Windows 10: Do I Need to Periodically Defragment a SSD?

Hi,

That is only really the case for HDD's where there are moving mechanical parts to read and write data.
Since SSD's have very low latency and no moving parts and moreover write and read memory cells in a totally different way any fragmentation is not going to slow it down.
Even if a piece of software would tell you that an SSD is x% fragmented then this is not necessarily true since the true state of the ssd is not visible to the end user nor Windows itself.

If you'd really want to reduce write cycles (reads are irrelevant for SSDs) then you'd need to invest in cacheing software that intercepts and caches the data to DRAM memory. Interesting stuff for datacenters surely.

Cheers, *Wink

 

Well, yes i understand that you agree with me.

 

A file is fragmented when it is written to non-contiguous storage locations on the drive and the filesystem must keep track of the different locations of the various bits of the file.

This occurs in an SSD just as much as it occurs in a HDD, because it would be incredibly inefficient to be required to find a contiguous storage location for every file written, especially a 2 or 3 hundred GB system image file.

Thus, there is no less fragmentation on an SSD than there is on a HDD. The difference is that the fragmentation on an SSD has no noticeable affect on its performance.

 

RadCazz,

You might also wish to note the [Windows 10] defrag.exe switches that cater for SSDs; you can see them & save them using a command in the form
defrag /? >D:\Desktop\Defrag.txt

• The switch /O ensures that optimisation takes account of the media type so only Trim ["Retrim"] is conducted on an SSD yet conventional defragging is carried out on other drive types.
• The switch /L ensures that only Trim ["Retrim"] is conducted; you could use that switch if you were running the defrag operation on SSDs but not other drive types.

There is a lot of useful guidance in How to Optimize and Defragment Drives - TenForums [tutorial]

Denis

 

Thanks everyone! Reputation spread around to all! Lots of info I digested - never heard of TRIM before.

The tech at MicroCenter steered me away from Toshiba (said they're horrid) and recommended something Samsung. This is the description in Speccy:

931GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB

So far, so good -> following fellow users suggestions. Can't thank you all enuff!

However, and maybe this should go in another thread, but I've always wondered: Do gaming consoles that use regular hd, like PS3 and Xbox 360 ever get fragmented?

 

I have that drive (amongst other SSDs), its a good drive. I use it to store my games on my old (insider) machine.

 

*Thumbs

I have defrag one of my Intel ssd's just for S & G. It did not help. Electrons move to fast for it to matter.

Jack