SSD: How careful should I be?

Question

Hello everyone. So I recently bought myself a Solid State Drive by OCZ.
It's an Agility3 120GB OCZ and I still got it inside the box because there is a lot of fuss going on about how careful you must be with those drives in order for them to work properly.

So since I am a beginner I thought I'd ask some basic things such as:

a) Can they be partitioned? I want to install Win7 , Win8 and Linux on this baby.

b) Do they need any kind of maintenance? Like defragment , or clean up etc.

c) What are the things I need to be carefull about when I install a new OS on an SSD?
(e.g. I remember one time my best friend bought one SSD for himself and asked a relevant question - some guy told him , after the installation of the OS is done , to move a certain file - part of the system which actually reads/writes continiously on the disk - to a normal HDD so that the read/write limit of the SSD won't wear off too quickly.)

d) Do I really need an SSD-case? I know that for desktops the pre-defined drive space is 3.5'' whereas SSDs are 2.5'' so they need a special base-case so that they can fit correctly. What if I leave it let's say on top of my never-being-used CD/DVD Writer and connect the cables. Is that so harmfull?

Thanks in advance for all your time and answers. Whatever other info you may have I'm all ears.

Answer 1

a) Yes, just like a regular hard drive.



b) They should never be defragmented. Defragmentation provides no benefit on an SSD and shortens the life of the SSD. Other maintenance may be required depending on the OS, but it's not hardware maintenance.



c) He may be talking about the swap file or paging file. I would keep this file on the SSD because that will give you a performance boost. You're not likely to use up all the read/write cycles during the normal life of the drive.



d.) It probably won't be an issue, as long as the heat and vibration given off by that drive is minimal--but I would secure it somehow, so it's not loose inside the case.

Answer 2

a) yes



b & c) There are two type SSD Flash base (Non Volatile) Ram Based (Volatile). Volatile mean you need power to keep the data example is your Computer Ram. Flash based SSD have a limited life cycle. Agility is flash based so the less you write you can prolong the life. So

1) Defragment rewrites so don't do than. The proper maintenance for SSD is TRIM. I think Win 7 and Win 8 support it. If you are not cloning windows will automatically disable defragment for SSD

2) Keep your program in SSD not the data. Use a mechanical drive for that beacause you might be erasing / rewriting data often.

3) Disable Search indexing option

3) Keep at least 30% free

4) Install more ram as possible. It will reduce the virtual memory which is again write data



http://www.auslogics.com/en/articles/ssd-tweaks-to-increase-ssd-performance/



d) If the cables are not going to short or removed by Vibrations not harmfull.. And this is not a special adapter simple adapter and in ebay you can get for 3$

Answer 3

I don't use Windows so not sure about that but have used ssd's successfully with Linux (Debian).



a) yes they can be partitioned



b) defrag not required

However, there is a script called wiper.sh which you are recommended to run once a month or so to keep your drive at top speed.



http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=67328



c) Some people suggest having temporary files stored in RAM to minimise number of writes. Storing data in RAM is also a lot faster (even compared to SSD).



http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/reducing-writes-to-ssd-mounting-var-and-others-on-ram-disks-tmpfs-883412/



d) Included with your SSD you usually get a tray with some screws to fasten a 2.5" drive into a 3.5" hard drive bay of your desktop case.

Answer 4

Some people think the SSD's are great. I have a lightning fast computer with a 2.5 TB hard drive (2500 GB) As of right now I have 2200 plus free drive space.

So I am staying with that. After you install windows 7, windows 8, and Linux you will not have much free space left.

Answer 5

d) You need a proper fit for the drive to protect it from physical damage and make sure it's properly grounded.



a, b) Once the computer recognizes that it's a hard disk, you can treat it like any other disk and the OS won't know the difference. Occasional defrag is useful, same as a magnetic disk, but not as often as people tend to say. Windows 95 caused its disks to be heavily fragmented, modern OS's do it much less.



c) I haven't heard those things. Might be true, but they sound like the kind of tales that get passed around so much they're accepted as wisdom without anyone checking whether they're true. Search for info from knowledgeable sources - computer publications, disk manufacturers - don't rely on what you find on user forums (except that they often have links to knowledgeable sources).



edit: actually, Owlbear might be right about defrag being irrelevant on SSD. I never heard that, but it makes sense. Look for a knowledgeable source rather than taking our word. Yahoo Answers is basically a user forum.

Answer 6

in my opinion, sure yet you may desire to think of carefully approximately what you % from it. For clever sizes (e.g. 120gb this is plenty for abode windows) you get them at approximately £a million/gb which i think of is clever. in actuality i've got basically offered by skill of 2d, bigger SSD to replace my 120gb one Win 7 even if is a pig for a SSD using fact it installs approximately 20 gigs (or one 6th of you 120GB rigidity!) of out of date drivers to maintain backwards compatibility with previous abode windows. I hear Intel at the instant are giving 5 year warranties with their SSDs in my view, i does not have confidence a widely used HDD older than that with any significant documents except I had a backup. they are plenty extra vulnerable to environmental circumstances and being dropped case in point than a SSD by skill of ways, basically cos something has no shifting components does not make one factor digital and yet another analogue! An abacus is a digital calculator case in point!