# New Samsung Magician v.7 released



## VulkanBros (Sep 30, 2021)

Link: Magician v.7


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

VulkanBros said:


> View attachment 218831
> 
> 
> Link: Magician v.7


Any improvements?


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## dgianstefani (Sep 30, 2021)

I like the improved layout.


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## bug (Sep 30, 2021)

Windows only - boo!


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## ThrashZone (Sep 30, 2021)

FireFox said:


> Any improvements?


Hi,
Over provision is activated automatically since default mode is power saving.

I leave unallocated space more than 10% usually so this is same as over provisioning is it's just not reserved by sammy so I switched to standard mode


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## bug (Sep 30, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> Over provision is activated automatically since default mode is power saving.
> 
> I leave unallocated space more than 10% usually so this is same as over provisioning is it's just not reserved by sammy so I switched to standard mode
> ...


The usual crappy software you know you can expect from Samsung. Wth does overprovisioning have to do with power saving?

I swear if they learned how to code properly (or would buy their software from someone else who does), they could be the next Apple. Probably even better.


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 30, 2021)

They stole Cortana icon... sheesh.

And some stupid ads un bottom corner. Great...


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## ThrashZone (Sep 30, 2021)

bug said:


> The usual crappy software you know you can expect from Samsung. Wth does overprovisioning have to do with power saving?
> 
> I swear if they learned how to code properly (or would buy their software from someone else who does), they could be the next Apple. Probably even better.


Hi,
I don't know it also reports free space 20gb lower than free minitool does :/
So even though I switched to standard mode it still hogs 20gb's for over provisioning

Full performance activates rapid mode

Went back to 6.3 now available space matches minitool lol


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> Over provision is activated automatically since default mode is power saving.
> 
> I leave unallocated space more than 10% usually so this is same as over provisioning is it's just not reserved by sammy so I switched to standard mode


Yeah, i have both 970 with 50GB unallocated. aren't you using 970 SSDs?


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## Bill_Bright (Sep 30, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> Over provision is activated automatically since default mode is power saving.


Which really makes no sense anyway since over-provisioning is built into the firmware at the factory with all SSDs today - or at least all SSDs made by the major brands. 

So there's no need to manually add more OP. Just keep watch of your free disk space and, just as we do with hard drives, if you run low, free up space by deleting files or uninstalling programs. Or better yet, buy more disk space.


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## P4-630 (Sep 30, 2021)

Uninstalled the previous version then installed v7, lost icons of some 20 of my shortcuts on my desktop, resulting in blank shortcuts....  

Got it fixed now though, hope it's still ok tomorrow when I startup.


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## chrcoluk (Sep 30, 2021)

Lets hope it isnt completely broken like the last release, the latest samsung magician I tried was pretty buggy and had horrible optimisation issues.


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

Bill_Bright said:


> Which really makes no sense anyway since over-provisioning is built into the firmware at the factory with all SSDs today - or at least all SSDs made by the major brands.


If so, what's the reason Samsung added
the provisioning option to their tool?


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## Bill_Bright (Sep 30, 2021)

FireFox said:


> If so, what's the reason Samsung added
> the provisioning option to their tool?


Most for marketing fodder. 

Why does HP add all sorts of fluff and bloat to their printer software when only a driver is needed? Marketing fodder.

Why does Norton and McAfee add all sorts of fluff and bloat to their antimalware solutions? Features that almost no one ever needs? Marketing fodder. 

SSD Over-provisioning (OP) - Kingston Technology 



> The OP capacity set by the SSD manufacturer



You can find similar articles with Samsung and other makers. OP is built in. 

You can use Magician to increase it from the value set at the factory, but again, why? If you "need" to, then the correct solution is really to buy a bigger drive. 

Operating systems, including Windows, know how to work with SSDs. And don't forget, SSDs must adhere to industry standards, not Samsung, WD, or Kingston standards. This is why we do NOT need special drivers when using a SSD in our computers.


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## P4-630 (Sep 30, 2021)

Bill_Bright said:


> You can find similar articles with Samsung and other makers. OP is built in.



If you can find proof of that for 970 evo, 860 evo and for the 850 pro I will stop using it in magician.

Show me!


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

P4-630 said:


> If you can find proof of that for 970 evo, 860 evo and for the 850 pro I will stop using it in magician.


I was writing the same until your post popped up


Bill_Bright said:


> Most for marketing fodder


Silly move from Samsung considering they know very well we don't need magician if we want over provisioning enabled.


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## Bill_Bright (Sep 30, 2021)

P4-630 said:


> Show me!



No.

You show us where 3rd party software is needed for SSDs running under Windows. You show us where installing Magician improves performance. You show us why Samsung SSDs need extra help.

FTR, I've been running Samsung SSDs on this and two other computers here for years - without Samsung Magician. They are still running just fine.

Samsung Magician is great eye candy. And it has a nice speed test feature. And it works good if you want to get rid of the drive and need to use "secure erase". Other than that, it is bloatware. I can get all the information I need about my SSDs just fine with HWiNFO, for example.

I am NOT saying it is useless. I am saying it is not needed. Operating systems know how to utilizes SSDs just fine.

Don't believe me? Uninstall or disable it and see if your computer breaks.


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

Bill_Bright said:


> You show us where 3rd party software is needed for SSDs running under Windows. You show us where installing Magician improves performance. You show us why Samsung SSDs need extra help.


Did i miss something?
No one said anything about Samsung needing a 3rd party software or magician for better performance.
I am lost.


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## AsRock (Sep 30, 2021)

Bill_Bright said:


> No.
> 
> You show us where 3rd party software is needed for SSDs running under Windows. You show us where installing Magician improves performance. You show us why Samsung SSDs need extra help.
> 
> ...



Unless it was for updating the firmware i get rid of it.  Although i do have OP set still.


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## Bill_Bright (Sep 30, 2021)

FireFox said:


> Did i miss something?
> No one said anything about Samsung needing a 3rd party software or magician for better performance.


Maybe not in those specific words, but others are clearly saying Magician is needed. For day to day use, it is not.


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

Only reason i use Magician is to update the firmware.


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## VulkanBros (Sep 30, 2021)

I have Crucial Storage Executive, Samsung Magician and WD Dashboard running, as I have drives from all these manufacturers.
But are they really necessary. Well I believe no.
I use them for checking for firmware updates - but that could be done manually 
Also for diverse "Rapid" or "Cache Write Settings" - but is my PC faster - I don't think so, I have uninstalled them all, and no noticeable difference in speed.
And if I check memory resources (Taskmanager and Sysinternals procexp64)  they all "eat" between 18 MB to 42 MB, and some harddrive space and a bit of CPU time.
And new OS's handle the TRIM function pretty good - so are not needed for that either.....
So I am a bit sad, I even brought this topic up


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

VulkanBros said:


> So I am a bit sad, I even brought this topic up


Nah, in almost every topic/thread i learn something new


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## chotnik (Sep 30, 2021)

P4-630 said:


> If you can find proof of that for 970 evo, 860 evo and for the 850 pro I will stop using it in magician.
> 
> Show me!


The proof is that disk works fine and within expected parameters without installing Magician and manually setting OP.
All benchmarks are done without using manual OP.

I think there is some misconception about OP. All modern SSDs are automatically using free space as OP.
OP is NOT some turbo magic cache.
They obfuscate physical internal memory cell layout - provide to OS virtual "CHS" (you need sectors for FAT) and they manage internal cells layout themselves.
To OS writing 1 bit on SLC, MLC, TLC or QLC disk is the same, but we all know it's actually different on cell physical level. This is why i.e. Windows doesn't even have de-fragment option for SSD, just TRIM.

We also know that as SSD becomes more filled it's becoming slower in writing as it needs to reuse/overwrite/reorganize cells that already have some info there.
Conscious user would then leave some free space by himself so the drive can operate properly, have wear leveling and generally "breathe".

Here comes the OP option - it does the thinking for you. If you set 10% OP then 10% of cells will always be "free" since the partition size will be smaller and disk firmware now communicates to OS 10% less capacity. Even if you fill disk to 100% in OS it's physically 90% (as you can fill only 100% of 90% now with user data).
Why would someone use this? Maybe someone doesn't want to think about it and frequently fills the disk but want to have good performance anyway.
Or better use case would be network environment/shares - even if users fills the disk to 100% of available space it still has good performance.
Conscious user that knows about this doesn't need OP.

BTW graphic in Magican is also misleading because it shows last 10% of disk set as OP - this is not true, those cells position will change over time as disk fills and wear leveling takes place.


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## Bill_Bright (Sep 30, 2021)

FireFox said:


> Only reason i use Magician is to update the firmware.


And that's fine and that makes it easy, but you don't even need to use Magician for that. You can use the Firmware Update Utility.


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## VulkanBros (Sep 30, 2021)

Bill_Bright said:


> And that's fine and that makes it easy, but you don't even need to use Magician for that. You can use the Firmware Update Utility.


The utility states it supports SSD - does that also cover NVMe? 
Maybe install Samsung Magician, update the firmware and uninstall it again is easier......


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## Bill_Bright (Sep 30, 2021)

IDK. I would suggest looking on the Samsung webpage for that specific drive. I looked up my 850 Pro and 860 Evo and that's how I found that utility.


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## xtreemchaos (Sep 30, 2021)

i wasnt impressed with the last one, ill give it a miss and carry on using crystal disk imfo to watch my drives. thanks for the heads up bud.


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

Bill_Bright said:


> but you don't even need to use Magician for that. You can use the Firmware Update Utility.


I am aware of that but why to make things *complicated* like this:

1. Download the freeware UNetbootin.
2. Run the UNetbootin. 
3. Select the ‘Diskimage’ in Radio Button.
4. Select the Samsung Firmware Utility ISO file in Diskimage ISO.
5. Select USB Bootable Disk in Drive. 

No Sir, all i need is to run Magician and check if there is a new update, done


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## P4-630 (Sep 30, 2021)

Each their own then...


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## ThrashZone (Sep 30, 2021)

FireFox said:


> Yeah, i have both 970 with 50GB unallocated. aren't you using 970 SSDs?


Hi,
Yes I have 2-500gb 970's 1-evo and 1-evo plus this one still my x299 for now as os on dimm_2 slot think I split it in half so lots of unallocated 

I took my 970 evo out of my z490 build and went back to 2.5" sata ssd's, actually have a couple with different 10 builds because I started using linux a lot and didn't want any linux grub sludge on the 970 evo

Either way glad the free space is read correctly now with s.m. 6.3 version


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## Space Lynx (Sep 30, 2021)

here is my 250gb 860 evo with latest magician set to Full Performance Mode


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## ThrashZone (Sep 30, 2021)

Hi,
Yep rapid mode your memory is faster than the ssd


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## Space Lynx (Sep 30, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> Yep rapid mode your memory is faster than the ssd



I know what rapid mode is and does, just wanted to share the scores is all. I was using rapid mode even 4 years ago if I remember correctly. Never had an issue with it, on the same hand, not sure it really does anything to be honest. LOL


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## RJARRRPCGP (Sep 30, 2021)

FireFox said:


> I am aware of that but why to make things *complicated* like this:
> 
> 1. Download the freeware UNetbootin.
> 2. Run the UNetbootin.


UNetbootin has a bad habit of causing my Linux media drives to have a boot error, so it looks like Rufus for me.


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## FireFox (Sep 30, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> Yes I have 2-500gb 970's 1-evo and 1-evo plus this one still my x299 for now as os on dimm_2 slot think I split it in half so lots of unallocated
> 
> I took my 970 evo out of my z490 build and went back to 2.5" sata ssd's, actually have a couple with different 10 builds because I started using linux a lot and didn't want any linux grub sludge on the 970 evo
> ...


I asked because the pic you posted which shows the performance optimization.

970 Evo plus 




850 Evo




I assume/believe, it is because the unallocated space on both 970



lynx29 said:


> i was using rapid mode even 4 years ago if I remember correctly. Never had an issue with it


I do use Rapid mode on my 850


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## ThrashZone (Sep 30, 2021)

FireFox said:


> I asked because the pic you posted which shows the performance optimization.
> 
> 970 Evo plus
> View attachment 218945
> ...


Hi,
Yep my post #5 that was using a 850 pro 256gb on win-7 but yes standard mode only trim is activated I run it manually 
I do not have magician starting with windows so it would have a tough time doing anything lol


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## Bill_Bright (Oct 1, 2021)

FireFox said:


> I am aware of that but why to make things *complicated* like this:
> 
> No Sir, all i need is to run Magician and check if there is a new update, done





P4-630 said:


> Each their own then...


^^THIS^^  

For me, I see no reason to worry about such firmware updates if my system is working fine. And for SSDs that have been on the market longer than a few months, odds are, there will be no current firmware updates. And if there is one, it most likely affects a very minor issue affecting a tiny number of users in very rare scenarios. 

So I can see running Magician on a brand new SSD to make sure it is current. But after that, nope. 

And for sure, for 99.9% of the users out there, I see no need to increase over-provisioning - the topic that provoked me to join this discussion in the first place.


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## RetiringGeek (Oct 3, 2021)

Here's what Magician looks like after I upgraded from 6.3 to 7.0.  Completely blank, no drive information.  I'm running Win10, completely up to date. Magician 6.3 worked just fine.  I thought I'd be a good citizen and report the problem to Samsung but I can find no option to do that (other than calling), even when I'm signed onto my Samsung account.


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## ThrashZone (Oct 3, 2021)

Hi,
I just uninstall and install the new.
Repeat and reinstall the older now lol


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## RetiringGeek (Oct 3, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> I just uninstall and install the new.
> Repeat and reinstall the older now lol


Yeah, that's what I did and am ignoring update notices.  The problem is that with Win11, the old version may be short lived. I thought that the 7.0 version may have been launched because of Win11.


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## ThrashZone (Oct 3, 2021)

RetiringGeek said:


> Yeah, that's what I did and am ignoring update notices.  The problem is that with Win11, the old version may be short lived. I thought that the 7.0 version may have been launched because of Win11.


Hi,
Could be I got rid of it because over provisioning was automatic and took 20gb's and wouldn't let it go until I uninstalled and reinstall 6.3 lol


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## RetiringGeek (Oct 3, 2021)

RetiringGeek said:


> Here's what Magician looks like after I upgraded from 6.3 to 7.0.  Completely blank, no drive information.  I'm running Win10, completely up to date. Magician 6.3 worked just fine.  I thought I'd be a good citizen and report the problem to Samsung but I can find no option to do that (other than calling), even when I'm signed onto my Samsung account.
> 
> View attachment 219317


OK, I found the problem. Version 7.0 has a new executable called SamsungMagicianSVC.exe and I have Controlled Folder Access turned on.  Windows 10 Security notifications of Unauthorized Access are subtle, and I missed it.  After I granted access permissions, app worked fine.


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## DrPhibes (Oct 16, 2021)

Running a Samsung 860 QVO on a Dell Precision M4800 with 16 gig of ram, M4800 i7 CPU, Win 10 pro updated a few days ago, and RAID is on (by default in Dell laptops).  Using the latest Magician I can not get it to install the High Performance mode, get an install Win 10 message and after reboot is in the energy saving setting.  Any clues why?  Thanks in advance.


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## ThrashZone (Oct 16, 2021)

DrPhibes said:


> Running a Samsung 860 QVO on a Dell Precision M4800 with 16 gig of ram, M4800 i7 CPU, Win 10 pro updated a few days ago, and RAID is on (by default in Dell laptops).  Using the latest Magician I can not get it to install the High Performance mode, get an install Win 10 message and after reboot is in the energy saving setting.  Any clues why?  Thanks in advance.


Hi,
QVO is really a data drive 
It's a hdd replacement ssd not good for an os disk and why they are so cheap.


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## DrPhibes (Oct 17, 2021)

ThrashZone said:


> Hi,
> QVO is really a data drive
> It's a hdd replacement ssd not good for an os disk and why they are so cheap.


Ya, looking to buy an 870 EVO as the laptop does not have Nvme M.2 slot (has SSD mini card but still mSATA) if I can't get faster write.  Should solve (mostly) the slow write problem.  It is a 7yr old machine but runs great (not a heavy gamer unless you count Dnukem and Quake heavy ;-O).   If I can get past this last write hurdle, should last me until Win 10 support ends.  Thanks for the response.


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