Do I need to run defrag on an SSD?

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Do SSDs suffer from fragmentation?

Is there an advantage to it? I mean, SSD is essentially random access memory.

AngryHacker

Posted 2010-10-18T20:11:56.407

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Answers

You said it yourself, SSDs are random access. Defragmenting them, as such, provides no benefit, but also wears down the drive by performing a lot of writes. Most modern OS' turn automatic defragmentation off when you're using an SSD, so just don't do it manually and you should be fine.

Phoshi

Posted 2010-10-18T20:11:56.407

Reputation: 22 001

1This information is obsolete and no longer valid. The writes from occasional defragmentation are insignificant and fragmentation does affect performance because each extent of the file has to be processed when the file is accessed and the file metadata is bloated. Fragmentation also has a significant performance affect on snapshotting and versioning. – David Schwartz – 2014-12-09T20:54:09.383

5Actually on some SSDs it can provide significant speedups on sequential access (Crucial C300 for example), but this is an issue only in extreme levels of fragmentation. – Mircea Chirea – 2010-10-19T18:03:31.190

2In the unlikely event of pathological levels of fragmentation causing a noticeable slowdown on an SSD, taking an image and reapplying it would probably cause much less wear on the SSD than defragging would. – afrazier – 2010-10-19T18:47:09.653

@afrazier, sure, that's also the best way to do it with ANY drive, it's just one huge read and write operation. Most people don't need sequential access, all decent SSDs have massive speeds on these operations. – Mircea Chirea – 2010-12-13T10:57:16.407

2In the kind of scenarios we're talking about, defragmenting the drive may not restore drive performance to full (or near full) capacity. That said, most good modern controllers have TRIM or background garbage collection. Just freeing up some space and letting the system sit idle overnight might be all that needs done. If that doesn't help, then a secure erase is the only thing that will. – afrazier – 2010-12-13T13:53:05.993

Since it takes the same time for a SSD to find any file on it (unlike mechanical hard drives where access time can vary depending on where the file is physically located on the platter), there is no reason/need to defragment a SSD.

Additionally, defragging a SSD will decrease the life span of the drive (SSD's have a limited life based on read/writes to the drive). For a more detailed SSD's and how they work, read this article.

evol

Posted 2010-10-18T20:11:56.407

Reputation: 629

Intel actually tells you NOT to defragment their SSDs. As far as Intel goes, they have their own utilities that help you manage the drive.

Rocka

Posted 2010-10-18T20:11:56.407

Reputation: 41

No need to run defrag on any SSD since random and sequential read times as well as sequential write times are not affected by file fragmentation. The randon write times of several SSDs (with the notable exception of the intels) apparently do get affected by free space fragmentation, so some utility that addresses this by free space consolidation may be useful. Unfortunately, the Windows defragger has no such option AFAIK, but there are some commercial defraggers with add-ons that optimize the SSD automatically.

Royce

Posted 2010-10-18T20:11:56.407

Reputation: 1