Defragging Solid State Drives?


  1. martinlest
    Posts : 661
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
       New #1

    Defragging Solid State Drives?


    This isn't recommended, I know. But would it serve any purpose at all? As far as I understand the matter, aside from the wear and tear issue, whether an SDD is 0% fragmented or 100% fragmented makes no difference to the performance, due to the way the information is read from the disc. Is that so?

    I run MS Flight Simulator from an SDD (my O/S is on another SDD too) and I am starting to get some performance issues. Some have recommended I defrag the disc - when I analyse it, it shows 100% fragmentation, but if what I wrote above is true, it wouldn't make any difference. Right??

    Thanks,

    Martin
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  3. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       New #2

    I think it would be a useless exercise. Your perceived performance degradation must have other causes.
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  4. Hopalong X
    Posts : 6,349
    Windows7 Pro 64bit SP-1; Windows XP Pro 32bit
       New #3

    +1 WHS

    If you can check the defrag amount on your SSD that means Defrag is not disabled on your system.
    It should be disabled.

    The defragger will never actually achieve defragmenting your drive. After it is done running the SSD will eventually move all the files again as it uses its wear leveling.
    Wear leveling makes sure all NAND cells get equal usage.
    Your files do not "sit" in one location after install as they do on an HDD/spinner.

    So let the SSD write the files where it wants and do its job of wear leveling and clean up as designed by the SSD firmware.
    No defrag.

    Mike
    Last edited by Hopalong X; 18 Jan 2012 at 06:44.
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  6. Comp Cmndo
    Posts : 184
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       New #4

    Hopalong X said:
    ...Defragging on an HDD makes it easier for the optic laser to find files by putting the ones that are related near each other...
    Please show me an HDD that has an "optic laser". You won't be able to, because there is none. It's magnetic, not optical. CD's & DVD's are optical.

    BTW, access time specs for SDD's are in the 0.1ms range which is about 1/100 that of a HDD.
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  7. mickey megabyte
    Posts : 8,398
    ultimate 64 sp1
       New #5

    Hopalong X said:
    ...

    If you can check the defrag amount on your SSD that means Defrag is not disabled on your system.
    It should be disabled.

    ...
    sorry hoppy, but i'm not sure if this is 100% accurate either.

    you can still run the defrag program, to analyse without actually defragging. what you need to disable is scheduled defrags on the SSD - most people that have ssd's also have an hdd or two, so they may still wish to defrag the hard disks.
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  8. Hopalong X
    Posts : 6,349
    Windows7 Pro 64bit SP-1; Windows XP Pro 32bit
       New #6

    Comp Cmndo said:
    Hopalong X said:
    ...Defragging on an HDD makes it easier for the optic laser to find files by putting the ones that are related near each other...
    Please show me an HDD that has an "optic laser". You won't be able to, because there is none. It's magnetic, not optical. CD's & DVD's are optical.

    BTW, access time specs for SDD's are in the 0.1ms range which is about 1/100 that of a HDD.
    Sorry about that.
    It was late when I posted that and I will edit.

    You understand my point the reduced read access time of the SSD.
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  10. Hopalong X
    Posts : 6,349
    Windows7 Pro 64bit SP-1; Windows XP Pro 32bit
       New #7

    mickey megabyte said:
    Hopalong X said:
    ...

    If you can check the defrag amount on your SSD that means Defrag is not disabled on your system.
    It should be disabled.

    ...
    sorry hoppy, but i'm not sure if this is 100% accurate either.

    you can still run the defrag program, to analyse without actually defragging. what you need to disable is scheduled defrags on the SSD - most people have ssd's and an hdd or two, so they may still wish to defrag the hard disks.
    Then it isn't disabled on the SSD.
    Mine is set per what is in black inside the quotes.
    I highlighted in red how to set if you need to defrag other HDD's/spinners from the SSD.

    WHS's tutorial here on the forum.
    SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

    Settings after the OS transfer

    Disk Defragmentation makes no sense on an SSD. For a laptop, go into Services, navigate to Disk Defragmenter, right click on it and go to Properties. Here you set the service to Disabled.
    For a desktop, you may want to disable defrag in the Disk Defragmenter and only for the SSD so that the remaining HDDs can still be defragmented.
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  11. martinlest
    Posts : 661
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    Thanks for the replies. I keep a defrag programme as I have two 1TB SATA drives in addition to the SSDs.

    Yes, I have only analyzed the defragmjentation on the SSDs, not tried to defragment them. I have no scheduling active for defrag..

    Martin
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  12. M1GU31
    Posts : 3,168
    Windows 10 64bit
       New #9

    only defrag HDD's. The SSD will be fine.
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