Do I Need to Periodically Defragment a SSD?

NavyLCDR said:

No,

moreover you should not defrag SSD if you want to extend its life, there is no fragmented ssd it works in a different way.

It is false information that there is no fragmented SSD. SSDs do get fragmented. It's just that fragmentation on an SSD has no noticeable affect on it's performance.

Since we're splitting the hair:):

The word false has a negative connotation, you can surely correct me and explain me that it's wrong, but i was talking sensu lato,
what i mean is that there is no fragmentation in SSD, simply because they work in a different way, i also think that fragmented SSD not only they do not suffer of fragmentation but they can actually work better.

With fragmentation i mean:

Fragmentation (computing) - Wikipedia:

In computer storage, fragmentation is a phenomenon in which storage space is used inefficiently, reducing capacity or performance and often both.

So i think that my answer is not false, bu instead a good hint.

If i'm wrong i'm happy to learn.

Hi,

With fragmentation i mean:

Fragmentation (computing) - Wikipedia:

In computer storage, fragmentation is a phenomenon in which storage space is used inefficiently, reducing capacity or performance and often both.

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,

fdegrove said:

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 to DRAM memory. Interesting stuff for datacenters surely.

Cheers,

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.

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?