Never defragment your SSD. Do this instead to keep it in tip-top shape  | amznusa.com

Remember when you had to defragment your hard drive regularly? With traditional HDDS, this made sense because files could become fragmented into small pieces over a period of time. The mechanical read head then had to jump across the magnetic platters to find all the pieces of a file, which slowed the system down.

Defragmentation programs reorganized the data and ensured that files were stored contiguously again. With SSDs, however, data storage works differently. Instead of moving parts, they use flash memory chips that are accessed electronically. As a result, whether a file is stored in a single block or across many fragments has little impact on performance.

Samsung

Fragmentation plays virtually no role on SSDs. On the contrary, defragmentation can actually be harmful here. Flash memory cells have only a limited number of write cycles. During defragmentation, large amounts of data are rewritten, even though this brings no performance benefit. As a result, the process unnecessarily consumes write reserves and can shorten the drive’s lifespan over time.

Instead, modern operating systems handle SSD maintenance automatically. The TRIM command is particularly important here. It informs the drive which data blocks are no longer required after files have been deleted. The SSD can clear these areas internally and rewrite them more quickly later on. In Windows, TRIM is usually already enabled.

However, if you still wish to check the status of this function, type cmd into the Windows Start menu and then launch the Command Prompt as an administrator. You can then use the command fsutil behaviour query DisableDeleteNotify to check whether the TRIM is active. A 0 confirms that it is enabled, while a 1 means the function is disabled.

If it’s disabled, enter the command fsutil behaviour set DisableDeleteNotify 0 to enable the TRIM. It’s also a good idea to leave sufficient free space on the drive. A reserve of around 15 to 20 percent of the total storage capacity is a good rule of tumb. In addition, you should occasionally remove old programs, large files, and temporary data.

The most important thing to remember: an SSD does not require traditional defragmentation. If you keep the TRIM enabled, make sure you leave sufficient free space and you’ll also want to occasionally tidy up the system. The drive should continue to operate quickly and reliably for a long time.