SSD Maintenance?

[macmesser]

Are any of the HDD traditional maintenance practices relevant for SSDs or could some of them have deleterious effects? Directory optimization with DiskWarrior? File defrag and free space consolidation with TTP? What if any maintenance is recommended?

Thanks for any insights.

 

[GGJstudios]

No, you don't need to perform any maintenance and you certainly shouldn't defrag. Just use the drive.

 

[Phrygian]

Are any of the HDD traditional maintenance practices relevant for SSDs or could some of them have deleterious effects? Directory optimization with DiskWarrior? File defrag and free space consolidation with TTP? What if any maintenance is recommended?

Thanks for any insights.

if its not enabled, you may want to consider enabling trim using cindori's trim enabler. 3rd party ssd's wont have it enabled otherwise

 

[derbothaus]

I still use Diskwarrior after directory fragmentation get's over 20%. Has nothing to do with physical blocks. I would never defrag any HD on OS X (HDD or SSD). No tools to put faith into. Make a .dmg of system and reapply after wiping the drive. Bam. Defragged.

 

[macmesser]

I still use Diskwarrior after directory fragmentation get's over 20%. Has nothing to do with physical blocks. I would never defrag any HD on OS X (HDD or SSD). No tools to put faith into. Make a .dmg of system and reapply after wiping the drive. Bam. Defragged.

Thanks for reply. Great idea for defrag, much faster no doubt than TechTool Pro and will be my method now. Just wondering, why don't you trust the popular disk maintenance utilities? I have used TTP to defrag HDs with no apparent problem but it's slow.

 

[derbothaus]

Thanks for reply. Great idea for defrag, much faster no doubt than TechTool Pro and will be my method now. Just wondering, why don't you trust the popular disk maintenance utilities? I have used TTP to defrag HDs with no apparent problem but it's slow.

The extra benefit is that you are forced to have a backup
OS X rarely needs it. At least block level defrag on the OS disk. I assume you are originally a Win user as they are the users most concerned with this. I feel no benefit defragging that a good directory optimization can't just as easily give you speed wise. TTP back in the day has fried a few HD's so I trashed it. I have a copy of Drive Genius because I like Prosoft Data Rescue but I never use it. Playing with fire moving stuff around to see little to no benefit. For large data sets it makes much more sense to move data and reformat if fragmentation becomes an issue. My 2 cents. I do, on occasion, defrag XSAN volumes with snfsdefrag. But that's a different ballgame.

 

[macmesser]

if its not enabled, you may want to consider enabling trim using cindori's trim enabler. 3rd party ssd's wont have it enabled otherwise

Thanks for reply. I just installed some SSDs and have seen some other references to trim enabler so I will do this. One of my SSDs is an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G, which is Sandforce based. I have heard conflicting reports as to whether trim should be enabled with Sandforce. Since my SSDs are on different machines I can enable on the one with an Intel 530 SSD anyway.

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The extra benefit is that you are forced to have a backup
OS X rarely needs it. At least block level defrag on the OS disk. I assume you are originally a Win user as they are the users most concerned with this. I feel no benefit defragging that a good directory optimization can't just as easily give you speed wise. TTP back in the day has fried a few HD's so I trashed it. I have a copy of Drive Genius because I like Prosoft Data Rescue but I never use it. Playing with fire moving stuff around to see little to no benefit. For large data sets it makes much more sense to move data and reformat if fragmentation becomes an issue. My 2 cents. I do, on occasion, defrag XSAN volumes with snfsdefrag. But that's a different ballgame.

The backup is another benefit. Definitely the way to go.

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No, you don't need to perform any maintenance and you certainly shouldn't defrag. Just use the drive.

Thanks. Sounds good, I like to keep things simple if possible. Will see how it goes...

 

[saulinpa]

Another approach to TRIM.

Install OSX on another disk or USB drive. Enable TRIM on that. Then run Disk Utility on your internal drives. It will then TRIM the free space, even what got missed during upgrades/patches.

It would be good to enable TRIM on the recovery partition but I haven't seen anyone tackle that yet.

 

[macmesser]

Another approach to TRIM.

Install OSX on another disk or USB drive. Enable TRIM on that. Then run Disk Utility on your internal drives. It will then TRIM the free space, even what got missed during upgrades/patches.

It would be good to enable TRIM on the recovery partition but I haven't seen anyone tackle that yet.

Sounds like a good idea. Wonder if it could be installed on TTP's eDrive emergency boot partition.

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if its not enabled, you may want to consider enabling trim using cindori's trim enabler. 3rd party ssd's wont have it enabled otherwise

Just saw something about Trim Enabler which concerned me, to the effect that Trim Enabler causes instability and other problems because it overwrites the relevant file with a version from an older OS rather than edits it. Is there a corrected version of Trim Enabler, or a properly coded utility with the same function?

 

[Weaselboy]

Just saw something about Trim Enabler which concerned me, to the effect that Trim Enabler causes instability and other problems because it overwrites the relevant file with a version from an older OS rather than edits it. Is there a corrected version of Trim Enabler, or a properly coded utility with the same function?

That is old info. The current version of Trim Enabler makes a backup copy of the original kext file then modifies a copy.

That said, OWC does not recommend running the TRIM hack on their Sandforce drives. Some forum users have reported is causes instability. I would not do it.

 

[Phrygian]

That is old info. The current version of Trim Enabler makes a backup copy of the original kext file then modifies a copy.

That said, OWC does not recommend running the TRIM hack on their Sandforce drives. Some forum users have reported is causes instability. I would not do it.

Yea, i have a crucial m4 so i can't speak to sandforce, however i haven't noticed any issues that are related to trim being enable to my knowledge, but then again i don't know what "stability" is referring to.

 

[Weaselboy]

Yea, i have a crucial m4 so i can't speak to sandforce, however i haven't noticed any issues that are related to trim being enable to my knowledge, but then again i don't know what "stability" is referring to.

Here is the official statement from OWC. I don't use a OWC drive currently, so can only pass along what other forum members have reported, including beachballs and wake from sleep issues with the TRIM hack enabled.

 

[macmesser]

Here is the official statement from OWC. I don't use a OWC drive currently, so can only pass along what other forum members have reported, including beachballs and wake from sleep issues with the TRIM hack enabled.

Think I'll play it safe. I'm no expert but he OWC statement seems pretty compelling. They oughta know...

 

[derbothaus]

They oughta know...

You'd think. I have my reservations. But I will keep them to myself.

 

[Phrygian]

Here is the official statement from OWC. I don't use a OWC drive currently, so can only pass along what other forum members have reported, including beachballs and wake from sleep issues with the TRIM hack enabled.

I thought the wake up from sleep issues were 10.8 ML related rather than trim related... though perhaps all the people who reported issues with it were using SSDs..

maybe weigh the pros and cons of using trim enabler based on your needs. I haven't heard of trim enabler bricking a drive though.

 

[Weaselboy]

I thought the wake up from sleep issues were 10.8 ML related rather than trim related... though perhaps all the people who reported issues with it were using SSDs..

maybe weigh the pros and cons of using trim enabler based on your needs. I haven't heard of trim enabler bricking a drive though.

There were wake from sleep issues even back on Lion, so I think that is two separate issues. I agree enabling TRIM won't do any permanent harm that could not be undone by removing the hack.