Deleting files/data from SSD permanantly

[agent47sa]

I am buying a laptop with 512 SSD as only storage. I've read that data needs to be overwritten even after deletion to actually free space and to actually remove it from there. 1) Since my only storage is SSD, i need to know how to delete individual files/programs permanently without having to formatting the whole disk to free the memory cells. How is this possible?
2) Does data remain in the disk even if you delete it permanently using Shift+ Delete (as windows says)?
3) Is uninstalling programs/softwares is different than normal delete operation. I mean, do i also need to use permanent removal methods on system drives (while keeping everything else as it is)?

 

[laviniuc]

1 use normal delete (send to recycle bin) or shift_del to delete without moving to the recycle bin
2 it remains but the same is true for the hdd-s too. it's how the storage works internally. as far as the os (windows) is concerned after it deleted a 2gb file it has 2 more gb free space. nothing to worry about, it's normal. what you read is that for ssd-s they do this automatically after deletes if ahci/trim is turned on. the os will set it as soon as it sees you're using a ssd. no problems.
3 unless you are using portable apps delete is not the same as uninstall. uninstall cleans also the various files the program added in the os (temporary/shared components). it's always better to use uninstall and then delete manually any files that the un-installer couldn't remove.

 

[agent47sa]

1 use normal delete (send to recycle bin) or shift_del to delete without moving to the recycle bin
2 it remains but the same is true for the hdd-s too. it's how the storage works internally. as far as the os (windows) is concerned after it deleted a 2gb file it has 2 more gb free space. nothing to worry about, it's normal. what you read is that for ssd-s they do this automatically after deletes if ahci/trim is turned on. the os will set it as soon as it sees you're using a ssd. no problems.
3 unless you are using portable apps delete is not the same as uninstall. uninstall cleans also the various files the program added in the os (temporary/shared components). it's always better to use uninstall and then delete manually any files that the un-installer couldn't remove.

I understand 1 and 3 but as for 2, I don't understand what you mean by "2 more gb free space". Do you mean that the data has actually been removed/trimmed off the memory cell or is it just waiting to be over-written by another 2 gb file?(the latter is what they deem harmful for SSD memory cells, right)

 

[laviniuc]

so point 2:

- you don;t really need to worry about what it does internally is the simple answer. as far as the os and you are concerned once you deleted it gave you the amount of space you deleted. it's the same behavior in both hdd and ssd.

the difference is how they actually handle the delete internally. the hdd doesn't need the extra space immediately and can even wait till your write over the same data again. (that's why delete recovery apps work on hdd-s - see recuva for example). the ssd however needs to free those cells as soon as possible to prevent write amplification (see here for details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write_amplification)

trim is a function on the os that tells the ssd, that it can garbage collect that 2gb of data. otherwise the default behavior is to leave it there (same as on hdd-s). even without trim, the internal garbage collect would still figure out that it can delete the file, but only later on. (trim just does it faster)

it doesn't influence the speed too much if that's what you're worried and these are all concerned on older gen ssd-s, new ones don't suffer these issues.

edit: and to explain further you can't call trim on demand, nor can you call the garbage collector on demand. only few ssd-s (intel and samsung as far as i'm aware) give options (in their ssd apps - toolbox for intel and magician for samung) to "cleanup" manually the unused space - something like a trim on demand. but it's not really needed if trim is already on. you can trust it to do its job and not worry about this.

 

[agent47sa]

Thanks you very much. I have some other question posts related to storage and performance if you would be so kind to help on those. The write amplification thing was the last of my worries and now its gone. Though I would like to see if Manual TRIM works on my SSD.
these are the links to my storage related other questions
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2224042/store-ssd-performance-512-ssd.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2224600/partitions-ssd.html

hope to hear from you again.tyvm 😉