Getting wrapped around the axes about trim and SSD

[MikeSD]

I have been reading the forums and trying to learn about SSD and how to optimize perfommance, live and speed. I have read Tom's Guide and most of the other threads on this subject. But I'm still getting wrapped around the axel on this and I want to focus on one premise:

Assume I will NEVER have AHCI or TRIM support. Let's stick with "no AHCI and no TRIM".

1) Are there any utilities that can accomplish the same thing as TRIM, even though not necessarily on the fly? Are there utilities that can be run occasionally, that will put the SSD back into better performance, that recovers space compared to not having trim and doing nothing? I mean are there any "it's better than nothing tools" that can be used in place of trim?

2) I have turned off the features that allow disc optimization (i.e. defragging) backups, etc. But this also prevents me from defragging my other HDD. How do you typically deal with that? Do you temporarily turn it on to allow defragging a 2nd or 3rd drive that needs defragging? When I try to run defragmentation now, it does nothing. I can't even use it on my HDDs, since I turned this off for my SSD.

3) I guess one should not defrag an SSD, because it's not really necessary. But purely from a housekeeping standpoint, is it possible to defrag (one-time only say), to get all the programs together and all the free space released?

I ask this, because I have installed and then uninstalled a few programs, created and deleted a number of files, in setting up my SSD. It's possible that my SSD is already getting messy. One of the things I was considering doing, before I go any further, is to make and exact clone of this drive, on a 2nd SSD.

This would serve 2 purposes. It would give me an exact baseline copy of my SSD, with OS installed and nothing else, to allow me to get back to square 1, without having to re-install my OS.

4) The other side to #3 is, "can one clone an SSD, to be 100% identical to the original, so that one can remove one and install the other in it's place and be guaranteed that it would boot, without any diference from the first. I mean purely identical". If possible, what are the better programs for doing this?

 

[Dereck47]

1) Are there any utilities that can accomplish the same thing as TRIM, even though not necessarily on the fly? Are there utilities that can be run occasionally, that will put the SSD back into better performance, that recovers space compared to not having trim and doing nothing? I mean are there any "it's better than nothing tools" that can be used in place of trim?

SSDs use idle Garbage Collection as well as TRIM to maintain drive performance. Just Log off (not Shut down) overnight once or twice a week to let GC do its thing.

2) I have turned off the features that allow disc optimization (i.e. defragging) backups, etc. But this also prevents me from defragging my other HDD. How do you typically deal with that? Do you temporarily turn it on to allow defragging a 2nd or 3rd drive that needs defragging? When I try to run defragmentation now, it does nothing. I can't even use it on my HDDs, since I turned this off for my SSD.

You are doing something wrong if that is happening. You can select individual drives in Windows to defrag or not defrag.

If you are using Windows 7 all you have to do is run WEI (Windows Experience Index); Windows will automatically disable defrag on any attached SSDs, without affecting any attached HDDs.

3) I guess one should not defrag an SSD, because it's not really necessary. But purely from a housekeeping standpoint, is it possible to defrag (one-time only say), to get all the programs together and all the free space released?

SSD firmware uses Wear Leveling algorithms to maximize drive longevity.
Wear Leveling tries to ensure that all of the blocks on all the NAND chips get written to an even amount of time.

So you can defrag an SSD if you wish but there’s no benefit for programs to be "together". The next time the SSD has to write the file that you put together by defragging, it will write it on different blocks and probably on different NAND chips.

 

[MikeSD]

You are doing something wrong if that is happening. You can select individual drives in Windows to defrag or not defrag.

If you are using Windows 7 all you have to do is run WEI (Windows Experience Index); Windows will automatically disable defrag on any attached SSDs, without affecting any attached HDDs.

I found part of my problem. The disc defragmenter was completely disabled. I type "Services.msc" and press "Enter." and found it was disabled. After I enabled it, it would run as usual. Now, to turn it off again, just for the SSD.

But back to my original point. On my previous Vista system, I could click START->ACCESSORIES->SYSTEM Tools and then click Defragmenter. It would bring up a

I'm still looking to get a 2nd SSD and hopefully get an exact image of what's on my first, so that I can use it as a backup to my baseline system, in case I ever start over. That way, I could swap the drives, and have a fresh system, then create another image of the new, fresh system. I just need to know the best way to get an exact image (clone) of a drive. I've never found backups to be all that reliable. There are always some tweaks or changes required to get back to the baseline.

Is there a good utility for making "perfect" clone of an SSD, so that you can remove one put the other in and it will boot exactly as the original? I'm looking for a utility that can essentially make an exact copy, bit by bit. I don't want to have to tweak anything to get the system back in operation. The unused SSD will always be a clone of the working baseline.