Understanding Defragment and Optimize Drives for SSDs | Learning to Run with Flash 2.0

Disk Optimization is a very simple process by which your PC  physically removes deleted and unnecessary data from your SSD in order to allow for better performance and longevity.  You can do this manually as we will demonstrate, but thankfully your PC has already set this up.  Drive Optimization is a beneficial and background process that occurs automatically with PCs.   Before we get to that, however, it is nice to have an understanding of exactly what Drive Optimization is and how things work, especially when comparing this to a  hard drive as the difference between the two is so key.

TRIM AND DEFRAGMENTATION EXPLAINED IN LAYMAN’S TERMS

When we store information on a hard disk, that information is stored in order with related data stored together, much like building a new housing development. We term that as storing information ‘contiguously’.  Over time, hard drive data ‘fragments’ as you delete and add information, or even software and programs.  We ‘defragment’ a hard drive in order to place related information closer so it can be retrieved faster.  The important aspect of HDDs is that, when information is deleted from a hard drive, is removed from the disk immediately and the space is made available for new information right then and there.

SSDs are a different animal in the way they store data.  SSDs may store data anywhere in the available drive, as it is introduced and installed, and an ‘index’ or map is created that states where that information is.  The information is not stored ‘contiguously’ and  may be anywhere amongst 1, 2, 4 or 8 NAND flash storage chips as we typically see in consumer SSDs.  When information is deleted, that information isn’t removed immediately at that point, but rather, the index or map to that information is deleted, removed or changed.

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The information is actually removed in idle time when SSD functions aren’t in such high demand and this is done automatically, or by user selection, through something called TRIM or through a very similar function called ‘Garbage Collection’.  The two are actually very different but provide the same result.  They delete the physical data for which the ‘index’ has been removed’ which now makes room for new data.  TRIM is an automatic and scheduled process, whereas garbage collection is triggered by the removal of the data index.  This is very important as data cannot be stored on an SSD until the formar data has been physically removed.  Imagine if you will the speed of an SSD being cut in half because the data had to be physically deleted first, and then new data stored.

If this interests you, we had published an article that was authored by ‘Kent Smith’ way back in 2012 that holds as much value today as it did way back then.  This article explains the difference between Trim and garbage collection at a very basic level.  It  demonstrates how SSD data is stored and removed from ‘pages’ and blocks’ and how write amplification comes into play. That article can be found here.

DO I HAVE TO TURN ON DEFRAGMENT & OPTIMIZE DRIVES?

Nope.  You don’t have to do anything as this feature sets itself up automatically.  Let’s go there first to provide a better first had understanding though.  Type ‘Optimize’ into Search and then select ‘Open’ from the choices on the right.

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Once this opens, you will be presented with a list of your hard drives or SSDs, the media type , last time analyzed and current status of that device.  The beauty of this is that the PC recognizes whether your storage device is a hard drive or SSD and implements the proper maintenance for each, whether it be defragging that hard drive or Trimming the SSD.

If you just installed and initialized your SSD (as we did), you will see that the system recommends you to optimize your SSD immediately, although it is really not necessary. Notice the term ‘Needs optimization’?

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Simply click on the drive that needs optimization to highlight, and select ‘Optimize’ and it will quickly Trim the entire SSD.

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Optimize Drives is initially set up to run weekly but you can change that to daily or monthly as well by selecting “Change Settings”.

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You can also select which drives to monitor and defragment (if its a hard drive) or Trim (if its an SSD) by selecting ‘Choose’.

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And that’s it…our SSD  Quick Hit of the Day!  Stay tuned as I believe our newest contributor Anshul Rana has something up his sleeve in the next day or two as well!

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