[SOLVED] Difference between ssd trimming and ssd defragmentation

[VasuOberoi]

I want to what is actual difference between ssd trim and ssd defrag .I have read somewhere that ssd defrag reduces its lifespan.While ssd trim is beneficial for device health and lifespan also.I am little confused plzz clarify.Does ssd trim reduces lifespan or not??.Does regular trimming is bad thing??.HELP

 

[Deleted member 14196]

just leave it alone in windows 10, win10 knows how to automatically trim the ssd,

traditional defrag moves bits of files around on a magnetic surface, ssd is all random access so file defrag is not necessary and causes premature SSD death. the SSD cells have a finite number of writes they can do, that's why defrag is terrible for SSD, first, it serves NO PURPOSE AND PROVIDES NO ADVANTAGES, only LOSSES , next it wears out the drive by eating up the finite writes allowable on the SSD media

Leave it set for automatic trim once a month

 

[Bob.B]

I want to what is actual difference between ssd trim and ssd defrag .I have read somewhere that ssd defrag reduces its lifespan.While ssd trim is beneficial for device health and lifespan also.I am little confused plzz clarify.Does ssd trim reduces lifespan or not??.Does regular trimming is bad thing??.HELP

My take.
Defrag of a ssd is not needed and adds extra wear.
Trim just tells the ssd what pieces of data are junk so that the ssd can toss them out and not move them around.......has to do with wear leveling and write amplification.....techno weenie stuff.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I want to what is actual difference between ssd trim and ssd defrag .I have read somewhere that ssd defrag reduces its lifespan.While ssd trim is beneficial for device health and lifespan also.I am little confused plzz clarify.Does ssd trim reduces lifespan or not??.Does regular trimming is bad thing??.HELP

Short answer: TRIM improves life span. Defrag decreases it.

Long answer:
When you write files on a fresh storage drive, the files are written as a continuous block of data (well, in 4 KB chunks). When you delete files, the space those files occupied are marked as free. Sometimes, depending on the file system and OS, new files are written in these free blocks. But if the file can't fit in the block, it gets split up and saved in the next available space. This is called fragmentation. Defragmentation is rearranging files so that all these chunks in one spot. The reason to do this was to improve hard drive performance so the data pick-up head doesn't have to move around all over the place. Defragmentation isn't useful on SSDs because they can access data in a random fashion much more quickly than a hard drive and it requires a lot of writing. So while keeping files in a continuous block of data is still ideal for SSD performance due to the way solid state memory is still addressed, the amount of writes don't make it a worthy tradeoff

TRIM is a command used to help the SSD know which chunks of data inside are no longer valid. It helps to know that flash memory is divided up into blocks, which contain a number of 4KB pages. Flash memory cannot re-use pages unless they're erased first, but erases happen at the block level. Without TRIM, when a block has mostly invalid data, is full, and someone wants to write to a file in that block but needs a new page, the SSD would first have to erase the block the write the data back to it. With TRIM, the SSD would gather up the valid pages, write them to a fresh block, then erase the previous block. That way when the file has more data added to it, it should now be in a block with room to grow.

TRIM automatically happens in the background, you don't need to do anything.

 

[USAFRet]

Associated term, 'wear leveling'.

The drive firmware shuffles the data around, to even out the usage of the individual cells.
This also happens in the background, the user has no influence on this.

https://www.atpinc.com/blog/how-SSD-wear-leveling-works

 

[Deleted member 14196]

What is SSD TRIM, why is it useful, and how to check whether it is turned on | Digital Citizen

"TRIM is a command with the help of which the operating system can tell the solid state drive (SSD) which data blocks are no longer needed and can be deleted, or are marked as free for rewriting. In other words, TRIM is a command that helps the operating system know precisely where the data that you want to move or delete is stored. That way, the solid state drive can access only the blocks holding the data. Furthermore, whenever a delete command is issued by the user or the operating system, the TRIM command immediately wipes the pages or blocks where the files are stored. This means that the next time the operating system tries to write new data in that area, it does not have to wait first to delete it. "

TRIM = GOOD
DEFRAG = REALLY BAD