Warning about SSD drives (Page 2): Ironically, Binging "defrag sd card" generated as many or more results as Google!

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

Earworms wrote:

Sorry, but according to you, I'm Bill Gates. So therefore I would not use GOOGLE. Yes, Cortana uses BING, but that is a different topic.

Maybe you should Defrag the memory in your head, that way it would work better!

Ironically, Binging "defrag sd card" generated as many or more results as Google! [CTRL][ALT][DEL]

bodacious Loc: Oregon

James Slick wrote:

Sorry, "Bill Gates", but there are people who do this, I was just trying to help, while your just trying to show how "smart" you are. Mission Accomplished!

Ain't it amazing how our language can incorporate words like smart or ass and then conjoin the two into a more meaningful word like smart-ass? Amazing I think.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

bodacious wrote:

Ain't it amazing how our language can incorporate words like smart or ass and then conjoin the two into a more meaningful word like smart-ass? Amazing I think.

I was trying to be civil, but conjunctions ARE usefull.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

Earworms wrote:

Old news.

Or get a "real" Operating System with a File System that isn't prone to fragmentation.

Truthfully though, NTFS isn't as prone to fragmentation as many of you have been led to believe.

And with SSDs fragmentation isn't nearly the problem it is with 'spinning-rust', where mechanical parts have to travel between tracks on the platters to access the parts of a file, anyway. Don't defrag them.

BTW, the problem is that the memory cells in SSDs can only be written to a limited number of times, typically in the tens of thousands. Then the contents start becoming unchangeable with rewriting. Reading the files does not hurt anything, but anything that has the drive overwriting files eventually will. (Randomly, bits that should have changed from '0' to '1' or from '1' to '0' won't change and the file gets corrupted.)

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

James Slick wrote:

This "No defrag" rule also applies to all solid state memories (like SD cards.) repeated unnecessary "writes" shortens their life too!

Indeed. Pretty much anything with non-volatile RAM. SSDs, SD & CF (and whatever other format) camera memory cards, thumb drives-- all of them. Don't defragment them.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

Earworms wrote:

I have yet to see a "Defrag" option on any camera menu that I've used. Which camera has that option, if I may ask?

None that I've ever heard of. I suppose that one could always defrag ones SD or CF cards on a PC, though, if one were hell-bent on having them unfragmented.

Earworms wrote:

Maybe you aren't familiar with "Wear Leveling" just yet. Look it up.

Even with wear leveling, removeable media aren't typically good for as many writes per cell as SSDs are. Frankly, I'm guessing that the wear-levelling algorithms would make hash out of attempts to defrag, anyway. It's going to put the data where it wants, and to hell with our attempts at micro-management.

JimEaco

How does formatting fit into this?
Seems formatting too often would cause the 'front' of the drive getting used more than the mid and back end of the drive.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

These days, most of the current defragging programs will either refuse to defrag an SSD or card or will warn the user.

JimEaco wrote:

Hmmm, may be old news to some, but I betcha there are plenty Hogs and friends of Hogs that have SSD's and did not consider the impact of Defrag on a SSD...
so an old dog tries a new trick (which is a moving object with technology) and bites his own tail.

Any tip is worth posting. I have SSD's on multiple devices and never did a defrag: but that does not mean I may not have.
I am grateful for the tip.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

JimEaco wrote:

How does formatting fit into this?
Seems formatting too often would cause the 'front' of the drive getting used more than the mid and back end of the drive.

With 'load levelling', not necessarily. The controller will try to use the least-written-to parts of the available memory space first, wherever it happens to be on the chips.

Either way, I wonder if the finite-write-count issue really makes the useful lives of SSDs shorter that those of drives which have moving parts, like bearings, and heads floating above the magnetic media on air cushions, etc., with all of their vulnerabilities.

Earworms Loc: Sacramento, California

rocketride wrote:

Indeed. Pretty much anything with non-volatile RAM. SSDs, SD & CF (and whatever other format) camera memory cards, thumb drives-- all of them. Don't defragment them.

I use OSX (Mac), and I've never had to defrag anything. I use the official SDcard formatter for formatting SDcards.

Earworms Loc: Sacramento, California

rocketride wrote:

These days, most of the current defragging programs will either refuse to defrag an SSD or card or will warn the user.

So the moral of the story is: Defrag all your SDcards and that will make you a better photographer. You'll get redder reds, greener greens and bluer blues.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

rocketride wrote:

With 'load levelling', not necessarily. The controller will try to use the least-written-to parts of the available memory space first, wherever it happens to be on the chips.

Either way, I wonder if the finite-write-count issue really makes the useful lives of SSDs shorter that those of drives which have moving parts, like bearings, and heads floating above the magnetic media on air cushions, etc., with all of their vulnerabilities.

Interesting point, Alough I have HDDs last 10 or more years, My next PC will have SSD mainly because I think that the less moving parts, the better! (not to mention the speed upgrade)

Kuzano

For those who "drank the SSD kool-aid"... interesting and many other facts making the run to SSD questionable popping up on the internet.

I find this article particularly interesting and in keeping with poorly designed technology running rampant in the market before the technology is proven. We've been there plenty before folks:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-ssds-are-obsolete/

PS... NOT using SSD technology here. I know what to expect from SATA and have lost two SSD drives before dropping the technology. I won't install an SSD drive in a client computer. If they insist, I give them the card of a competitor. He's not sure why I am referring business to him.

Ultimately it strengthens my own business, limiting drive failures for my clients.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

Earworms wrote:

I use OSX (Mac), and I've never had to defrag anything. I use the official SDcard formatter for formatting SDcards.

I haven't had to defragment anything in a long time under Windows (7 or 8), either. I'm using SSDs on the laptops and an SSD for OS & programs with big-ass spinning-rust drives for my user files on the desktop. Backup is a combination of spinning-rust external drives, SSD external drives and "M-Disc" (mil-spec archival) DVDs. . .

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

Earworms wrote:

So the moral of the story is: Defrag all your SDcards and that will make you a better photographer. You'll get redder reds, greener greens and bluer blues.

No one here ever,ever,ever, recommended defragging SD cards, In fact the whole thread has been to say DO NOT defrag solid state,not magnetic storage media!!!!! I gonna go "download" Bourbon 90.0 now.