Can I Defragment a Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD)?

[xtobymc]

I always hear people saying that you should never defragment an SSD, but what about an SSHD? I've recently ordered one, and I'm somebody who likes to look after my system well, so defrags are something I frequently do. Also, if I'm not supposed to defragment my new SSHD, is there anything I have to setup in Windows 8 to ensure it doesn't do it automatically?

Thanks

 

[aldan]

the sshd will work better without frequent defrags. after completing the install of the drive (after everything is installed on it) i would do 1 defrag. one thing ive noticed about win7 and 8 is that defrags are almost never needed or at least not near as often as it was with xp.do not set up auto defrag. if in doubt,analyse the drive to see the level of fragmentation before doing a defrag.

 

[Dereck47]

Yes, you can defrag a SSHD. Your O/S and data are written and stored on the HDD portion of the drive. The SSD portion of the drive is only used to cache the most frequently used data to speed up performance.

 

[Thosthos]

Possibly a bit late, but I have something to add which may be of interest. I have had a 1 Tb Seagate SSHD on my desktop for about six months now. The drive contains a single partition with Windows 7 and all my software and work folders. Every day I run CCleaner to clean up the drive - mainly Internet cache stuff. About once a month I use the Windows disk cleanup utility to remove mainly residual Windows Update stuff. Apart from this, I do no disk maintenance at all - leaving it all to the caching of the SSHD to sort out. Regular monitoring of defragmentation shows that this regime keeps defragmentation at about a very acceptable 2% - it has never been higher than 3%. So, with an SSHD, defragmentation is not necessary - the operation of the SSHD, combined with regular clearing of temporary rubbish, automatically does a form of defragmentation for you. Using a defragger with an SSHD is also very undersirable, since it temporarily wrecks the improved performance from using an SSHD and shortens the life of the solid state part of the drive.

 

[Alienmoon]

I'd have to agree with Dereck47, His explanation is correct, Plus I've a few SSHD's a 2TB & 4TB, However, you don't have to defrag them as much as HDD's.