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Using Disk Cloning to "De-Frag" my SSD Boot Drive on WinXP

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I have a question that I hope you can help me with. I am still running Microsoft Windows XP! Not only that, I'm running it using a 128GB SSD System Drive! When I installed my SSD drive about one year ago, I used most of the hacks I found regarding using an SSD on an operating system that does not support the TRIM function. Although my system is still running fine, I'm noticing some performance issues. My question is this: I use Acronis True Image Home 2012. If I create a cloned image of my SSD drive on a spare hard drive I have, then erase & re-align my SSD drive, then clone the image I made on that spare hard drive back to my SSD drive, would that re-write all files to my SSD drive such that there would be no fragmentation on the SSD drive when done? If so, would periodically performing this function be a good way of keeping my SSD drive healthy?

Thanks!
Ralph

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Ralph:

In general yes - this should work. However, when you use the TI user interface, "clone" means to copy one disk onto another disk, and that's not the best way to accomplish your goal. Instead, choose "Disk and Partition Backup", select to back up the entire source disk (include all partitions on the disk) and save the backup to your spare hard disk. The backup will be one large file that contains a complete image of your source disk.

After erasing and re-aligning your SSD, restore the image of your disk back to the SSD. When TI restores it will do so in a way that results in minimal fragmentation.

Mark,

Glad to see you are still around..

James:

Trying to hold down a full-time job and work a farm has been challenging, but I like the mix of physical and mental challenges. It will be easier to find time to answer posts in the forum now that the weather is getting colder.

We look forward to your continuing help here. esp. the ones concerning Windows BCD issuses. :)

Ralph,

There is no point trying to defragment an SSD, or let's say there is no gain to be had, but only downside of unnecessary writes.

The first thing is to ensure that your disk is aligned. Each partition offset should divisible by 4096 when expressed in bytes. It looks like you got this covered.

Since XP doesn't support TRIM command on your SSD, you should:
- keep about 15% of you SSD unallocated. This will give enough space for the controller to move things around as your write to your SSD.
- about every 6 to 12 months, backup your SSD, ATA secure-erase it (not a wipe process), then restore.

Other tweaks:
- disable the automatic defragmentation,
- disable prefetch service,
- leave the pagefile on the SSD,
- turn off indexing of content on the SSD (optional)