SSD and defrag

**Taxmancometh** · June 3rd, 2012, 09:26 PM

I was wondering. I just defraged by SSD and I thought I heard something about it was not wise to defrag a SSD otherwise it shortens the life span of the drive. Is this true? I used Auslogic disk defrag and did a pretty good job. I like how the program will move system files to the front of the drive.

**RicheemxX** · June 3rd, 2012, 09:45 PM

Correct, you aren't supposed to defrag SSDs. AFAIK you should never have to

**Taxmancometh** · June 3rd, 2012, 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by RicheemxX

AFAIK you should never have to

Well, the drive was fragmented after analyzing it.

**paul9** · June 3rd, 2012, 09:59 PM

Probably best to not have a page file on it, either.

**Taxmancometh** · June 3rd, 2012, 10:01 PM

I don't. I used a little program called SSD tweaker I think it was called to get rid of that option.

**RicheemxX** · June 3rd, 2012, 10:15 PM

SSD FAQs

Do I need to defragment my Intel® Mainstream Solid-State Drive (using Windows* Disk Defragmenter* or similar program)?
No. SSD devices, unlike traditional HDDs, see no performance benefit from traditional HDD defragmentation tools. Disable any automatic or scheduled defragmentation utilities for your Intel SSD. Using these tools simply adds unnecessary wear to the SSD.

AFAIK the information is always written across the drive evenly its not like an old tradition drive were data is specifically written in different sectors and needs to be moved

**Bizkitkid2001** · June 3rd, 2012, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by RicheemxX

AFAIK the information is always written across the drive evenly its not like an old tradition drive were data is specifically written in different sectors and needs to be moved

No, it is still written like a normal drive. SSDs have no moving parts so reading a file broken up and spread out across the drive is just as fast as reading that same file that was written evenly across an entire section without fragments. The reason a mechanical HDD takes longer is because you have to wait for the arm to read every piece of the file that has been fragmented, and that takes time.

The arm has to read part 1, then move to part 2, then move to part 3, then move to part 4, ect... A SSD can read all parts at the same time.

What determines if a file is written all at once without any fragmentation is determined by the type of file system, not whether the drive is a HDD or SSD. IE, the type of file system used by the PS3 does not allow files to get fragmented (it makes sure that all files are written in one sequence) and that is why Sony says that the PS3 never needs to be defragmented.