SSD Defragging: The safe way

[ThrashZone]

My WD software don't allow me to over provision/unallocated, so did you do it in windows Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\ Computer Management\Storage\Disk Management ?

Hi,
Yeah pretty easy any partition tool can do this including disk management
Mine is not a os disk so there is no system recovery tools partition to think about so in my use case I just partitioned it out and deleted a little at the end.
My recovery tools partition is on my 970 evo+ 500gb

 

[Daytrader]

Hi,
Yeah pretty easy any partition tool can do this including disk management
Mine is not a os disk so there is no system recovery tools partition to think about so in my use case I just partitioned it out and deleted a little at the end.
My recovery tools partition is on my 970 evo+ 500gb


View attachment 337922

Thx for the image, mine is just for games, so once game installed thats it, wonder if i could get away without a unallocated partion on a games only drive, as i will not be constantly writing to the drive.

 

[ThrashZone]

Thx for the image, mine is just for games, so once game installed thats it, wonder if i could get away without a unallocated partion on a games only drive, as i will not be constantly writing to the drive.

Hi,
Unallocated doesn't have to be much
Most insist there already is space for garbage collection you just can't see it
If they were true samsung magician wouldn't do what it does when activation OP though hehe

 

[Wirko]

Thx for the image, mine is just for games, so once game installed thats it, wonder if i could get away without a unallocated partion on a games only drive, as i will not be constantly writing to the drive.

That's actually a very undemanding use case for an SSD. You can as well fill it to 100% if you're sure there's very little writing going on day to day, such as temporary files etc. Keep an eye on total bytes written in SMART to see what's going on.

 

[Daytrader]

That's actually a very undemanding use case for an SSD. You can as well fill it to 100% if you're sure there's very little writing going on day to day, such as temporary files etc. Keep an eye on total bytes written in SMART to see what's going on.

Ok thx

 

[ThrashZone]

That's actually a very undemanding use case for an SSD. You can as well fill it to 100% if you're sure there's very little writing going on day to day, such as temporary files etc. Keep an eye on total bytes written in SMART to see what's going on.

Hi,
Every time you play a game it writes to the folder is on lol

Besides the obvious game updates.

 

[Wirko]

What be nice is to be able to know what cells are taken up and have to ability to move data to other cells were no data as been. Like for a example a gaming drive that games just get installed and stay there for months if not longer.

As how can it be wear leveling if it only does the un-used space it's just wearing out what ever available space there is.

SSDs move existing data around, that's absolutely necessary for wear leveling to work. Manufacturers don't tell us any detail of course, we can just logically assume a couple things: the process is very slow so as to not wear out memory cells much, and it works less well if the drive is nearly full.

 

[Daytrader]

Hi,
Every time you play a game it writes to the folder is on lol

Besides the obvious game updates.

I thought once game is installed, when you then play it, your only reading the files mainly ?

 

[Wirko]

Hi,
Every time you play a game it writes to the folder is on lol

Besides the obvious game updates.

Yes, updates can be pesky, they can write a huge number of small files, right? That's something SSDs don't like, even less so if they're full.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yes, updates can be pesky, they can write a huge number of small files, right? That's something SSDs don't like, even less so if they're full.

Hi,
If you're lucky game updates are small
Game usage updates depends on how long how frequent you play is another story

So yeah making this comments a little off seeing if not careful just gaming usage can fill it up eventually hehe

That's actually a very undemanding use case for an SSD. You can as well fill it to 100% if you're sure there's very little writing going on day to day, such as temporary files etc. Keep an eye on total bytes written in SMART to see what's going on.

 

[Wirko]

just gaming usage can fill it up eventually hehe

Then you stop and think, what else can you do?

 

[AsRock]

SSDs move existing data around, that's absolutely necessary for wear leveling to work. Manufacturers don't tell us any detail of course, we can just logically assume a couple things: the process is very slow so as to not wear out memory cells much, and it works less well if the drive is nearly full.

yeah sure lets assume a company is thinking whats best for us sure and not thier pocket.

I want proof to believe it and possibility to be able to control it like with HDD's.

 

[Wirko]

yeah sure lets assume a company is thinking whats best for us sure and not thier pocket.

I want proof to believe it and possibility to be able to control it like with HDD's.

Wear leveling is not some imaginary thing. Without it, endurance would be very poor because it's common to have most of the data in the same place most of the time, plus a small part that often changes. WL makes sure nothing remains in the same place for very long.
WL in SD cards and thumb drives is another thing, it's less necessary in those. Maybe it's possible to get technical data of the controller inside, if made by a solid company such as SMI, to make an informed guess.
But you're never going to have any control over it, just like you don't in an HDD - its controller moves data from bad sectors to spare good sectors and you have no way to know that, save for some SMART stats.

 

[ThrashZone]

Then you stop and think, what else can you do?

Hi,
Yep that is also a good reason to have some unallocated space
Once windows starts showing red on the drive you can start to find a larger drive or another and allocate more space to the gaming drive in this case until you can find another.

 

[Daytrader]

Hi,
Yep that is also a good reason to have some unallocated space
Once windows starts showing red on the drive you can start to find a larger drive or another and allocate more space to the gaming drive in this case until you can find another.

I have been using my windows os drive and games drive for a few days now, is it to late to make part of the drives unallocated ?

 

[Wirko]

I have been using my windows os drive and games drive for a few days now, is it to late to make part of the drives unallocated ?

Not at all. Sure, some free space is recommended because mechanisms like wear leveling and reusing of blocks work better, but that is not necessary all of the time. Also, since we have TRIM on all SSDs today (except maybe portable ones), any free space is equally good - be it in an active partition, in a reserved partition that's always empty, or in unpartitioned space.

You mentioned you'd keep 400 GB free on a 2 TB drive. That's a lot, really. Yes, there are old rules of thumb that no one knows where they come from, and were probably more valid when SSDs were much smaller than today. Intel also published some detailed calculations on the effectiveness of free space for their enterprise SSDs, but that was years ago, and enterprise SSDs are abused in ways that consumer SSDs aren't. I would feel comfortable with as much free space as there is data written in a day or two, on average; should look at SMART statistics to find out how much is that. But you (and the OS) also need free space for other reasons, not just SSD health.

 

[ThrashZone]

I have been using my windows os drive and games drive for a few days now, is it to late to make part of the drives unallocated ?

Hi,
Yeah it's as easy as shrinking C if there is no D partition yet otherwise you'd just shrink D instead.
Easiest way in disk management is select C and select shrink volume.

Even if the recovery partition is at the end of the disk it's still no big deal MS will create another one with a large update like up coming 24h2 is installed.


200gb

 

[Daytrader]

Not at all. Sure, some free space is recommended because mechanisms like wear leveling and reusing of blocks work better, but that is not necessary all of the time. Also, since we have TRIM on all SSDs today (except maybe portable ones), any free space is equally good - be it in an active partition, in a reserved partition that's always empty, or in unpartitioned space.

You mentioned you'd keep 400 GB free on a 2 TB drive. That's a lot, really. Yes, there are old rules of thumb that no one knows where they come from, and were probably more valid when SSDs were much smaller than today. Intel also published some detailed calculations on the effectiveness of free space for their enterprise SSDs, but that was years ago, and enterprise SSDs are abused in ways that consumer SSDs aren't. I would feel comfortable with as much free space as there is data written in a day or two, on average; should look at SMART statistics to find out how much is that. But you (and the OS) also need free space for other reasons, not just SSD health.

Thx for reply, i may just not fill up the drive then, and keep a eye on free space, thx

Hi,
Yeah it's as easy as shrinking C if there is no D partition yet otherwise you'd just shrink D instead.
Easiest way in disk management is select C and select shrink volume.

Even if the recovery partition is at the end of the disk it's still no big deal MS will create another one with a large update like up coming 24h2 is installed.

View attachment 338072
200gb
View attachment 338073

Thx for that detailed post with images, thats alot of help, thx

 

[A Computer Guy]

Also, since we have TRIM on all SSDs today (except maybe portable ones)...

Regarding portable enclosures it can be very hit and miss as to what devices support TRIM even among modern USB3 devices that claim UASP support don't necessarily support TRIM. I have this model (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BM9FYM4Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8) and can say from usage that it actually does support TRIM. However I also have this device (https://sabrent.com/collections/hard-drive-accessories/products/ec-ss31) that claims UASP support but I tested it and it does not support TRIM. When shopping for enclosures look for ones that explicitly say "UASP and TRIM support".

 

[Wirko]

claims UASP support but I tested it and it does not support TRIM

This means that manual TRIM won't work either, right?

 

[A Computer Guy]

This means that manual TRIM won't work either, right?

To the best of my knowledge UASP devices may or may not include TRIM support. If they don't include TRIM support then yes manual TRIM will not work.

 

[Waldorf]

@Daytrader
if given the "option", its still better (overall) to have unallocated space, not just free space on partitioned/formatted area.

 

[Daytrader]

@Daytrader
if given the "option", its still better (overall) to have unallocated space, not just free space on partitioned/formatted area.

Ok, thx for reply, its just very strange that the Western Digital software that comes with the M.2 drive don't even give you a over provision option in there software.

 

[Waldorf]

Some brands will have extra/unusable space already, so they wont require the user to "do more",
would also help in those case where ppl dont install/use the sw.
do a web search for reviews on the drive, you should be able to find out if what i mentioned is the case.

 

[Wirko]

Some brands will have extra/unusable space already, so they wont require the user to "do more",
would also help in those case where ppl dont install/use the sw.
do a web search for reviews on the drive, you should be able to find out if what i mentioned is the case.

Actually all SSDs, older and newer alike, have some overprovisioned space. Without it, a 100% full drive would choke, and only work in the most un-optimised and wasteful way imaginable (erase and rewrite an entire block, which is tens of MB, for every smallest operation on files). The more free space you have, the less often these wasteful operations are necessary.

How much OP is there? Only manufacturers know. The calculation in TPU reviews and TPU database assumes that a 1 TB drive (1,000,000,000,000 bytes seen by the OS) has a total capacity of 1 TiB (1,099,511,627,776 bytes). Here's an example: SN850X, and all other 1 TB drives have the same calculation.

But I don't agree with that. The total capacity is considerably larger and is not the same for all brands of NAND chips. At least for some, it can be calculated from the data in the "NAND Flash" section on the same page by multiplying all the relevant numbers. However, part of it is used by the SSD itself internally (firmware, FTL, probably more than one copy). Part of it is bad from the factory (more if you buy cheap chips to make cheap SSDs). There are too many unknowns here, therefore I wouldn't even attempt to estimate how much overprovisioned space there is in a new SSD.