Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Patches1 on July 10, 2013, 10:07:55 PM
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Is it advisable to defragment SSDs?
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No.
And there are other steps you take with a Windows OS as well.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2727880
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds
http://www.itworld.com/answers/topic/hardware/question/how-often-should-ssds-be-defragmented
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Definitely no. For those who don't click links, here's why not:
A standard hdd is divided into sectors. When something gets saved, either permanently or temporarily, stuff gets saved in pieces. One fragment here, another there and so on. During time temporary files get removed, which will create new empty holes for fragments of future savings. It will take quite an effort for the reading head to jump from one fragment to another if they are all over the place. Defragmenting will line the fragments in a sequential order, after which the reading arm movements are far less. For the less tech minded: Think about files and programs as a jigsaw puzzle. Put all pieces together and you'll see a whole picture. Now, kids may want to do several of them in a row, after which they get tired and start messing around, kicking the pieces all around. All of the pieces are still in the playroom, but compiling a single picture would take far more time. Defragmenting is the mom who sorts all the pieces in respective boxes and puts them on the shelf.
SSD's are different. They don't have any mechanically moving parts, whose traveling time can be measured. Thus it doesn't matter whether the fragments were in a single memory block or not. There's no speeding effect in defragmenting an SSD.
An even more important thing is that SSD's only can do a certain amount of rewriting. Although the number is huge and still increasing, there is a limit. Defragmenting does a lot of rewriting all over the disk. Thus defragmenting an SSD will make it wear out faster for nothing.
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Wow. Great answer!
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A small correction to bizmans very good description: The write duration is not increasing but decreasing. As fabricating process gets smaller it produces cheaper nands but at the cost of write endurance. Currently there are multiple choices for nand architectures with the newest and cheapest options being rated for a fraction of writes compared to the premium versions. However development in error correction and wear leveling algorithms has made it possible to produce drives which should last any possible consumer use scenario for the rated lifetime of the drive. Defragging the new and cheap drives would likely severely affect their lifespan, much more even than the previous generation.
http://hothardware.com/News/Corsair-Explains-Change-From-34nm-To-25nm-Related-To-SSDs/
There are SSDs already using 19nm process: http://hothardware.com/News/Toshiba-Storage-Rolls-Out-SSDs-Using-19nm-Process-Technology/
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that article is from 2 years ago Ripley and, in spite of what it states...drive capacities have gone up and iops have increased while prices go down.
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Actually I meant the number of possible rewritings is increasing due to improvements in manufacturing and technology. Sorry for the confusion my poor wording might have caused.
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that article is from 2 years ago Ripley and, in spite of what it states...drive capacities have gone up and iops have increased while prices go down.
The article is still spot on gyrene and everything I said is 100% correct. Here's a little article which brings more detail to the challenges behind MLC and smaller fabrication processes: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/the-future-of-ssds/
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SSD's are like a closet that had the doors removed. You can see everything. There is no seek time. No need to defrag. As as already mentioned, defrag would shorten the lifespan. Don't use a SSD on WinXP (32 bit). There is no trim.
Best thing is do some reading on SSD's. PCWorld's web page is a good source of info.
<S>
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SSD's
I use OCZ Vertex. The firmware of the SSD takes care of SSD maintenance, its called "GC", garbage collection. I log off from all users, leave machine on all night, the SSD's are taken care of.
If you go SSD route make sure it has latest FW available. Install OS using AHCI, t'is selected in mobo bios.
luck