do ssd's need defragging

bigjimmyauk · 12 Jan 2010 at 04:00

weird question but just wonderd as i am defragging my hdd now and just thought about it briefly

MikeHunt79 · 12 Jan 2010 at 04:28

bigjimmyauk · 12 Jan 2010 at 04:31

MikeHunt79 said:
no

blunt and to the point i like it lol

megatron · 12 Jan 2010 at 04:48

My 2p is that I've seen a thread before of a similar nature and there is apparently a program so u have set everything to a zero effectively a low level format.

AMG · 12 Jan 2010 at 05:16

I heard you best not format them

also heard something silly like it could damage the data or them or something, can't remember were from.

J.B · 12 Jan 2010 at 07:39

AMG said:
I heard you best not format them

also heard something silly like it could damage the data or them or something, can't remember were from.

yes, formatting has that effect on data

reiyushin · 12 Jan 2010 at 09:24

J.B said:
yes, formatting has that effect on data

I lol'd

Phatzy · 12 Jan 2010 at 09:39

reiyushin said:
I lol'd

so did i

OLDPHART · 12 Jan 2010 at 11:12

See if your SSD supports Trim or the like(you might have to update the firmware to run it) A TRIM enabled drive running an OS with TRIM support will stay closer to its peak performance over time.

magicroundabout · 12 Jan 2010 at 11:26

win7 also removes the option to defrag the drive as it has an impact on performance over time.

Supertaff · 12 Jan 2010 at 11:56

Not tried it yet, by MyDerfrag (used to be defraggler) has a specific option for defragging SSD's. Supposedly it moves the data around to make it more efficient.

I'm not keen to try it based on the view that most people say that you shouldn't defrag them. Would be good to get some opinions if anyone has tried this.

Taff

Duke · 12 Jan 2010 at 12:09

No need to defrag - there are no moving parts so the access times are tiny compared to a spindle drive. 2nd generation drives should have GC and/or TRIM which both keep the drive running quick.

More info and tweaks for Windows 7 SSD users - http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63273

Josh P · 12 Jan 2010 at 12:24

I thought you got better performance if they were fragmented as it spreads the load.

leexgx · 12 Jan 2010 at 12:33

the drive uses maped LBA so even though your disk is fully defragmented its Not what it looks like at the flash level, drives with no GC or TRIM can become very slow if SSD level fragmentation is large (has to erase more then 1 cell before it can save data) only fix for that is low level format and restore (this affects first gen intel SSD and any JMicron SSD but you have to hammer the ssd a lot with near free space{well jmicron just Write any data and it goes slow anyway}) an windows defrag would not fix this as it cant defrag the flash it self due to the LBA map (can make it worse running defrag)

moleh · 12 Jan 2010 at 14:25

No but they also are hard to format so dont loose it

AMG · 12 Jan 2010 at 17:21

J.B said:
yes, formatting has that effect on data

I mean more nasty terms than better terms

I throught that too

FoxEye · 12 Jan 2010 at 17:33

Josh Pencheon said:
I thought you got better performance if they were fragmented as it spreads the load.

From what I've read, Win7 will intentionally fragment some files to improve performance.

Then using a 3rd party defragger will effectively mean starting a battle between Windows and the defrag over which files should go where

TBH, I haven't used a defrag program for years.

Marvin · 12 Jan 2010 at 18:26

I was under the impression that with an SSD you only have a limited number of rewrites per memory 'cell', and by defragging, you essentially use more of these rewrites than is necessary - which shortens the life of the drive.