Comments on: Windows 7 Beta beats Vista SP1 in SSD Performance

By: Lazarus

Lazarus — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:37:39 +0000

Sorry, but I don’t know the details, Anders. From what I understand, the function to defrag/move the MFT and atleast some system files is built into the defrag API*. However, the free defragmenters as well as (ironically) the default XP defragger cannot/do not utilize this capability. As a result it is only the heavyweights like Diskeeper that actually defrag these files. I believe the Vista defragger can also move the MFT..not sure of it’s other capabilities.

* Coincidentally, the defrag API was developed jointly by Diskeeper and Microsoft in the 90s and improved for the XP release.

By: Anders Lund

Anders Lund — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:52:41 +0000

“JKdefrag cannot defragment system files unlike the commercial defragmenters”.

Is defragging systemfiles more difficult or do they use non-standard ways to do this (eg. not using the defrag API to defrag)?

By: Lazarus

Lazarus — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:48:10 +0000

SSD drives require optimization of the data layout to extract the best performance, according to the guy from Intel.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYxMSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
I don’t think a ‘conventional’ defragger that does not minimize file movement during the ‘defrag’ will be the best choice. Defragging an SSD conventionally is *not* a good idea at all because of the erase/write cycle limitations.

From what I can make out (I own neither an SSD nor Hyperfast), the Hyperfast optimizer (a) consolidates free space and (b) somehow forces the filesystem to write sequentially in the available free space. Maybe by caching? I don’t know….but it seems to work.

BTW, JKdefrag cannot defragment system files unlike the commercial defragmenters. All Windows defraggers use the same defrag API, but they are definitely not the same- each one has different capabilities and different algorithms for defragmentation and file layout.

By: Anders Lund

Anders Lund — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:41:03 +0000

Agree. I use JkDefrag – it’s free, opensource and works great.

http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/

I have it scheduled to run every day on my laptop. It can be a little nerdy (command line options), but great once it has been setup. It uses Windows own API for defragging (just like all? the other defrag programs), so it’s just as safe as any other program.

By: Brad

Brad — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:00:24 +0000

These comments sound like an advert for Diskeeper. SSD drives do not need special defragmentation software.

Any third party application is nothing more than an attempt to make money off those who don’t know better.

By: NoName

NoName — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:36:12 +0000

SSDs may not benefit from a tradiotnal defrag, but as Lazarus said it is common knowledge SSDs suffer from alimited number of erase-write cycles, optimizing free space would help that. I will check out Diskeeper’s product.

By: Windows 7 Beta beats Vista SP1 in SSD Performance | Windows 7 Center - Windows 7 Ultimate

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:35:04 +0000

[...] Windows 7 Beta beats Vista SP1 in SSD Performance | Windows 7 Center [...]

By: Lazarus

Lazarus — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:56:30 +0000

>>”I thought defragmentation was not necessary due to the very low seektime on SSD.”

SSDs require free space consolidation more than defragging…this is said to reduce random writes which are the weakness of SSDs. Diskeeper has an SSD optimizer called Hyperfast which does this and some other optimizations..
http://www.diskeeperblog.com/archives/2008/12/hyperfast_is_al.html
Defrag and wear levelling also don’t interfere with each other according to the Diskeeper engineer.

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:20:32 +0000

I heard Windows7 performs great on multi-core PCs. Hope you will do an experiment and publish here.

By: Anders Lund

Anders Lund — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:00:42 +0000

You write “Defrag has no effect on SSDs due to the unique way SSDs store data.”

In what way is it /unique/?

I thought defragmentation was not necessary due to the very low seektime on SSD. I know SSD uses some algorithms to store data, because of the limited number of times a ’sector’ can be written, but I always thought that it would lead to more fragmented data.