Disk Cleanup to improve performance

[GraphicDisorder]

Just buy a bigger SSD? They are cheap these days.

[Frog]

Just buy a bigger SSD? They are cheap these days.

It's true, in the three years since I got this box, SSD's have come way, way, way down. (66.6% in many cases)
Step one will be to get the nerve to tackle the task of the actual copying of the drive via step by step instructions. The physical swap doesn't scare me (quite)as much.

Step two will be to then stick this drive in an older laptop utilizing the dvd drive slot since it hasn't seen a disc in more than four years. That conversion should then be a simpler matter of copy or clone, and then change drives in the BIOS, right?

[GraphicDisorder]

Just buy a bigger SSD? They are cheap these days.

It's true, in the three years since I got this box, SSD's have come way, way, way down. (66.6% in many cases)
Step one will be to get the nerve to tackle the task of the actual copying of the drive via step by step instructions. The physical swap doesn't scare me (quite)as much.

Step two will be to then stick this drive in an older laptop utilizing the dvd drive slot since it hasn't seen a disc in more than four years. That conversion should then be a simpler matter of copy or clone, and then change drives in the BIOS, right?

You mentioned having Norton Ghost, that makes it easy. Also many SSD drives come with a disc utility that will ghost/duplicate the drive for you with a few clicks then just a matter of shut down and swap drives.

[jvanick]

nice thing if you clone the old drive to a new one, you have an option for recovering from catastrophic drive failure if the new one goes out.

(or at least something to get you by for a few days till you can get a replacement)

-J

[Prōdigium]

For the past 8 years I have been using a program called Disk Keeper www.condusiv.com/products/diskeeper/

Of course I still use normal hard drives, but fragmentation is an issue on ANY drive due to how Windows likes to scatter crap all around. I can say that without a doubt that it makes a HUGE difference to my systems, which use 6 hard rives, 4 of them in RAID, one spare and a swap drive. You should read up on the site if the program will help with SSD's but I cannot see why not. Later this year I am planning to build a new system with 3 SSD's in a single RAID configuration, one as a dual boot Linux...hopefully I can keep my Disk Keeper program.

[Frog]

For the past 8 years I have been using a program called Disk Keeper www.condusiv.com/products/diskeeper/

Of course I still use normal hard drives, but fragmentation is an issue on ANY drive due to how Windows likes to scatter crap all around. I can say that without a doubt that it makes a HUGE difference to my systems, which use 6 hard rives, 4 of them in RAID, one spare and a swap drive. You should read up on the site if the program will help with SSD's but I cannot see why not. Later this year I am planning to build a new system with 3 SSD's in a single RAID configuration, one as a dual boot Linux...hopefully I can keep my Disk Keeper program.

It was my understanding that defragging is not suggested for SSD's

[Squeegie]

Frog is correct...do not use the defrag on SSD's.

If your system supports it use the TRIM function, or better yet, use the management software from the manufacturer of the SSD in  your system.

[Prōdigium]

Frog is correct...do not use the defrag on SSD's.

If your system supports it use the TRIM function, or better yet, use the management software from the manufacturer of the SSD in  your system.

Could be, honestly I have not got into them yet mostly due to the cost per MB of storage, but now that prices are on par its part of my plan to use them on my next build later this year. That said, I did read up on the Disk Keeper site about using the program with SSD's and they claim that not only does it improve performance, which I can understand but it can also prolong the lifespan.

Disk Keeper is not your typical defrag tool. Its more like a database tool that looks at your files and keeps the ones you use most where the drive is the fastest. It actually PREVENTS on standard rives. Fragmentation on ANY type of drive results in poor performance. A drive is just a filing cabinet...keep all the files messed up, in crazy places its just common sense that it takes longer to find what you need.

Personally, I would look at specific tools for this as it turns out the Disk Keeper is not so hot with SSD's....read up here.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047513/fragging-wonderful-the-truth-about-defragging-your-ssd.html

[ScreenFoo]

Frog is correct...do not use the defrag on SSD's.

If your system supports it use the TRIM function, or better yet, use the management software from the manufacturer of the SSD in  your system.

Could be, honestly I have not got into them yet mostly due to the cost per MB of storage, but now that prices are on par its part of my plan to use them on my next build later this year. That said, I did read up on the Disk Keeper site about using the program with SSD's and they claim that not only does it improve performance, which I can understand but it can also prolong the lifespan.

Disk Keeper is not your typical defrag tool. Its more like a database tool that looks at your files and keeps the ones you use most where the drive is the fastest. It actually PREVENTS on standard rives. Fragmentation on ANY type of drive results in poor performance. A drive is just a filing cabinet...keep all the files messed up, in crazy places its just common sense that it takes longer to find what you need.

Personally, I would look at specific tools for this as it turns out the Disk Keeper is not so hot with SSD's....read up here.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047513/fragging-wonderful-the-truth-about-defragging-your-ssd.html

The mfr should provide utilities, and the firmware in a good SSD will do most of the heavy lifting--they almost need to be fragged, in a way, since you do not want to rewrite the same sections over and over, but rather write each sector an equal amount of times as the 'drive' ages. 

On an SSD there is no benefit to 'defragging', since random access is just as fast (or very, very nearly,) as sequential.  There is no head that needs to seek, there are no 'cylinders' that deliver data faster or slower, it's really a misnomer to call them 'drives' to begin with.