Rev Up Your SSD: Tricks to Unleash the Full Potential of Your SSD

SSDs are now the most popular type of hard disk in laptops and desktop computers. They're small, quiet, and perform much better than regular hard drives.

Unfortunately, like regular drives, they also slow down with time and can eventually stop working entirely.

Even if this is the case, there are several things you can do to keep your SSDs in tip-top shape and maximize their performance. These things include:

Enable TRIM

TRIM is a command that allows an operating system to notify a solid-state drive that certain data blocks are no longer in use and can be erased internally.

Unlike a mechanical disk, an SSD can only write fresh data to empty blocks. Drives that do not have TRIM enabled must partially relocate vast amounts of data, erase all the blocks that hold it, and then write the new data to those blocks.

TRIM stops your drive from doing needless writes and being overloaded.

SSDs are identified when inserted in Windows, and all drives have TRIM enabled. On the other hand, Apple does not support TRIM on most third-party SSDs and disables it by default. This is because Apple does not want to be held liable if your SSD's hardware does not correctly implement TRIM and you have a problem.

If your PC comes with an SSD pre-installed, TRIM is activated. For those who upgraded later, you must run trimforce in the terminal to enable the command.

Update the firmware

If you have a Windows computer, you know you have to update it regularly to address bugs, improve security, and provide new features. The same is true for SSDs. Drive manufacturers provide firmware updates (albeit considerably less frequently than Windows updates).

Firmware upgrades are primarily intended to remedy problems, such as an improperly computed SSD service life, although they can sometimes result in speed gains. To be safe, update your firmware when the updates become available.

While you might want to keep your seagate ssds updated, the problem is that you will not be automatically notified when a firmware upgrade is ready for your SSD model, therefore you must be proactive about it.

The most convenient approach to check is to use your SSD manufacturer's support software.

You should also be able to install the firmware upgrade directly from the SSD support utility. The update process typically lasts a few minutes and terminates when the computer shuts down. To be safe, always back up your data before beginning the process.

Don’t fill your SSD.

When an SSD approaches maximum capacity, it may experience performance difficulties, particularly with writing speed. Due to this, you need to ensure that your disk has enough space. With enough open space, the drive can write to an empty cell more easily.

When the disk is full, the SSD must determine which blocks are half-full, store that information in a cache, and then write it back to the drive. As you can tell, this is a lot of work, and it's bound to slow down your device.  

To be on the safe side, set aside 10-15% of your disk for free space to achieve a decent combination of performance and space utilization.

Increase the DRAM cache

SSDs differ in their flash type. Most devices feature either TLC (triple-level cell) or QLC (quadruple-level cell), with the former storing three bits per cell and the latter storing four bits per cell.

This is known as storage density and larger storage densities are better for production costs. While this is the case, higher storage densities hurt the operating speeds of individual cells. Manufacturers can use NAND stacking technology to compensate for this, but only to a certain extent.

This is why the controller chip is so critical. Through careful programming, it can reduce the speed deficits of relatively sluggish flash cells. In addition, in some SSD models, it is accompanied by an additional component known as the DRAM cache (Dynamic Random Access Memory), which stores the management data and mapping table.

As a result, DRAM memory is significantly faster than NAND flash. It improves access time, which increases the data transfer rate. 

Without a DRAM cache, SSDs must store data mappings directly in NAND cells. This reduces the overall speed of access and increases wear and tear on memory cells. That is why these SSDs are less expensive and have shorter warranties.

The technical specifications should specify whether an SSD has a DRAM module. If you can’t tell whether your SSD has a DRAM module from the drive, check it from the SSD specs database.

Undertake regular optimizations

To retain performance over time, flash-based storage drives must be tuned regularly.

As mentioned above, SSDs too close to full capacity cannot perform optimally, so you need to clean them regularly. Unlike HDDs, the problem is that SSDs cannot simply wipe data that is no longer needed. Instead, they must do a cleanup cycle to free up blocks.

This "garbage collection" occurs in the background and is initiated by the operating system's trim command. Trimming ensures an SSD's peak writing speed by eliminating the need to empty and clean up blocks before writing data.

Fortunately, Windows allows you to plan this SSD optimization operation easily. Open the Start menu, search for Defragment and Optimize Drives, and click on it to open it. 

The next Optimize Drives box lists all your system drives under Status. Each drive can have its optimization schedule.

To create a schedule for a drive, select it and then click the Change Settings option in the bottom right. Ensure the Run on a schedule (recommended) selection is specified, then choose a frequency. The default is weekly, but you can also choose daily and monthly.

Parting shot

SSDs cost more per gigabyte than their mechanical counterparts. However, they make up for what they lack in capacity with lower power consumption, less noise, and substantially faster speeds.

The SSDs resist the same reasons that cause HDDs to crash and fail, but they are not without issues.

Every time you write to your disk, you move it closer to failure. Fortunately, those processes are minor, and with the tips above, your SSD can last far beyond its usefulness or until you replace it with something better.