SSD Defragging: The safe way

[jarablue]

Running that command, I do see defrag messages. Should I be concerned?

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

Running that command, I do see defrag messages. Should I be concerned?

Nope. Whether Windows runs an actual defrag or just the trim option every week, your SSD won't die from this.

The two guidelines I recommend to SSD users is to first backup your data regularly (especially since you can't hear a SSD starting to fail like you can with a hard drive).

The second guideline is to keep some free space in the SSD, whether it is user-enforced free space or overprovisioning by the SSD software.

I do trim my SSDs weekly and defrag the most commonly fragmented files with Defraggler (files with more than 10 fragments) once a month. My 980 Pro lifespan after two years is still at 99%.

That 1% reduction is not the defrag but the 15 TB of benchmarking, game installs and reinstalls, etc over the years.

 

[Logic]

Diskeeper used to outright prevent fragmentation completely, it made sure files were always written to disk in one continuous piece. Unfortunately they no longer offer it anymore and all it's features are now rolled up into their enterprise products.

I Have a feeling that the prevent fragmentation bit of diskeeper may just be a Filter Driver.
If so It's likely possible to install only that Filter Driver from within device manager. and bin all the other nonsense.

IIRC there's a 2nd Defrag app that does a similar thing and better...apparently...
Who was that again?

Just use your SSD as it is meant to, you don't need any special tools for it. Just use it and don't look back! There's many things to say about it, but defragging means unnecessary wear, so don't do it. But it's your SSD, and your money, it's just advice.

Is it really "meant to" to be used as SSD manufacturers mean you to use it?
Because SSD manufacturers mean you to use it to death ASAP as SSD manufacturers mean you to buy a new one as soon as they possibly can get you too without you complaining, because they mean to make as much money as they possibly can..!
Part of their plan is to convince the world that SSDs should be used as THEY mean us to.

eg:

... a new technology that claims to extend the lifetime of a flash drive to more than 100 million cycles.​

Even if you were to write and erase data 1,000 times per day, such a drive would last 274 years. ​

Engineers from Macronix developed the technology and said that even 100 million cycles is not the real end. They simply didn't have the resources to test the memory for 1 billion cycles as it would take several months.​

​

The improvement to flash lies in adding onboard heaters to small groups of memory cells, which can in turn heal flash memory cells that degrade over time. In fact, flash memory makers are facing a substantial challenge as this degradation accelerates with smaller cells. However, Macronix said that briefly heating the cell to 800 degrees Celsius can entirely heal the cell, prevent degradation and returning the cell to full operation.​

Heat Can Heal Dead NAND Flash Cells and Extend Life

Few users may have ever reached the end of life of a flash drive, yet we know that mainstream drives can, realistically, not exceed 100,000 read/write cycles and many cheap flash drives are even rated well below that.

www.tomshardware.com

Now where's this technology?
It's nowhere to be seen as it would bankrupt? and close down? NAND manufacturers..?

So no; I will not be using SSDs just as manufacturers mean me to.
I might even be treating my SSD to an occasional stint in an oven!

TRIM - Defrag - TRIM happens quite often here.
I use myDefrag (myDefrag's flash script)
I've also modded that script to only defrag files and not consolidate space, which I use even more often.

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Memory block fragmentation, filesystem fragmentation, and TRIM​

There are 2 kinds of fragmentation that concern SSD disks. The first kind of fragmentation is memory block fragmentation. SSD disks are written in pages (generally 4KB in size) but can only be erased in larger groups called blocks (generally 128 pages or 512KB). This causes fragmentation and results in severe performance loss after the disk has been used for a while. Speed can easily drop by 50% or more. The SSD manufacturers have developed a solution called the TRIM instruction, for more information see this Wikipedia article. It is a hardware solution that needs support in the operating system, and only applies when files are being deleted. MyDefrag knows nothing about memory block fragmentation because MyDefrag operates at the filesystem level, not the hardware level. However, the MyDefrag script for Flash memory disks will consolidate free space, and this reduces the problems caused by this kind of fragmentation.​

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The second kind of fragmentation is filesystem fragmentation. Files can be split into parts that are placed anywhere on the disk, just like on harddisks. Many users think that this kind of fragmentation does not matter for SSD disks, because the disks have a very low latency (no harddisk heads that have to move about). But Windows still has to do more work when a file is fragmented, to gather all the fragments. There is significant overhead inside Windows, nothing to do with the hardware, and it is all the more noticeable because SSD is so fast. MyDefrag deals with this kind of fragmentation.​

Will MyDefrag reduce the lifespan of my flash/SSD memory disk? - MyDefrag Documentation

documentation.help

ie:
Defraging the files: good for speed.
Consolidating free space: Good for avoiding future fragmentation and thus wear.

 

[Jacky_BEL]

Steve Gibson put out a SpinRite walktrough video on YT.
I have linked it in another thread about SSD degradation:

Degrading ssd performance - A SpinRite Walkthrough