’s drive to slow down.
I do believe that the Samsung doesn't flag as early as some drives would, which could help explain the reduction in read and writes, but it isn't that alone. Plus, the 830 still hasn't flagged anymore blocks as bad for some time now, even though it probably should have . It's been stuck at 20/40960 for far longer than I think it should, especially since I think some of the blocks have to be marginal now. The drive was flagging a block or two every couple days since 6 Dec I think -- but not in the past week.