The Price Of Solid-state Drives Is Rising. How To Improve Its Service Life And Weather The Storm? Look Here
A guide to increase revenue and reduce expenditure to protect the "life extension" of your SSD
Friends who like to study digital, I think you have all experienced the price increase of solid-state drives in recent days. Watching the price continue to rise rapidly, it would be really uncomfortable to think about buying new hard drives by increasing income. Just as the way to increase financial resources is blocked, we need to learn to save money. The cost-saving mentioned here is to do your best to extend the normal use time of the solid-state drive on hand and to safely survive this period of price fluctuations. Today, as a relatively professional blogger in the digital field, I will sincerely talk to you about how to keep our solid-state drives in good condition and continue to function through three aspects: software optimization and maintenance, system parameter settings, and daily usage habits.
Make good use of the official “Butler” and rejuvenate yourself with one click
If you want to properly maintain your solid-state drive, the most simple, direct and efficient tool is the official maintenance software provided by the manufacturer. Basically all mainstream brands, such as Samsung, Western Digital, and Kioxia, including the GALAX I am currently using, will have specialized SSH management software on their official websites. Take GALAX's product called the Armored Warrior SSD as an example. The functional layout of its supporting software is quite intuitive, showing a simple ring-like shape. The layout integrates a function called SSD information display, as well as one-click optimization function, firmware upgrade function, and complete erasure, which is the core function of Secure Erase, temporarily referred to as SE.
When using this type of software, there is a small detail that requires special attention: you must right-click the software icon, and then select "Run as administrator" in it. Only by using such an operation method can you ensure that the software can correctly identify and operate your solid-state drive.
Among these functions, the most immediate one is “Secure Erase”. With daily use, especially when used as a system disk, the SSD will generate a large number of redundant files and invalid data, which is what we usually call "garbage" that the TRIM command fails to clean up in time. With the help of "Secure Erase", the initial state of flash memory particles can be quickly restored and fragments can be cleaned up, so that the read and write speed of the hard disk can regain new vitality. However, everything has two sides. Secure erasure is essentially a full-disk write operation. If it is done too frequently, it will consume the number of P/E cycles (Program/Erase Cycle) of the flash memory particles. Therefore, it is recommended to do it every 3 months to half a year. Don’t be greedy for too much.
Stay away from "traditional misunderstandings" and disable disk defragmentation
"Habit" is most likely derived from the past era of mechanical hard drives and is the deepest and most solid legacy. In the era of mechanical hard drives, disk defragmentation was indeed a "good way" to improve performance. Its principle is to organize files to reduce the seek time of the magnetic head, thereby improving reading and writing efficiency.
However, in the era of solid-state drives, what was once considered a "good medicine" has turned into a "poison." The storage medium used in solid-state drives is flash memory particles, and its reading mechanism is electronic addressing. Theoretically, its seek time is almost equal to zero. Therefore, defragmentation has no meaning at all for improving performance. The more critical point is that the working principle of disk defragmentation will trigger a large number of full-disk read and write operations, which will undoubtedly consume precious P/E cycles and directly shorten the service life of the solid-state drive. Moreover, modern operating systems such as Windows 10/11 can already automatically recognize solid-state drives and turn off the defragmentation function for them by default, replacing them with the TRIM command. "TRIM" has the feature of enabling the main control chip to know in advance which data blocks are "invalid" and can perform garbage collection when idle. This is an intelligent and life-saving autonomous cleaning mechanism. Therefore, be sure to confirm in the system that the "Disk Defragmentation" function is turned off for your solid-state drive.
Scientifically plan the use and maintain the "purity" of the system disk
Although the prices of large-capacity solid-state drives are currently extending downward, from the perspectives of cost-effectiveness and data security, the most sensible strategy is always a hybrid storage solution such as "solid-state + mechanical". Use the solid-state drive as a system disk, and it is also an installation disk for software and games, giving full play to its advantages of high-speed reading and writing, thus greatly improving the overall response speed of the computer. However, for those cold data such as extremely large numbers of photos, numerous videos, and many work documents, they will be handed over to mechanical hard drives that are more affordable and have relatively easy data recovery.
The benefits of doing it in this way are obvious. First, it prevents the solid-state drive from carrying out large-scale and frequent file reading and writing activities, thereby reducing unnecessary flash memory wear. Second, it maintains the "purity" of the solid-state drive, that is, only placing the system and core applications, which can effectively avoid the disk space being in a high-occupancy state for a long time. When the remaining space of the solid-state drive is too small, the efficiency of garbage collection and wear leveling of the main control chip in the solid-state drive will be greatly reduced, thereby affecting performance and lifespan. Therefore, regularly cleaning the garbage generated by the system disk, uninstalling software that is not commonly used, and leaving ample reserved space for the solid-state drive are the only effective ways to extend its life.
Nowadays, in a situation where there is no way to "open source" to buy a new hard drive, by using the official management software, strictly prohibiting disk defragmentation, and scientifically planning storage uses, we can extend the service life of the solid-state drives in our hands and prepare for future changes in the storage market in an optimal state.
