Issue with new Samsung Magician

On Mon, 26 Jun 2017 19:44:24 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Jeff Barnett wrote:

VanguardLH wrote on 6/25/2017 3:32 PM:

My recommendation is you go back to version 4.96 of Samsung Magician.
Not only does the old version have a manual TRIM function (called
Performance Optimization) but also has the Over-Provisioning setting.

I tried to find a place to download Magician 4.9.6 and ran into
difficulties: Samsung had a pointer to download it that didn't work and
I tried another place that fired off my AV and Malware software, etc. Do
you happen to know a safe place to download 4.9.6 or any other late
minor version of version 4?

What about the CD that came with the SSD? That's likely where I got the
old version although I also have a Downloads folder (under which there
are Hardware and Software subfolders, and subfolders under each for
category, and so one until down to a subfolder for the vendor or
product). So I'm not sure where I found the 4.96 version of Magician
but the CD should have an old version.

Sometimes you can find still-active download links by finding copies of
old web pages at the Web Archive (web.archive.org). I went there and
entered Samsung's current download page at:

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor...oad/tools.html

Alas, their Javascript does not work for the archived web page. On
hovering over the download link at Samsung's download page, I was hoping
a version number would be included in the URL or filename. Then I would
try changing 5.1[whatever] to 4.96. Alas, Samsung does not include a
version number in the URL or filename.


I suppose you could contact Samsung's support to ask for a copy of their
4.96 version of Magician.

I could upload the file to a public online server but would you really
trust some joker from Usenet? I found a web site with the 4.97 download
(4.96 was the last that I got from Samsung so I don't know if there was
an office 4.97 release); however, you would have to trust some unknown
web site's download. It's a French site so perhaps that Magician copy
is a French language version. They're at:

https://www.touslesdrivers.com/php/c...p?v_code=49390

Oooh, here's another place (it has downloads for 5.1, 5.0, and 4.96):

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/...ician-4-5.html

Also, (with downloads of 5.1, 5.0, 4.97, 4.96 thru to 4.3)

http://www.filehorse.com/download-sa...agician/25943/

Monty wrote on 6/26/2017 10:36 PM:
Also, (with downloads of 5.1, 5.0, 4.97, 4.96 thru to 4.3)

http://www.filehorse.com/download-sa...agician/25943/

I did the same searches but have no knowledge of "filehorse". Have you
ever used them and lived through the experience?
--
Jeff Barnett

Jeff Barnett wrote:
Monty wrote on 6/26/2017 10:36 PM:
Also, (with downloads of 5.1, 5.0, 4.97, 4.96 thru to 4.3)

http://www.filehorse.com/download-sa...agician/25943/

I did the same searches but have no knowledge of "filehorse". Have you
ever used them and lived through the experience?

Other than the Filehorse entry, the only other one I
could see was this one. And techspot.com didn't list
any other versions (other than the current one).

http://files01.tchspt.com/temp/Samsu...Setup_v497.zip

Paul

Jeff Barnett wrote:

Monty wrote:

Also, (with downloads of 5.1, 5.0, 4.97, 4.96 thru to 4.3)
http://www.filehorse.com/download-sa...agician/25943/

I did the same searches but have no knowledge of "filehorse". Have you
ever used them and lived through the experience?

http://www.filehorse.com/submit/

No information on what they do AFTER someone from the Internet ether
dumps a file on them. Rather than upload the file to a temporary
repository and pointing the owners at the upload, users have give them
some info about the file and write to them at:

http://www.filehorse.com/contact/

Tis a rather haphazard submission process and no description of what
happens afterwards. They do indemnify themselves as do most download
sites.

http://www.filehorse.com/terms/

The site hides behind a private domain registration. That is, their
domain registrar is listed as the domain registrant so the real
registrant can hide. IANA requires valid and active contact info in a
domain registration, so registrars list themselves as the contact while
charging more to the real registrant to let them hide.

https://www.whois.com/whois/filehorse.com

To find out where they are (which could be some webhoster and not their
own server), I did a reverse DNS.

nslookup filehorse.com = 162.210.198.9
nslookup 162.210.198.9 = a2.filehorse.com

So their nameserver does return their own domain name in a rDNS lookup.
Next I did a traceroute to see where they are.

tracert filehorse.com
1 (my route through my ISP)
6 ...
7 if-ae-26-2.tcore2.NTO-New-York.as6453.net [216.6.81.28]
8 if-ae-14-14.thar2.NJY-Newark.as6453.net [66.198.111.8]
9 if-ae-11-2.tcore2.AEQ-Ashburn.as6453.net [216.6.87.137]
10 if-ae-2-2.tcore1.AEQ-Ashburn.as6453.net [216.6.87.2]
11 if-ae-32-2.tcore1.VN5-Manassas.as6453.net [66.198.155.22]
12 66.198.154.238
13 po-11.ce01.wdc-01.us.leaseweb.net [108.59.15.151]
14 a2.filehorse.com [162.210.198.9]

Looks like the site is webhosted at LeaseWeb. This matches with a
lookup on their 162.210.198.9 to see in whose IP pool that belongs.

https://www.whois.com/whois/162.210.198.9

So they are paying someone (LeaseWeb) for webhosting services but they
are hiding behind a private domain registration. You'd have to send a
legal writ from your attorney to LeaseWeb to see if you could shake out
who is the real domain registrant.

The copyright notice on their web pages says "H&V Media Limited,
Cyprus". On a guess only that Cyprus is their homeland, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus
https://goo.gl/maps/RYVkCZ5iuDm

You could download their file(s) and run them through virustotal.com.
That will give you a vote on the safety of the file(s) but doesn't
guarantee they are safe.

You'll have to trust them (whoever they are but they hide) or not. Have
you yet contacted Samsung support to see if they'll provide 4.97 (or
whatever is the latest 4.x version)?

Jeff Barnett wrote on 6/25/2017 11:38 AM:
I'm using 256GB Samsung SSD 840 Pro as C disks on my Win 7 Pro SP1
64-bit machines. Samsung Magician software has been loaded on all of
them. I recently updated Magician on one machine from Version 4.x.y to
Version 5.0.0. The GUI interface is totally different.

The most important difference, to me, is that there is no mention or
control of "over-partitioning" in the GUI or any discussion in the
documentation I could find. My C disk dedicated the default 10% (about
24GB) to this task. That dedication was set up while running Version
4.x.y. My question is whether I can take that 24GB and merge it with the
usable part of my C disk now that I'm using Version 5.0.0?

I searched for information and some opinions were that Samsung no longer
believes that over-partitioning is necessary (in Win 10?) but I could
find no Samsung statement to that effect nor any described method to
safely reclaim that previously dedicate chunk of the SSD. Samsung phone
support is mostly useless - ask the same question twice and get at least
two different answers.

Does anyone of you know 1) what is going on with the Samsung Magician,
2) does Version 5.0.0 still use disk for over-partitioning, or 3) if
not, how to reclaim and use the now wasted space?

TIA
At lid's insistence, I contacted Samsung. My Magician was
updated by Magician to V5.0.0. It seems there is now a V5.1.0 that
includes over-provisioning and trim control in the interface. By the,
way V5.0.0 never indicated that a newer version was available; I got the
idea that it would stand mute until there was a V6. It seems to me that
Samsung released a bad update and didn't do enough to make it right. So
for the nonce I'm at peace (with my SSD anyway).

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.
--
Jeff Barnett