Care and Maintenance of SSD's

[denwilliam]

I think it is common knowledge that a ssd should not be defragmented but what about diskclean?,should that be avoided too and if so how do you remove what diskclean removes?.

 

[Layback Bear]

I use Windows 7 built in Disk Cleanup all the time on my SSD's. Doesn't seem to be a problem. It doesn't spend a lot of time doing Cleanup like it would doing a defrag. To me that means it's not working the SSD very hard like a defrag would.

 

[badger906]

any reading or writing to an SSD will shorten its life. thats a fact. just treat it like a normal hard drive.. when it fails it will fail. if youve backed everything up regularly it should just be the convenience of the cost of a new one.

its recommended to replace a hard drive every 3-5 years as is. unless your writing 20gb+ daily then it will easily surpass that time scale.

 

[Ranger4]

I also use Windows Disc Cleanup on a regular basis on my SSD.

 

[denwilliam]

When I posed the question to Crucial,who's M4 and M500 I use,they told me not to diskclean but to place the computer in Bios mode and leave it resting there for 6/8 hours,which is supposed to rejuvenate the ssd.What I want to know is if you follow that procedure then what happens to all the obsolete material you want to be rid of?.

 

[badger906]

theres a simpler way. format regularly =) no build up of guff and keeps the system speedy(er)

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

theres a simpler way. format regularly =) no build up of guff and keeps the system speedy(er)

That's almost as bad as defragging a SSD. It will introduce way too many unnecessary writes which will shorten SSD life.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

any reading or writing to an SSD will shorten its life. thats a fact. just treat it like a normal hard drive.. when it fails it will fail. if youve backed everything up regularly it should just be the convenience of the cost of a new one...

While writing to an SSD will reduce its life, reading will not! If defragging is included in treating a SSD as a HDD, then one definitely does not want to do so.

...its recommended to replace a hard drive every 3-5 years as is. unless your writing 20gb+ daily then it will easily surpass that time scale.

What on earth for? Many HDDs live well past 3-5 years—I had a Maxtor last seven years and replaced it only because it was too small and was outdated technology—and just about as many fail well before that. Unless one needs more speed (which most people do not), or feels the need for more speed (which is what many people really feel), or needs more capacity, as long as one backs up everything regularly as you recommended earlier, there is no point in replacing a perfectly good HDD on a schedule. If one absolutely needs continuous operation without interruptions due to HDD failure, then a RAID with hot spares needs to be employed. Most people (other than ones running a business) just don't need that kind of reliability.

 

[badger906]

thats the recommended thing to to. it stops the "help broken hard drive/lost all my stuff" culture we see to often on the forums.

I have drives that are 10yrs old going fine. but if its an import drive that contains important data 3-5years is recommended. its also recommended to upgrade a decent rig every 3 years so it goes hand in hand.
those drives then get shoved in my server as back ups of backs ups of backups (you get the point).

Ive had SSD's from basically day 1. when a 30-60gb varient would cost £££/$$$ and basically your only size options. I have treated them all exactly like I would a mechanical and all are going fine. I format every 6 months give or take to clear out the mothballs and regularly back up my drives. So they get a lot of read and write cycles. None dead yet (touches wood).

the way I view it if you get something new that costs more that you have to pander and pussy foot around then all speed gains are diminished by worrying that it will break if you sneeze near it!

 

[denwilliam]

Phew!!!,never expected the response that has spewed forth but afraid non of the above answers the question I put.As for doing a format every time I want to clear a few files strikes me as being on a par with throwing the baby out with the bathwater,but no thanks.

 

[whs]

When I posed the question to Crucial,who's M4 and M500 I use,they told me not to diskclean but to place the computer in Bios mode and leave it resting there for 6/8 hours,which is supposed to rejuvenate the ssd.What I want to know is if you follow that procedure then what happens to all the obsolete material you want to be rid of?.

That is a good idea because during that time the SSD is powered on but the OS does not write the usual statistical files to it. During that time the SSD controller can do the garbage collection.

You do, however, want to remove all the temporary files from time to time. For that I use the CCleaner.

Btw: SSDs are not as touchy as some people claim. My OCZ and my Intel from 2007 are still going strong. And both got heavy usage.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...SSDs are not as touchy as some people claim.

That's very true but defragging and frequent reformatting will unnecessarily shorten SSD life.

 

[whs]

Defragging is just a nuisance. It's like trying to start a 2003 car with a crank - like the old Ford T model. A quick reformat does not really do much. It just writes a few control records.

 

[denwilliam]

Every time I receive an e-mail advising of a reply and I click on the message "This thread is located at--------------"a box pops up saying "This file does not have a program---------------------",so what is happening as this has just started.

 

[whs]

Every time I receive an e-mail advising of a reply and I click on the message "This thread is located at--------------"a box pops up saying "This file does not have a program---------------------",so what is happening as this has just started.

You are in the wrong thread. I suggest you make your own thread stating the problem. here you will get little attention.

 

[Layback Bear]

Just use your SSD as you would use a Hard Drive except the defrag.
Today's SSD's are many times better than when the first came out.
I haven't reformatted a already installed operating system in years.
Just keep your system updated and clean.
Does you Crucial SSD come with a program like Intel has for their SSD's?

 

[Total]

mine is still going strong ..

 

[Britton30]

When I posed the question to Crucial,who's M4 and M500 I use,they told me not to diskclean but to place the computer in Bios mode and leave it resting there for 6/8 hours,which is supposed to rejuvenate the ssd.What I want to know is if you follow that procedure then what happens to all the obsolete material you want to be rid of?.

You have to first perform a clean up or delete unwanted files, leaving it powered up in BIOS won't delete files but invokes Garbage Clean which clean files that have been deleted. I use Disk Cleanup on my SSDs regularly.

 

[madcratebuilder]

OP, Google "TRIM" and "Garbage Collection" both are used by SSD's and effect how deleted files are handled and new space is made available. The fewer "writes" a SSD sees the better.

thats the recommended thing to to. it stops the "help broken hard drive/lost all my stuff" culture we see to often on the forums.

Regular backup is a better solution.

Drive life time is more about size than mechanical life. I have drives that still run fine after 15+ years but are so small they are not of much good.

 

[Britton30]

thats the recommended thing to to. it stops the "help broken hard drive/lost all my stuff" culture we see to often on the forums.

Who recommends this? I suspect drive manufacturers? :sarc: