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Top Tips to Get the Most Out of Your SSDs
by SEO Care landscaperUpgrading your computer with a Samsung ssd (solid-state drive) is one of the simplest belongings you can do to extend performance. A solid-state drive will speed up everything that needs access, from boot times to opening Lightroom catalogs, but without proper maintenance, the speedy SSD will start to hamper over time
1. Enable TRIM
TRIM is essential to keep SSDs in tip-top shape. What is TRIM exactly? TRIM is a command that allows an operating system to inform a solid-state drive which blocks of data are no longer considered in use and can be erased internally. Unlike a mechanical drive, when writing new data, an SSD can only write to empty blocks. Drives without TRIM enabled have to partially move large pieces of information, erase all the blocks that contain it, and finally write the new data to those blocks. TRIM prevents your drive from doing unnecessary writes and being overused.
2. Do not clean the unit
Assuming you are using a TRIM compliant operating system, you never have to overwrite or "erase" free sectors. This is important when using a mechanical drive, as the files are not deleted immediately. The mechanical drives will be marked as deleted, but until they are overwritten, the data can still be recovered.
The way TRIM works are that once something is removed, it is removed from the drive; the operating system sends a command to erase the data completely and it cannot be recovered. If you use any cleaning software on SSD, it will degrade the life of your SSD by performing unnecessary write cycles.
3. Update your firmware
SSD manufacturers issue firmware updates for the life of the solid-state drive. While the goal is to provide a "set it and forget it" product, manufacturers sometimes need to release updates that can fix glitches and bugs. Sometimes a firmware update can even offer improved drive performance and reliability.
Firmware updates can be a bit fiddly, and many require access to an optical drive and a blank disc to burn an ISO. It is highly recommended that you backup all your data before updating the firmware.
4. Move your cache folder to a RAM disk
In a previous article, we explained how creating a RAM disk can improve Lightroom and Photoshop performance. The article briefly mentioned that moving your cache to a RAM disk will help extend the life of your SSD. Having your cache written to a RAM disk prevents unwanted wear and tear on your drive. Moving your cache folder to a mechanical drive has the same benefits without increased program performance or loss of system resources.
5. Don't fill too full capacity
SSDs can experience performance issues, especially write speed, when the drive reaches its full capacity. It is easier for the unit to write to an empty cell when free space is available. When the drive is full, the SSD needs to find out which blocks are partially full, move that information to a cache, and then write it back to the drive. It is best to have 10-15% of your disk reserved for free space, to maintain a good balance between performance and space utilization.
Consumer-grade solid-state drives often reserve about 7% of their total flash storage and make it unavailable to the user; This is called overprovisioning and is the reason you see drives with capacities of 120GB and 240GB. The preserved space simply gives the controller/firmware room for things like TRIM, garbage collection, and wear leveling.
6. Do not defragment
When data is stored on a drive, it often finishes up in various parts of the drive. This slows down hard drives because the drive head must move from one place to another to read all the little bits of information. This can be fixed by a process called defragmentation, which is built into recent versions of Windows. The location of the data on an SSD is pretty irrelevant, as you can quickly access any of it regardless of where you are; Defragmenting an SSD is not only unnecessary, it's also bad for the disk.
7. Don't store large files
The ideal file types to be stored on an SSD are those that should be accessed quickly and frequently. Operating system files and program files are perfect for this. In a world of Netflix and Spotify, storing large files like movies or your music collection on your hard drive is a thing of the past. Storing files like these on an SSD not only takes up what little space you might have, it won't increase performance, either. It is not a good idea to store your media collection on a solid-state drive as you will not notice if your media files are being played from an HDD or SSD.
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Created on Nov 30th 2020 03:02. Viewed 220 times.
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