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  #1  
Old 04-18-2018, 11:56 PM
Mojo Mojo is offline
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Geting SSD Back To Normal After Doing Something Stoopid. . .

A few days ago I did something I have never done, which is install a utility trusting that its compatibility claim is trustworthy and then using it on my Mac's boot drive. The utility is Disk Sensei and among other things it can be used to enable TRIM on Mac SSDs.

For the past year I have been using an external USB 3.0 SSD without any problems. I used SD! and Dave's emailed instructions to configure the SSD. The only thing missing was TRIM. Regretfully, I enabled "Automatic TRIM" on Disk Sensei.

I should probably note that prior to using Disk Sensei the SSD had insufficient free space, around 19GB. That may have caused some problems as well. . . I was about to order a new 500GB SSD. But then I used Disk Sensei to locate old iOS apps that had previously been managed by iTunes. Trashing those files has given me a respectable 82GB of free space on a 250GB SSD.

Prior to installing Disk Sensei the boot SSD ran normally. Since the installation I have experienced booting problems after NVRAM reset (the SSD does not appear as a startup disk). Booting into Single-User Mode is impossible. WRITE speeds are extremely slow, in the neighborhood of 40MB/s average. READ speed remains around 450MB/s. Disabling Automatic TRIM within Disk Sensei does not return the SSD to normal. I haven't noticed any other problems in the past few days.

My installation log (courtesy of BlockBlock) indicates that the following items were installed by Disk Sensei in various locations. The BOLD notations indicate my results trying to find the items. . .

2018-04-11 22:39:10 +0000: /usr/libexec/smd installed a launch daemon or agent (/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cindori.TEHelper.plist -> /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/org.cindori.TEHelper) LOCATED.

2018-04-11 22:49:59 +0000: /usr/libexec/smd installed a launch daemon or agent (/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cindori.SenseiTool.plist -> /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/org.cindori.SenseiTool) LOCATED.

2018-04-11 23:43:15 +0000: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/org.cindori.SenseiTool installed a launch daemon or agent (/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cindori.noatime.plist -> mount) CANNOT LOCATE.

2018-04-12 04:11:21 +0000: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Resources/DesktopServicesHelper created an application helper login item (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Sensei.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/TrimStart.app -> /Applications/Utilities/Disk Sensei.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/TrimStart.app/Contents/MacOS/TrimStart) CANNOT LOCATE.

2018-04-11 23:24:00 +0000: /bin/cp installed a kernel extension (/Library/Extensions/TrimEnabler.kext -> /Library/Extensions/TrimEnabler.kext/Contents/MacOS/TrimEnabler) CANNOT LOCATE.

In order to regain control of the SSD and be able to boot using it I have twice reinstalled OS Sierra 10.12.6 while booting from an external clone. For some reason(s) that I am ignorant about, the installs did not overwrite the above files. Disk Sensei remained on the SSD during both installs.

I am looking for advice on returning the SSD to its original state without a trace Disk Sensei. Unfortunately my only external clone of the SSD has the utility and its myriad files installed on it. My Bad.

Is there a way to give the OS a clean slate while using SD! to move all my other files to the SSD? Or is there another fix? I admit that I may be missing something obvious. . . Either I never knew it or my aging brain (I turn 64 next month) has forgotten it. I've tried to include all the pertinent information for those who know more than I do about these things. I've tried getting help elsewhere and searched online for information but I haven't had any success.

I am using a Samsung T3 external USB 3.0 drive running OS Sierra 10.12.6 connected to a 2012 i7 Mac Mini. The SSD was reformatted so there is no longer any of the Samsung software that came installed on the drive.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to ponder my self-inflicted dilemma. . .
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Old 04-19-2018, 07:41 AM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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It seems unlikely that their kext could have this kind of effect on your system. I'm guessing that you can't see the "CANNOT LOCATE" items because you turned off TRIM.

Have you tried booting in Safe Boot? That would disable any 3rd party kexts. Also, have you contacted the Cindori folks?
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Old 04-20-2018, 01:49 PM
Mojo Mojo is offline
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[QUOTE=dnanian;34211]It seems unlikely that their kext could have this kind of effect on your system. I'm guessing that you can't see the "CANNOT LOCATE" items because you turned off TRIM.

Alas, Cindori support is limited to a relatively inactive forum. Responses to problems are minimal to nonexistent. I posted my problem 2 days ago and there has been no reply so far. . .

I just successfully booted into Safe Mode. I ran a speed test in both Safe Mode and regular boot; both seem to be within a normal range.

Would it be safe to delete the kexts installed by Disk Sensei? If so, must I boot into Safe Mode to accomplish the task?

When I researched my READ/WRITE symptom online one recommendation is to do a NVRAM reset with the idea of using fsck -fy to force TRIM. Obviously, that is not an option in this case. The poor WRITE speed seems to be the only lasting problem. Truth be told, it could be caused by something other than the kexts, say the small amount of free space. I will look into the symptoms to see if any correspond with what I have experienced.

Say I would want to erase the SSD and start over from scratch. . . How would you suggest doing it so I would have gotten rid of the maximum amount of dross while being able install my personal data?

Last edited by Mojo; 04-20-2018 at 02:26 PM.
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Old 04-20-2018, 02:16 PM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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Slow write performance implies TRIM ineffectiveness, not a problem with the kexts as such...
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Old 04-20-2018, 02:27 PM
Mojo Mojo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dnanian View Post
Slow write performance implies TRIM ineffectiveness, not a problem with the kexts as such...
Dave, I saw your reply after I edited my previous post. . . Would you mind rereading it because I updated the info, thinking you hadn't read it yet. Sorry!
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Old 04-20-2018, 02:31 PM
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An NVRAM reset isn't likely to do anything. Doing an fsck might help somewhat, and you should be able to do it from Recovery, no?

While erasing it might help somewhat, it seems more likely that the problem is an older, pretty full drive with TRIM not working, having more trouble wear leveling its flash and working with the allocated block list when it needs to add more info...
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Old 04-22-2018, 05:33 PM
Mojo Mojo is offline
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Well, the SSD has seen less than a year of use. . . We had our email discussion in the middle of June last year when I initially set it up. But judging from my original internal drive, I seem to make my boot drives work harder than many people. At least I have been able to delete enough files so I now have around 1/3 of the SSD as free space.

I'll try doing fsck from Recovery Mode and see how that works. I will be the first time I've ever used Recovery Mode.

Thanks much for your help.
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Old 04-22-2018, 06:11 PM
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There's nothing terribly tricky about recovery, so I don't think you'll have a problem. But I also don't think it'll help. But who knows!
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