6 Tips to Keep Your SSD Running as Long as Possible
Upgrading your computer to an SSD is one of the most performance-enhancing upgrades out there, as it speeds up everything that relies on the storage—from how quickly your computer boots up to how quickly programs open and respond to tasks.
Simply put, this is the best way to improve your computer's performance in a real and effective way. However, due to the difference in the working mechanism between it and the old HDD storage units, you must handle the SSD carefully and accurately so that its speed does not start to slow down within a short period and avoid cases of corruption of stored files.
If you are new to this modern type of storage unit and do not know what to do, you are in the right place, as in this article we point out the 6 most important tips to maintain the efficiency of the SSD for the longest possible period, whether you are using a desktop computer or a laptop , so let's start directly.
1- Check if TRIM command is enabled
If your computer has an SSD, you should use a relatively recent operating system. In particular, this means that you should not be using Windows XP or Windows Vista, as older operating systems do not support the TRIM command , which is essential for maintaining the performance of SSD storage.
Simply put, TRIM is a software command that allows the operating system to tell the SSD which blocks of data are no longer in use and can be erased. Unlike older HDDs, when writing new data, the SSD can only write to empty blocks. This helps the hard drive operate more efficiently, reducing unnecessary writing and overuse of blocks, and as a result, the hard drive performs faster and lasts longer.
Without TRIM enabled, the SSD would have to partially transfer large chunks of information, erase all the blocks they contained, and finally write new data to those blocks. Imagine this happening every time you delete a file! It would of course slow down the write performance of the storage unit.
If you are interested in knowing more details about the TRIM command, what it does specifically, its importance for SSD storage drives, or checking whether the command is active on your device or not, you should head over to our previous topic on “ How to enable the TRIM command and why you should do it if you are using an SSD hard drive ” where all these questions are covered.
2- Never think about formatting the hard disk.
Reformatting is important when you decide to sell your old HDD as you need to get rid of all the stored files at once.
But as you probably know, the data is not actually deleted from the HDD, but the file is marked as deleted by the operating system but still exists on the hard disk sectors, which is why deleted files can be recovered again by recovery programs like Recuva.
To prevent this from happening, professionals use CDs like DEBAN which help format HDDs and overwrite deleted files to ensure they cannot be recovered again.
On the other hand, TRIM-enabled SSDs delete files immediately. In other words, when you delete a file, Windows tells the SSD that the file was deleted by TRIM and as a result, it is removed and its traces are completely erased from the hard drive.
So, you should never use hard disk formatting software if you are dealing with SSD as it will degrade the hard disk by performing unnecessary write cycles.
You should also read this topic:- 5 steps to take now to maximize SSD performance on Windows
3- Do not defragment the hard disk.
In the topic we prepared earlier on the blog about the meaning of defragmentation, we pointed out that this process is done differently between traditional HDD and modern SSD storage units. We also mentioned that it is useless and has negative effects that affect the reduction of the life of SSD disks.
The reason is that SSD storage sectors have a limited number of write operations - defragmentation will result in many write operations as files are moved and arranged sequentially.
This is not necessary because SSDs do not have a mechanical arm like HDDs and data access is direct and does not require ordering. Therefore, you will not see any speed improvements after defragmentation - quite the opposite, it damages the disk.
So, stop defragmenting the hard drive if your computer has an SSD and you should check if this feature is disabled if you are using Windows 7 by opening Windows Explorer then right-clicking on any partition of the hard drive and choosing Properties then Tools then click on the Optimize button then Change settings and remove the check mark next to Run on a schedule and click OK.
While if you are using Windows 8, 8.1 or Windows 10, you will not need to do this because this feature will send TRIM commands to all partitions instead of defragmenting, which helps improve the performance of the hard disk.
4- Update the hard disk firmware
SSD manufacturers release firmware updates throughout the life of your hard drive. Although this is not common with older HDDs, manufacturers occasionally need to release updates that can address technical issues and errors that may occur while using your SSD.
Therefore, you should check for new software updates for your hard drive and install them whenever possible to get better performance.
Updating the firmware of the hard drive should not be too difficult, as even a novice user can do it. All that is required is to install the hard drive management software provided by the manufacturer, for example, Samsung Magician for all types of SSDs from Samsung, Storage Executive for Crucial drives, SSD Manager from Kingston, and SSD Dashboard from SanDisk.
After running the program, check the “Firmware Version” section. If there is a new update, click the “Update” button and follow the instructions that will appear on the screen.
You should also read this topic: Do SSDs really help improve gaming performance?
5- Do not fill the storage capacity completely.
This may come as a surprise, but it is a fact that cannot be ignored, as it is related to the nature of the storage unit itself. You must leave some unused space on the SSD hard drive and avoid filling its storage capacity completely, otherwise performance problems will occur, especially in writing speed.
The idea here is that when an SSD has a lot of free space, it means it has a lot of empty blocks and can easily write data into these empty blocks.
But when the hard drive has little free space, that is, there are a lot of partially filled blocks, it will be difficult to write new data, as the SSD needs to know where the partially filled blocks are, transfer this information to the cache and then write it back to the drive, and this happens with every block that it has to write data to. As a result, you will see the writing performance start to slow down rapidly.
So, to maintain the efficiency of SSDs, it is best to leave 10-15% of the storage capacity empty and unused. Keep in mind that most SSDs come out of the manufacturer with unusable reserved space; this is called Over Provisioning. This is why SSDs come with different storage capacities like 120GB, 240GB, or 480GB.
6- Do not store large files that you do not always need.
The ideal types of files to store on SSDs are those that you need to access frequently and quickly such as operating system files, programs, games, and other work-related files.
But for media files like photos, movies and music collection, it is advisable to store them on a second HDD. And if you are using a laptop, consider getting an external storage device just for your media.
The point here is that speed doesn’t matter for these types of files and they will eat up valuable space on your SSD. So whether you don’t have enough space on your hard drive or want to keep it running for as long as possible, store the files you don’t use very often on another hard drive. HDDs are still a very good option in terms of providing large storage capacities at a low cost.
You should also read this topic: - Search by images instead of text