SSDs and Defragmenting

This is from a non-technical person:

I back up my SSD to a HDD by cloning using EaseUS ToDo software and a USB HDD docking station.

After cloning my SSD to my HDD I defragment my HDD using the docking station and then clone that back to my internal SSD and, in effect, have a defragmented SSD.

Would there be any benefit? Any opinions?

Originally Posted by Rus

This is from a non-technical person:

I back up my SSD to a HDD by cloning using EaseUS ToDo software and a USB HDD docking station.

After cloning my SSD to my HDD I defragment my HDD using the docking station and then clone that back to my internal SSD and, in effect, have a defragmented SSD.

Would there be any benefit? Any opinions?

I think in theory, it sounds good, but in real world, not really. This is because fragmentation is not really a problem with SSD drives.

For hard drives, fragmentation matters because it takes time for actuators/motors to move the read/write head back and forth across the drive platters. On SSD drives, it does not matter, time wise, if the next file segments are in adjacent storage locations, or scattered all over the place. No moving parts so the "seek" times are the same if fragmented or not.

Note too, you could simply move (copy then delete) the files off the disk, and copy them back and they will be resaved as whole (not fragmented) files. Defragging your hard drive had no defragging effect on the files moved back to the SSD. Cloning/defragging/re-cloning seems a bit cumbersome to me.

Thanks. Second such observation so I'll not waste my time. I appreciate your input.

I keep hearing that SSD's don't need defragging. Also regular HD's are so fast now that they don't need constant defragging. Don't waste any money on defrag programs like I did. The windows defragger is good enough and so is Auslogics Disk Defrag Free (don't waste money on the Pro version).

As far as regular HDD's goes, Raxco's Perfect Disk is the best defrag program available. Raxco often offers a Perfect Speed/Perfect Disk bundle for $39.99, a family pack that can be used on all computers, including those with multiple HDD's & OS's, in the home. No business use allowed.

The huge advantage is the boot time defrag option, in the Windows environment, one cannot defrag the sys & page files.

I'm almost ready to purchase a Crucial M4, & was curious about defragging them myself, as there's an option to defrag SSD's, Firewire & USB backup drives & Flash drives. From most every source that I've read, it's unnecessary to defrag SSD's (& Flash drives), but will make sure that I get the facts before installing.

Cat

Originally Posted by reddice

I keep hearing that SSD's don't need defragging. Also regular HD's are so fast now that they don't need constant defragging. Don't waste any money on defrag programs like I did. The windows defragger is good enough and so is Auslogics Disk Defrag Free (don't waste money on the Pro version).

SSDs don't need defragging for the reasons I stated above. The speed of today's HDs has nothing to do with the need for (or against) defragging a HD. It is all about having enough "contiguous" free space for the Page File to operate freely while the OS has lots of room for temp files. That's it. Speed is not a factor, only free space. And because today's drives are huge, free space is not the problem it used to be.

And I agree completely with your advice to don't waste money on commercial defraggers. Windows own defragger is more than "good enough". Even if the alternative defraggers are a fews points better at efficiency, so what? As soon as you start to use the drive again, fragmentation starts all over again, so that little bit of extra efficient defragging will only last a few minutes. That's minutes, not days, weeks or months.

Also, it is pointless and counterproductive to defrag with potentially 1000s of tiny temporary Internet files, cookies, old logs, etc. scattered all about the disk. Therefore, you should ALWAYS clean out the clutter first using Windows Disk Cleanup or the like. Additionally, defragging should ALWAYS be done in Safe Mode. In Normal mode, there are all sorts of opened, and unmovable files that greatly affect defragging. Running defrag in Safe Mode ensures only the minimum number of opened and unmovable files get in the way.

Because you should clean the clutter first, and because you should defrag in Safe Mode, I am against any defragger program that works on a schedule or full time in the background. And for that reason, I recommend all Windows 7 users disable scheduled defragging.

While Raxco's offering may allow you to run defrag during the boot process (before all those files are opened and become unmovable) Raxco does NOT clean the clutter first - and IMO, that's even more important than the unmovable files.

A bit late here, but since this is a matter that will become more actual as more people go over to SSDs: I've noticed some warnings not to defrag SSD. I doubt the disk or computer will explode but, is there a risk for... something? Just curious, generally I'm all happy with the fact I have one less thing to remember.

How old was the warning? Early SSDs allowed for a limited number of writes. The defragging process involves tons of writes so defragging would greatly reduce the useful life of the SSD. Newer SSDs are good way up into the millions of writes, so no problem. But again, since there is no mechanical read/write head in SSDs, defragging serves no purpose - whatsoever.

Thanks for your response!

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