Disk defragmentation is a procedure for merging fragmented files, which is mainly used to Windows optimization. In almost any article on speeding up your computer you can find advice about defragmentation.

But not all users understand what defragmentation is, and do not know in which cases it is necessary to do it and in which it is not; what software should you use for this - is the built-in utility sufficient, or is it better to install a third-party program?

When doing disk defragmentation, many users don’t even think about or try to find out what it is all about. The answer can be found in the name itself: “defragmentation” is a process that combines files that were broken into fragments when written to the hard drive. The image below clearly shows that on the left, fragments of one file are recorded in a continuous stream, without empty spaces or divisions, and on the right, the same file is scattered across the hard drive in the form of pieces.

Naturally, it is much more convenient and faster for the disk to read a continuous file than one separated by empty space and other files.

Why does HDD fragmentation occur?

Hard drives are made up of sectors, each of which can store a certain amount of information. If a large file is saved to the hard drive, which cannot fit into one sector, then it is split and saved into several sectors.

By default, the system always tries to write file fragments as close to each other as possible - in adjacent sectors. However, due to the deletion/saving of other files, resizing of already saved files and other processes, there are not always enough free sectors located next to each other. Therefore, Windows transfers the file recording to other parts of the HDD.

How fragmentation affects drive speed

When you need to open a recorded fragmented file, the hard drive head will sequentially move to the sectors where it was saved. Thus, the more times he has to move around the hard drive in an attempt to find all the pieces of the file, the slower the reading will be.

The image on the left shows how many movements the hard drive head needs to make to read files that have been split into parts. On the right, both files, indicated in blue and yellow, are written continuously, which significantly reduces the number of movements across the disk surface.

Defragmentation is the process of rearranging pieces of one file so that the overall percentage of fragmentation decreases, and all files (if possible) are located on adjacent sectors. Thanks to this, reading will occur continuously, which will have a positive effect on the speed of the HDD. This is especially noticeable when reading large files.

Does it make sense to use third-party defragmentation programs?

Developers have created a large number of programs that deal with defragmentation. You can find both small defragmenter programs and find them as part of complex system optimizers. There are free and paid options. But are they necessary?

There is certainly a certain effectiveness of third-party utilities. Programs from different developers may offer:

• Custom auto-defragmentation settings. The user can more flexibly manage the procedure schedule;
• Other algorithms for carrying out the process. Third-party software has its own features that are more beneficial in the long run. For example, they require less interest free space on the HDD to run the defragmenter. At the same time, files are optimized, increasing their download speed. The volume's free space is also consolidated so that the level of fragmentation increases more slowly in the future;
• Additional features, for example, registry defragmentation.

Of course, program functions vary depending on the developer, so the user needs to select a utility based on his needs and PC capabilities.

Is it necessary to constantly defragment the disk?

All modern Windows versions offer to automatically carry out this process on a schedule once a week. Overall, it's more useless than necessary. The fact is that fragmentation itself is an old procedure, and in the past it was really constantly needed. In the past, even mild fragmentation has had a negative impact on system performance.

Modern HDDs have a higher operating speed, and new versions of operating systems have become much smarter, so even with a certain fragmentation process, the user may not notice a decrease in operating speed. And if you use a hard drive with a large capacity (1 TB or higher), then the system can distribute heavy files in an optimal way for it so that this does not affect performance.

In addition, constantly running the defragmenter shortens the life of the disk - this is an important disadvantage that should be taken into account.

Because by default in Windows defragmentation is enabled, it must be disabled manually:

Is it necessary to defragment an SSD drive?

A very common mistake made by users using solid state drives is using any defragmenter.

Remember, if you have an SSD drive installed on your computer or laptop, do not defragment it under any circumstances - this greatly accelerates the wear of the drive. In addition, this procedure will not increase the speed of the SSD.

If you have not disabled defragmentation in Windows before, be sure to do so either for all drives or just for the SSD.

Third-party utilities also have a similar feature, but the configuration method will be different.

Features of defragmentation

There are several nuances for the quality of this procedure:

• Despite the fact that defragmenters can work in background, to achieve the best results, it is best to launch them when there is no activity on the part of the user, or when there is a minimal amount of it (for example, during a break or while listening to music);
• When carrying out periodic defragmentation, it is more correct to use quick methods that speed up access to the main files and documents, but a certain part of the files will not be processed. In this case, the full procedure can be done less frequently;
• Before complete defragmentation, it is recommended to remove junk files and, if possible, exclude files from processing pagefile.sys And hiberfil.sys. These two files are used as temporary files and are recreated with each system startup;
• If the program has the ability to defragment the file table (MFT) and system files, then you shouldn’t neglect it. As a rule, this function is not available when the operating system is running, and can be performed after a reboot before starting Windows.

How to defragment

There are two main ways to carry out defragmentation: installing a utility from another developer or using a program built into the operating system. In this case, you can optimize not only built-in disks, but also external drives connected via USB.

Our website already has instructions for defragmenting using Windows 7 as an example. In it you will find a guide to working with popular programs and a standard Windows utility.

1. Don't defragment solid state drive(SSD).
2. Disable scheduled defragmentation in Windows.
3. Do not abuse this process.
4. First, do an analysis and find out whether there is a need to perform defragmentation.
5. If possible, use quality programs, whose efficiency is higher than the built-in Windows utility.

Many users are wondering how exactly Windows SSD defragmentation should be done, and is it necessary? After all, with the release of the new generation of solid-state drives, it was stated that they would make a person’s life much easier and relieve him of such routine work as organizing data on an SSD. However, many users simply did not believe this statement. This is understandable, because an SSD is a regular hard drive, which, like any other device in a computer, requires careful care. Moreover, today there is not as much information about SSDs as we would like. So what is defragmentation and what happens when it does it? Is it a vital necessity or is it a completely useless measure?

What is an SSD drive?

In order to correctly answer the above question, you need to understand what Windows 7 SSD drives are. These are the same hard drives, only made according to a completely different principle. SSD Windows uses completely new technologies in its structure, which, naturally, carry quite a lot of potential.

Advantages of an SSD drive

So, in Windows 7, these types of devices provide better data transfer within the system itself than other solid-state drives. This factor is achieved due to the original structure of the disk and Windows systems 7, which allows you to move even large files within the drive in a few seconds. That is why these kinds of elements are actively used in Windows 7 by those users who like high speed transfers.

In addition to all of the above, elements of such a plan for Windows 7 provide more fast access To
files and folders from the software side. For example, the same Windows 7 works much faster and more efficiently if it is on an SSD, and not on any other hard drive. This is achieved due, again, to new technology and the excellent interaction of Windows 7 with this type of device. It should be noted that gamers who want to play games for Windows 7 also like to purchase such discs. After all, the frame rate in gaming products depends not only on the processor power and motherboard, but also on the spindle speed on the Windows 7 hard drive. But, as you know, a lot of games have been released for the Windows 7 system.

It is necessary to summarize and once again go through the main advantages SSD drive:

1. High speed of file transfer within the system. So, if a hard drive of this type has two partitions, then moving even large files between them is carried out almost instantly.
2. Fast programmatic access to the necessary files and folders. Thanks to the latest technologies in this area, access to various types of information from any program has become truly impressive.

Disadvantages of an SSD drive

Like any other device, a hard drive of this type also has its drawbacks, which should definitely be mentioned. They are:

• limited memory capacity;
• short service life;
• high price.

Indeed, this disc does not have as many disadvantages as it seems at first glance. They are still quite significant for such a disc.

Limited disk space refers to the amount of storage space available in the market today. Of course, this part of the disk is really small even for the average user. For example, a disk capacity of 128 GB, which is affordable for the majority of the population, is only useful for installing the system and several demanding games. If we take larger disk volumes, then we cannot do without a capital investment of funds, which not everyone has, especially for such a luxury.

Another disadvantage of this disk is its rather limited service life. This is influenced by one, but the most important factor, for which the resources of this disk are not prepared - this is the constant overwriting of the data stored on the disk. As you know, when working with any files, the operating system creates temporary elements that contain information about all current processes. After work with any object is completed, all its temporary files are destroyed, and after completion Windows operation all temporary files are completely erased. Over the course of a year of PC operation, there will be at least several thousand such rewrite cycles, which, of course, negatively affects the performance of some areas of the disk.

Well, another disadvantage is the relatively high cost of such a device. In order to purchase it, you need a really large amount, because this new product is not yet very widespread, especially in our country.

Defragmentation: necessary or not?

The most important question that all users ask when buying such a hard drive is. I would like to note right away that for this type of disk it is best to completely disable automatic defragmentation of the operating system, which will only interfere. Of course, you should disable any other similar process, so as not to waste the purchased item.

Judging by the advertising of such disks, there is no need to defragment SSDs at all, since the disk itself already has a built-in program for distributing data over the entire disk area. However, if it were possible to disable this built-in function, it would be worth using it. It would seem, how can you disable something that the developers themselves implemented into their invention? After all, they probably better users we know what is good and what is not. But in reality, everything turns out to be completely the opposite and disabling this program, if possible, would not hurt.

The thing is that you should disable defragmentation of such a disk because it leads to gradual wear and tear of the device. In turn, the built-in program copes with this function perfectly. This is partly true, but the problem lies elsewhere. After all, as you know, there are files that the user works with constantly and they change from time to time. Accordingly, the standard SSD disk utility identifies them and frees free cells, organizing these files. But there are other objects with which the user does not perform any manipulations at all. As a rule, such data are considered to be collections of music and films that remain unchanged over time. Naturally, the standard program does not defragment them, since they always occupy the same cells. But, as practice shows, defragmentation is also necessary for such files, because they also take up some space. So, if you look at it from a completely different angle, then defragmentation is even necessary for such disks. But it is still not recommended to defragment them.

So why is defragmenting this kind of disk harmful? The answer to this question lies in the same program that organizes frequently used files. After all, if you defragment a disk with a third-party utility, it will also organize frequently used data. But the standard program also performs this same function. Therefore, it is not difficult to guess that such a double measure will very quickly render the disk unusable.

It makes sense to use defragmentation only once, after everything important files will be transferred to disk, and a single and main collection of files will be formed. After all third party programs for defragmentation, they can not only organize frequently used data, but also distribute those parts of files that have been stored for quite a long time.

To summarize, I would like to note that technology does not stand still and, perhaps, very soon special tools will be invented that will allow you to effectively defragment new SSDs disks. However, for now, it is best to avoid regularly defragmenting this resource, which is immune to this process. Still, if you look at it this way, a standard file organizing program can do a good job of its main function - distributing parts of frequently used files. If we talk about all other methods, then they are not at all effective elements that are best ignored at other times. And for that matter, with proper care and careful software handling, this kind of disk will serve the average user no less than solid-state drives of the previous generation.

Hard disk drives are slowly leaving the forefront, but for now they provide largest capacity at the lowest price. Traditional hard drives are not as fast as SSDs. But there are many easy ways to improve their performance and lifespan. Well, if your computer has a solid-state drive, then you are unlikely to need to further increase its speed, but there are ways to increase the reliability of data storage. This material contain various tips and tricks, as well as descriptions of utilities that will help you get the most out of your HDD or SSD!

Optimizing HDD operation: it is better to partition it

One of the most common tips regarding the convenience of working with a traditional magnetic hard drive is to divide it into several partitions. Separation has many advantages, for example, OS files can be stored independently of all other data (thus installing programs will be cleaner and with less risk for other data on the hard drive), the swap file can be located separately (which reduces the likelihood of system errors), you can install two OS(for example, Windows 7 on one partition and Linux on another), etc. You can read more about the benefits of partitioning (and other features).

Windows comes with a built-in disk partitioning tool that you can use at the beginning of the installation process. At the end of this article, we will also list several utilities from third-party developers.

Optimizing HDD performance: defragmentation

Fragmentation is a condition when parts of one file are located in different physical areas of the hard drive, and not in adjacent ones. Fragmented files take longer to access than non-fragmented files. You can prevent file fragmentation using a special tool. The program copies disparate parts of files and then moves them into a single block on a physical surface, making file access faster and more efficient.

Built in Windows tool defragmentation is available in the following path: Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Defragmentation. With its help, you can analyze the degree of disk fragmentation, run defragmentation, or set up automatic defragmentation (which is recommended). This tool is more than enough for most users, but at the end of this article we will list several defragmentation tools from other developers that provide additional functionality.

Optimizing HDD performance: clearing the recycle bin and browser cache

Windows stores files that the user deletes in the Recycle Bin. In case they are deleted accidentally, there is a recovery function. Regularly checking and emptying the Recycle Bin helps free up space on your hard drive. You can delete files bypassing the recycle bin by using the key combination Shift+Click on the "Delete" item in the menu accessible by right-clicking on the file/folder. Thus, the files are deleted immediately and without the possibility of recovery. Make sure you no longer need the files you delete, as this is an irreversible process.

Another way to free up space on your hard drive is to clear temporary Internet files of the browser and other programs, as well as the system itself, which are stored in the corresponding folders (for example, the browser) and are used to store temporary information. Although temporary files and caches speed up page loading and program execution, their volume can reach hundreds of megabytes and even 1-2 GB if these files are not cleaned regularly. You can set regular cleaning in your browser settings or use a utility like CCleaner to do this. You can also use the built-in Disk Cleanup feature in Windows.

Optimizing HDD operation: leave space for the swap file

A page file is a type of virtual Windows memory, which is used to store application data that is in this moment are not active, allowing you to highlight more random access memory active applications. Some recommend keeping the page file enabled all the time, while others, on the contrary, recommend disabling it. However, unless you know exactly what you are doing, we recommend leaving the page file enabled. If possible, we recommend moving it to a separate disk partition. In this case, files and applications will no longer use the same disk space as the page file. Ideal option will place the partition with the paging file on a different physical hard drive than boot disk. This will increase the responsiveness of the system.

Optimizing HDD operation: more about the paging file

In order to move the page file, you will need to dig into the Control Panel (with administrator rights). Open Control Panel -> System -> Advanced system settings -> Advanced -> Performance -> Settings -> Advanced -> Virtual memory -> Change. A window will appear with a list of disk partitions, where the location of the paging files will be indicated. You need to move most of the page file to a partition on another drive, while reserving it on the C:\ drive, according to at least, 800 MB to prevent memory system failure. To do this, click on the C:\ drive icon and select the volume of 800 MB (in both lines) or check the box “do not place the paging file in this partition”. Click "Set" to save your changes, and then navigate to the drive where you want to place the page file (in this case K:\), where you select either "System Managed Size" or "Custom Size" (and use the system-recommended dimensions). Save the changes and reboot the system for them to take effect.

Optimizing SSD performance: no defragmentation required!

Now we move on to solid-state drives, which operate differently from traditional magnetic disks and require different optimization methods. One of the most significant changes: defragmentation, which plays an important role in the operation of HDDs, in the case of SSDs does not have any effect on performance, but, on the contrary, can reduce the service life of the drive due to the fact that during this procedure many write operations are performed . In Windows, defragmentation is automatically disabled for devices that are recognized as SSDs, but sometimes the system gets it wrong. In any case, when using an SSD, you should disable the automatic defragmentation function and use this function only for the HDD.

Optimizing SSD Performance: Disable System Restore

There is some debate about the issue of System Restore installed on SSDs, with many arguing that this feature can significantly slow down the SSD, making it difficult to perform important TRIM operations. You can disable System Restore, but remember: the absence of a restore point can be a bad joke if errors occur. However, you can reduce risks in another way - sometimes backup using third party software. For an SSD drive, disabling system recovery means an increase in service life (due to a decrease in the number of write operations); In addition, this will free up disk space.

To disable System Restore, go to Control Panel->System->System Protection->Settings->Turn off System Restore.

Optimizing SSD performance: disable disk indexing

Disk indexing gives a noticeable performance boost when working with traditional hard drives, but for SSDs this function is of little use: access speed will increase only slightly, and the device's lifespan will be reduced due to numerous small writes. You can safely disable drive indexing without even risking data loss, as is the case with System Restore. To do this, right-click on the SSD drive icon in Windows Explorer. Uncheck "Allow files on this drive to be indexed." Perhaps after this a pop-up window will appear with an error message when applying attributes - ignore it and continue with the operation.

Optimizing SSD performance: disable Prefetch and SuperFetch

SuperFetch and PreFetch technologies load frequently used programs and files into the cache, which again leads to an increase in the number of writes. The increase in performance for an SSD will be slight, but the service life of the device will be reduced. Both of these features can be disabled in Windows registry. But we warn you that you should not make any changes to the Registry unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Launch the registry (redegit) and follow the following path: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters". Right-click on "EnablePrefetcher" and "EnableSuperFetch", select "Change", and change the set value (1 or 3) to 0. After that, restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Optimizing SSD performance: disable hibernation mode

Hibernation mode turns off power. All data needed to restore a session is stored in the hyberfil.sys file, the size of which corresponds to the computer's RAM. When using an SSD, the computer boots up so quickly that using hibernation mode provides virtually no additional benefit.

To disable hibernation, type "cmd" in the Start menu search bar, right-click cmd.exe and select Run as administrator. Then type "powercfg -h off" (without quotes) and press enter.

Optimizing SSD operation: once again about the paging file

Now we'll talk about the page file again. We already advised moving it to an independent partition on the disk, and this advice is doubly relevant if you have an SSD drive: when using a page file, a significant number of write operations are performed, which negatively affects the service life of the SSD drive. Thus, moving the page file to the HDD drive will not only improve its efficiency, but will also extend the life of the SSD drive.

We have listed only the easiest to use HDD and SSD optimization methods. You can find a lot of other advice online, both good and bad. In particular, for those who use an SSD drive, we advise you to read the material " SSD tweaking: myths and reality"If you know any good publications on this topic, then share links to them in the comments to this article on our forum! In addition, information about utilities for partitioning disks, defragmentation and other functions will not be superfluous.

Useful utilities for disks: CrystalDiskMark

download CrystalDiskMark

The minimalistic CrystalDiskMark program, which we have already discussed in our PC testing recommendations, allows you to measure the speed of reading and writing from the disk, as well as other important indicators. This compact utility with an elegant interface and a small set of additional options is great tool to measure hard drive performance.

Useful disk utilities: CrystalDiskInfo

download CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo is from the same developer as CrystalDiskMark. It can read the SMART (Self-Monitoring & Analysis Reporting Technology) information of your drive and visualize it in a simple and accessible form. Like CrystalDiskMark, it simple program with a user-friendly interface that provides the user with all the information about the “health” of the equipment.

Please note that CrystalDiskInfo comes bundled with OpenCandy, the installation of which will be prompted by the installer. CDI is an independent program and does not require any additional software.

Useful disk utilities: Parted Magic Livedisk

download Parted Magic Livedisk

There are many tools for managing drive partitions, and one of the most popular is GParted. We recommend using Parted Magic Livedisk, which has all the core GParted tools built-in, as well as a range of other diagnostic tools and tests for hard drive management. Parted Magic is based on the Linux kernel and can work with many file systems, including Windows NTFS, and is an excellent addition to amateur and professional recovery and optimization tools.

Parted Magic relies on voluntary donations, so if you enjoy the program, please feel free to help its creators keep the product alive and growing!

Useful disk utilities: Defraggler

download Defraggler

Piriform's Defraggler is a free drive defragmentation tool that lets you defragment not only your entire hard drive, but also separate files and folders. Using it, you can move large files to the end of the disk, which will speed up access to files smaller size. The program also has a quick defragmentation function and the ability to automatically defragment on a schedule. All this is presented in a neat and convenient interface, which will appeal to most users.

Useful disk utilities: CCleaner

download CCleaner

CCleaner is another convenient and free tool that we briefly mentioned at the very beginning. This disk cleanup utility removes browser cache, history and temporary internet files, cleans out the Recycle Bin and Registry, and more. Easy to use and multifunctional, CCleaner program is an excellent tool for disk maintenance.

Useful disk utilities: SSD Tweaker

download SSD Tweaker

SSD Tweaker implements many useful functions to optimize the performance of the SSD drive in Windows environment, both those that we talked about in this article and others (for example, disabling the cache, Prefetching and SuperFetching, data compaction and much more). Although all these settings can be done manually, using SSD Tweaker it will be much more convenient and faster.

Optimizing your hard drive and SSD: in conclusion

Of course, we only briefly touched on the topic of setup and maintenance. hard drives. If you have HDD and SSD optimization tools in mind that you think should be on this list, or maybe you know some additional tricks for tuning drives and improving their performance, you can tell us about it in the thread our forum dedicated to this article.

Greetings! IN last days a lot has been said about defragmenting hard drives and how. Today we will touch on the topic of defragmenting SSD drives. Let's begin.

If you have read our previous articles, then you already know, and. This knowledge will be useful to you to understand today's topic.

Does an SSD drive need defragmentation?

The answer is that the SSD drive does NOT NEED defragmentation!

Why? Look, in HDD drives, information is read mechanically. That is, the read head of the hard drive moves along the entire diameter of the disk to find required file. In this case, of course, it is necessary to make the work of the hard drive easier and group the defragmented files in an order convenient for reading. Files that the system needs more often are located closer to the center of the disk. And vice versa - rarely used files are moved away from the center so as not to interfere with work with more important files.

As for SSD drives, they do not have any mechanical parts and you don’t need to search for a file for a long time to read it, because reading from anywhereSSD storage occurs in milliseconds. That is why the need to defragment the SSD drive itself disappears. Besides, she is also harmful to him.

Why is defragmentation harmful for an SSD drive?

As you already know, important distinctive feature An SSD drive from an ordinary hard drive is limited in write cycles. That is, they cannot be rewritten forever. Although nothing lasts forever, and besides, the stock of these “limited rewrite cycles” in SSDs is very large. However, during defragmentation, a lot of overwriting and moving of files and file fragments occurs. And this, as you understand, significantly reduces the lifespan of an SSD drive.

How to disable automatic defragmentation of an SSD drive?

With everything you've learned today, you may be wondering: Isn't my SSD automatic defragmentation enabled? And how can I turn it off?" I hasten to reassure you. If you are using Windows 7 or higher, the system itself disables automatic defragmentation as soon as it sees SSD drive on board. So there is nothing to worry about.

Quite a long time has passed since the appearance of solid state drives (Solid State Drive - SSD) on the market. Prices for this product are gradually decreasing, making it more and more affordable, and now a 120 GB drive will cost about 4 thousand rubles. In fact, if you want to upgrade your PC now, then buying an SSD will be one of the most cost-effective options. You don't have to throw away your existing one. HDD(it will only partially change its function, becoming a storage for media and other heavy files), and the computer’s performance in almost all operating modes will increase noticeably.

Users who are not particularly interested in the world of hardware may not clearly understand the fundamental difference between an SSD and the usual magnetic hard drive. HDD, and they often see the new product as the same HDD, only faster, smaller, lighter and more expensive. It is precisely the lack of understanding of the fundamental differences in the operation of HDD and SSD that can lead to incorrect use of SSD, which in especially severe cases will reduce all its advantages to zero. Yes, the solid-state drive needs to be used correctly, but do not be afraid - the user does not require any painstaking daily deeply technical actions. Rather, he is simply required not to do a few simple things, and today we present a list of “don’ts” for anyone who has decided to screw up their workhorse fast SSD.

For the techies who have discerned captaincy here, we ask you to take into account the fact that if you know all this, then you probably also know the fact that there are other people who may not know all this. Replace the usual “thank you cap” with your additional advice, together we will make the Internet more useful.

Don't defragment

There is no need to defragment the SSD. If in old Windows with FAT32 you carried out defragmentation by inertia (although NTFS feels great without it), then with the purchase of an SSD you can and should forget about defragmentation (the SSD itself) altogether.

SSDs have a limited number of write cycles (as a rule, the cheaper the disk, the less resource it has), and such shoveling of its contents will definitely not benefit the lifespan. Yes, recent SSD models have a very large supply of write cycles, and you are unlikely to reach the limit when the disk stops working correctly, even with frequent recording, but the point here is rather that defragmentation itself is pointless for SSDs.

HDDs use mechanical parts. The head that reads the data wanders back and forth across the surface of the magnetic disk. Accordingly, the more specific data is scattered across the disk, the more movements and time it needs to completely read this data. Nothing moves in an SSD, and access to any memory cell is equally fast and does not depend in any way on the relative position of this data.

Don't format

We are accustomed to the fact that in order to completely and permanently delete data from the HDD, it is necessary to use additional means: formatting, special utilities like DBAN or the Wiper tool included in CCleaner. This is done so that a cunning attacker will not be able to recover the data you deleted from the disk using a utility like Recuva.

In the case of SSDs, everything is different. The point here is not even in the drive itself, but in the operating system. If you are using a more or less current OS (Windows 7+, Mac OS X 10.6.8+, Linux with Linux kernel 2.6.28+), then the system takes over the final deletion of data from the disk, and does it automatically using the TRIM function.

TRIM implements the ability for the OS to “inform” the solid-state drive that the file has been completely deleted and the sectors occupied by it need to be cleared. Some of the first SSD models did not support TRIM, but that was so long ago (and these SSDs were so expensive) that the likelihood of getting into such a drive model is close to zero.

Don't use Windows XP or Windows Vista

New toy - new axis! And the point here is not at all new. It's just that XP and Vista don't support TRIM. In the previous paragraph, we gave the concept of TRIM, and now we need to explain how the absence of this function affects the SSD. If there is no TRIM, then after deleting the file the data will still remain on the disk. As a result, when information is written to the same sectors again, they will first have to be cleared, and only then data will be written to them. Unnecessary untimely operations -> reduced speed.

In modern operating systems, TRIM is enabled by default. The user does not need to do anything. Just leave everything as it is and enjoy the SSD speeds.

Don't fill it to capacity

In order for an SSD to operate at full speed, it must maintain approximately 25% free space on it. It sounds a little unfair: you buy an expensive SSD, it already has little space, the system sees less space in it than what is written on the box, and then they ask you to leave a quarter of the volume in reserve? Unfortunately yes. This is a feature of how SSDs work, and we don’t yet have the best widely available technologies. You will have to accept the rules for the best speed.

From the point of view of internal processes, the drop in performance with a small amount of free space can be explained as follows: a lot of free space means a lot of free blocks. When writing a file, data is written to free blocks. Little free space - many partially filled blocks and few completely free blocks. When writing a file, the system will first have to read the partially filled block into the cache, add new data to it, and then write the already modified block back to disk. And so on for each block.

The 25% limit was not taken out of thin air. The guys from AnandTech who conducted addiction research came to this figure SSD performance from its fullness.

In fact, if you use the SSD exactly where it is strongest, then having to leave a quarter of the space free won't bother you. Now we will talk about the role in which an SSD is most effective.

Do not use as storage

Buying an SSD to store a library of music and movies on it is a bad idea. The HDD speeds are quite enough to comfortably record and watch a FullHD movie from them, and listen to Losless music. SSD is needed where access and write speed is most important.

SSD should be used as system disk. It should have an operating system, applications and, if absolutely necessary, modern games. Nothing else.

Understanding that an SSD ideally serves as a catalyst for the most demanding processes for fast computer operation (the operation of the OS is the basis of everything, fast work important applications, quickly reading data from the “body” of the game), the need to fill it to capacity disappears altogether. SSD is a dedicated fast lane for only the most important things.

If you still want to use a fast SSD as storage, then just calculate the cost of rubles per gigabyte of memory for it and for the HDD.

What if you bought a new fancy ultrabook that only has an SSD, but you want to record movies? Buy an external hard drive with USB interface 3.0 or Thunderbolt (provided that such a standard is supported by the beech itself).

We hope that this information will help you start using the SSD for its intended purpose and as efficiently as possible.