SSD defrag

timbo2410 · 30 Sep 2016 at 17:36

I read quite some time ago that a SSD shouldn't need a defrag, in fact it can actually shorten it's lifespan. Is this fact or fiction? I've never run one myself but would like to know if it is true.

WYNIR0 · 30 Sep 2016 at 17:37

http://lifehacker.com/windows-does-defragment-ssds-but-its-okay-1666753409

MagicBoy · 30 Sep 2016 at 17:45

Fact.

TRIM and the firmware garbage collection should be enough to maintain performance on a drive that isn't crammed to the rafters with data.

timbo2410 · 30 Sep 2016 at 17:58

hey just looked it up and it was already performing trim automatically ... thanks for the heads up :-)

MagicBoy · 30 Sep 2016 at 19:01

With an SSD contiguous sectors as they appear to the OS via SATA are not necessarily anywhere near each other on the SSD logically. The firmware dynamically remaps addresses for wear levelling and other purposes.

Mechanical hard drives benefit from defragmenting as parts of the same file might be at opposite ends of the disk and it takes time to physically reposition the heads and read each sector. With the SSD that's no longer an issue as it takes the approximately the same amount to time access any memory address.