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Should one use Smart Defrag on an SSD?

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6K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  DKTaber 
#1 ·
For many years, I've used Auslogics Disk Defrag because it was so fast and it can not just defrag, but also optimize your files. However, something appears to have happened to the latest version. I tried "Defrag and optimize" on my HDD which contains only 42GB of files, and stopped it after about an hour when it seemed stuck at ~62%. I had recently read some favorable ratings of IOBit Smart Defrag, which does the same thing, and can also clean out junk files, so installed it. It optimized the drive AND cleaned out a pot full of junk files VERY quickly.

As does Auslogics, Smart Defrag says it can also improve the performance of SSDs. My boot drive is a Samsung 232GB SSD and contains 120GB of files. Before I got this computer 2 years ago, articles I read said to NOT defrag an SSD, since writing files to it slows its performance over time and defragging generates a lot of writes. So, my question is can these defraggers really "optimize" SSDs without harming long-term performance, or should one never defrag the SSD? And is the optimization likely to result in any perceptible performance enhancement?
 
#2 ·
Any decent defragmentation tool should analyse the data on a device and only do as much work as is really necessary.
The standard comments are not to defrag a SSD at all, and it should not be necessary since the SSD controller should take care of "garbage collection" a term coined for SSD which actually means a sort of defrag.
SSDs don't benefit as much from defragmentation since there are no heads to move and cause delays, however, some moving of files so that they are close together can improve performance by increasing the chance that related files will be in the same block and therefore already in the buffer. this will also reduce write wear and prolong life since buffers will not need to be written as often.
 
#3 ·
So, Dave, you're saying that the right kind of defragger/optimizer can improve the performance and life of a SSD. I already have Samsung Magician. It runs Performance Optimization, OS Optimization, Over Provisioning (whatever that is), and the SSD has TRIM activated. From what I read about TRIM, it sounds like that automatically removes unnecessary/unused files, so I'm guessing that the Performance Optimization feature is of no value. The OS Optimization feature allows you to choose between max performance, max capacity, and max reliability. I chose max capacity, not because I need more free space, but because it seems to do the things that maximize performance WITHOUT allowing hibernation.

Bottom line: If one has Samsung Magician, one does not need any other program to maximize the performance and reliability of a SSD. Am I right on this or not?
 
#4 · (Edited)
I am saying that sensible placement of files can reduce the need for disk activity on ANY disk. The particularly important thing with SSDs is to keep the number of WRITE cycles to a minimum and since data is written in 32k blocks, it make sense to try to keep oft written/modified files as close together as possible so that they are more likely to be in the same block.(and therefore remain in the buffer)
Since the SSD controller is the only thing that knows exactly where in the device file are stored, only the controller can make sensible decisions about fragmentation.
No third part tool can do it.

Leaving an SSD powered on, but not in active use will give the controller time to do its garbage collection which is just a fancy name for defragmentation.
 
#5 ·
I am saying that sensible placement of files can reduce the need for disk activity on ANY disk. The particularly important thing with SSDs is to keep the number of WRITE cycles to a minimum and since data is written in 32k blocks, it make sense to try to keep oft written/modified files as close together as possible so that they are more likely to be in the same block.(and therefore remain in the buffer)
Since the SSD controller is the only thing that knows exactly where in the device file are stored, only the controller can make sensible decisions about fragmentation.
No third part[y] tool can do it.

Leaving an SSD powered on, but not in active use will give the controller time to do its garbage collection which is just a fancy name for defragmentation.
That's what I thought; only use Samsung's own Magician, and basically leave the SSD alone. It is powered on 99% of the time (computer stays on all the time/only sleeps).
 
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