SSD is a performance magic tool, but if it is not used properly, its performance will be compromised
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(SSD) Solid-state drives are now an indispensable performance-enhancing component for personal computers. They can be found in almost all newly shipped PCs. At the same time, a large number of old computers have also been rejuvenated by installing or upgrading SSDs. However, as a new storage medium, SSDs are completely different from the working principles of HDDs (mechanical hard disks) in the past, which means that SSDs must be consciously maintained in daily use - otherwise, the speed will drop seriously after a long period of use, and the disk life will be shortened, resulting in data loss, data corruption, or even the entire disk being scrapped... You must have been scared when you see this: How should solid-state drives be properly maintained on a daily basis? Don't be afraid, just remember which wrong operations are particularly "harmful to SSDs" and which good habits have positive significance for our SSDs. It's very simple to use SSDs well. Don't make these mistakes if you want to use SSDs well Frequent power outages or abnormal shutdowns Everyone knows that SSDs do not have mechanical parts such as motors and disks, so they are far less fragile than mechanical hard disks in the past when they fall, but SSDs also have a huge weakness, which is the fear of sudden power outages. This is because SSDs generally have a large cache space (similar to computer memory). When writing a large amount of data, the data is not directly written to the SSD's flash memory, but is temporarily stored in the cache. At this time, if there is a power outage, or the user forcibly shuts down the computer by pressing and holding the power button, the data stored in the cache, which is not actually written to the SSD, will be lost. If the data lost happens to be a particularly important part (such as the file allocation table FTL), it may even cause the entire disk data to become unreadable... Long-term use without power Many people may not think that if you remove an SSD from the chassis and leave it for a long time, the data on it may even be lost. This is related to the working mechanism of flash memory: on flash memory, the most basic storage unit is called a "lattice" - it is like a small battery with electrons sealed inside. When flash memory reads data, it reads "0" or "1" binary data by judging whether there is electricity in each lattice (to be precise, the voltage level). Like dry batteries, the lattice of flash memory also has leakage phenomenon - if it is left without power for a period of time, the electrons in the lattice may "escape". If there are too many electrons, the voltage in the lattice will be insufficient, and the data that was originally "1" may be mistakenly recognized as "0", eventually causing data confusion and loss. Modern SSD master controllers have intelligent detection and error correction algorithms for lattice voltage. During normal power on and off use, the voltage in the lattice can basically be guaranteed to be stable. Occasionally shutting down for a long time for several days or weeks is not a big problem. However, if the SSD is not used for several months, it is recommended to power it on once in a while (you can disconnect the data cable and only connect the power cable). About half an hour each time is enough to maintain the integrity of the data in the SSD. Use it as a download disk for heavy-load downloading In the past, I often heard some friends advise: Don't use download software such as Thunder on SSD, try to use mechanical hard disk as a download disk. This practice is also to protect SSD and extend its service life. When the mechanical hard disk is working, the motor in the middle is always rotating, and the telescopic cantilever that controls the magnetic head is also always moving, so most mechanical hard disks are broken because the motor is broken rather than the disk. SSDs have no mechanical parts, and only when reading and writing operations are performed will a large current pass through their flash memory. This is why the life of a mechanical hard disk is generally expressed in hours, while the life of a solid-state drive is measured by the amount of data written. Most of the current cheap home SSDs use TLC flash memory, which has a write life of about 300 times its own capacity - in other words, a 250G SSD will almost crash after writing (including deleting) 75TB of data. Even Intel, which has always been kind, crashed after writing 106TB in normal use in the violent write test of foreign media - if it is a high-load 4K random write, it only lasted 50 days before its life ended. Therefore, for friends who often use Thunder (I know what you download), this life is obviously not enough. For the sake of other important data in the computer, it is better not to use SSD as a download disk. AHCI is not enabled, 4K is not aligned, and XP system is used. These three can be put together because they are closer to the precautions when installing the system rather than the operations during daily use. The first is AHCI, which we have already mentioned when introducing NVMe SSD. It is a transmission protocol for SATA hard disks. Although AHCI is now very backward, and although it is very poor at optimizing the read and write performance of small files on SSDs, it is still sufficient for SATA SSDs. However, whether the AHCI protocol is enabled or not must be done before installing the system, otherwise it will directly lead to a blue screen or inability to enter the system. Although the current NVMe SSD no longer requires the AHCI protocol, for those computers with SSD+HDD dual hard disk design, enabling AHCI still has a positive meaning of improving the performance of traditional hard disks. The second "4K alignment" must have been heard by everyone, which is good for SSDs. But what is 4K alignment? Simply put, it allows the hard disk to start writing from the exact initial position, so as to minimize the probability of data being "split" on the hard disk, which can effectively improve performance and extend the life of the disk. Although 4K alignment can also be performed through third-party software after the system is installed, the risk is higher. The simplest way is to use an empty SSD and a clean system image to install the system, so that the system will automatically be 4K aligned during the partitioning process. Remember! Never, never use unorthodox methods such as Ghost to install the system, because the system installed by Ghost is almost impossible to align 4K, which will have a great impact on the life of the SSD - of course, the security risks of piracy cannot be ignored, so I won't go into them here. Finally, if your computer uses an SSD, don't hold on to the Windows XP system anymore - it's very simple, because the XP system does not support the TRIM command that is essential for today's SSDs. Without the TRIM function, the SSD will experience a significant drop in speed after a period of use, seriously affecting the user experience. Similarly, if the computer is equipped with an NVMe SSD, the system must start from at least Windows 8 (it is recommended to use Win10 directly), because Win7 does not have a native NVMe driver. If the manufacturer does not provide a dedicated basic driver, users cannot even install the Win 7 system on the NVMe SSD. So, how can we make good use of the SSD and keep it healthy and fast for a long time? Give the computer some time to "rest" The author has observed that the elderly in the family view computers like other traditional electrical appliances - shutting down immediately when not in use, thinking that this can save electricity. Electricity is indeed saved, but this is not the right operation for SSDs. After a period of use, the internal data arrangement of traditional mechanical hard disks will become chaotic and need to be maintained through the "disk defragmentation" program; and due to its working principle, SSDs actually produce more "fragments" than HDDs, but the "defragmentation" of SSDs does not rely on application software, but on the "garbage collection" algorithm solidified in the SSD main control. In order to avoid jamming during daily use, most SSDs will automatically run garbage collection when the read and write operations are not intense. In this way, if you intentionally do not shut down the computer after using it, or let the computer "rest" for a period of time in the middle, it will obviously help the SSD to perform self-maintenance. Reserve OP space for SSD You may not understand what "OP space" means when you see it. In layman's terms, when partitioning, you should deliberately leave a part of the SSD unformatted area - this range can reach up to 50% of the total capacity of the SSD, and at least 17%-20% is recommended. This is not a waste of SSD space: first, this reserved capacity will be used as a "backup" by the SSD's main control. If some flash blocks in the entire SSD are damaged, the main control will automatically use unallocated space instead, which will extend the overall life of the SSD in disguise. Secondly, the "self-maintenance" of the SSD just mentioned, that is, the garbage collection operation, requires the data of the entire disk to be rearranged - this naturally requires space for copying and temporary storage. If an SSD is completely filled, then garbage collection will no longer work properly, and the performance of the SSD will be greatly reduced. Finally, many SSDs now support "SLC working mode", that is, when the SSD has a lot of free capacity, only the first layer of multi-layer flash memory (MLC, TLC) is used, and it works as SLC flash memory. In this mode, the life and performance of the SSD will be greatly improved, but if the remaining space is less than a certain value, the SLC mode will fail and the SSD will slow down. This ratio is 50% for MLC and 33.3% for TLC - that is, if a 1TB TLC SSD reserves 667GB of space as OP and only uses 333GB of it, its performance and life will be greatly improved - this is of course a bit wasteful, but if you care about the performance and stability of the SSD, this approach is also a trick. Install the official driver toolbox Last time when I introduced the precautions for buying SSDs, I said that if you care about cost performance, OEM models are also a good choice. However, compared with the retail version, in addition to the different names and positions, the OEM model actually has a "shortcoming", that is, most of them cannot support the official driver toolbox. In fact, several major flash memory manufacturers such as SanDisk (Western Digital), OCZ (Toshiba), Intel, Crucial (Micron), and Samsung have tool programs for their own consumer-grade SSDs. Among the second-tier manufacturers, Plextor's toolbox is also quite good. Most of these software toolboxes have functions such as firmware update, SSD life monitoring, partition management, erasure, encryption, etc., and are very practical and easy to use. Some brands even integrate various memory acceleration algorithms in the toolbox to greatly improve the performance of SSDs - it is hard to say whether they are useful in actual use, but at least the speed in the test is indeed greatly improved. For users, there is no need to spend extra money to install a software, and their SSD can be faster, so why not do it? In general, SSD is indeed an indispensable component for the high performance and good experience of today's computers, but it must be used and maintained correctly to maximize its performance - understand the technology, choose the right one, and then, through correct and scientific use, enjoy a high-speed, lightweight computing experience. As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity. |
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