Thrax
Cad
23,397 Posts
26 Nov 2008, 1:35pm
Fragmentation is not an issue. SSDs intentionally fragment files across the drive in a process called "wear leveling." Wear leveling assures that no one flash cell gets more work than others, thereby extending the life of the drive. If a file were stored in 100,000 places or in one contiguous block, an SSD would be able to load that file at the same speed.
Defragmentation is a cheap hack to sweep the performance limitations of mechanical drives under the rug. Defragging exists because there are performance penalties if the mechanical drive head needs to see files all over the disk.
Secondly, the longevity (MTBF) of the newest generation of Intel SSDs is as long or longer than traditional drives. Reliability has reached parity, it's not really a concern any more.
I do, however, agree that the price needs to come down.
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