Press the Windows Key + S and type in defrag, then click on Defragment & Optimize Drives.Īs mentioned, we don't need to defrag SSD drives, but we're just looking for Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive. Here's how to tell what type of hard drive you have. The jury is still out on how long SSD drives last, but we've had the same drives in use for a few years. TRIM can prolong the SSD lifespan and performance. SSD drives do not need defragmentation but instead use TRIM which tells the SSD drive which data blocks it can erase because they are no longer in use. SSD drives became larger and more affordable in 2018, with 1TB drives costing only $100.

SSD drives used to be so expensive in modern times that many people would purchase a smaller (128MB, for example) SSD just to run their operating system and favorite programs. When SanDisk released their 20Mb SSD drive in 1991, it cost $1,000. Computer boot times of 10 seconds or less are not uncommon. They use integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently and are much faster than the traditional HDD.

All hard drives fail sooner or later because they have moving parts. They tend to be slow and require defragmentation regularly to optimize where data is placed. This is why you can hear an HDD making noise. They contain platters and a moving actuator arm to read and write data to the platter surface. You could almost call them old school nowadays. TIP: Hard to fix Windows Problems? Repair/Restore Missing Windows OS Files Damaged by Malware with a few clicksīefore we begin, let's look at the differences between the two drives.

Ssd drive checker