Question Delete Tempory Internet files from System SSD yes or no?

[chane]

The system drive in my new desktop (W-1390, Gigabyte W480M, GTX 1660 Super, 32GB ECC RAM, Windows 10 pro) is a Samsung 870 QVO 1TB SSD.

I know that unlike magnetic drives all SSDs are write-once flash technology. And that "deleting" a file at most makes it permanently irretrievable; no storage space is reclaimable, as it can be with HDDs. Indeed, I believe this is also why users have been warned never to defrag an SSD. Not only does it not result in any reclaimed space but much space is permanently lost during the countless thousands of read/writes during the defrag session.

Therefore, would there no benefit to deleting Windows OS and/or Windows 2019 created temp files and temporarily internet files from the SSD, that used to delete from my old pc's system HDD? Instead, lots space on the SSD would be needlessly wasted?

Or would no wasted space happen and the pc would actually run faster with the temp files gone?

 

[VirtualLarry]

There is so much ignorance in the above, about how SSDs work.... not even going to bother.

 

[mindless1]

I'll dissect it.

The system drive in my new desktop (W-1390, Gigabyte W480M, GTX 1660 Super, 32GB ECC RAM, Windows 10 pro) is a Samsung 870 QVO 1TB SSD.

I know that unlike magnetic drives all SSDs are write-once flash technology.

No, not at all write once. Decades ago some manufacturers used what was called a PROM, that was write once, but those became obsolete once erasible memory came along.

And that "deleting" a file at most makes it permanently irretrievable;

Untrue, deleting a file only removes it from the file table, a directory if you will. You can scan and retrieve deleted files.

no storage space is reclaimable, as it can be with HDDs. Indeed, I believe this is also why users have been warned never to defrag an SSD. Not only does it not result in any reclaimed space but much space is permanently lost during the countless thousands of read/writes during the defrag session.

No, free space is reclaimed, and the reason not to degrag is because when a file is scattered among the physical regions of a spinning platter(s) on a HDD, there is rotational and seek latency to move the read head. On an SSD there is no such mechanical latency so all that defragging would do is reduce the remaing # of write cycles.

Therefore, would there no benefit to deleting Windows OS and/or Windows 2019 created temp files and temporarily internet files from the SSD, that used to delete from my old pc's system HDD? Instead, lots space on the SSD would be needlessly wasted?

There is benefit to deleting the temp files every now and then, but the internet temp files will just be replaced once they react the size max size, so it is of benefit to keep them in case these cached files make the browsing faster, and set a lower max size for them if you are running out of SSD space, and then start shopping for a larger SSD.

Or would no wasted space happen and the pc would actually run faster with the temp files gone?

You won't run out of SSD space from temp files alone, but every now and then it's nice to get rid of some clutter in your temp folders as there can be a lot of junk left behind over years of use of a system. This is for the user's benefit to see what is going on, locate things, keep track of what applications and their installers are doing.

It is not going to make the PC run faster, or slower. The main thing you need to keep in mind using an SSD, is use a capacity that leaves a fair % of free space, so future writes aren't wearing out the empty space too quickly. Do not fill it up and be constantly having to clear up free space, this is not a sign you need to delete temp files more often as much as a sign that you picked too small an SSD and should upgrade to a larger size.

In other words, forget everything you thought you knew and just enjoy the new system without worrying about temp files except when they get so cluttered that it looks like a mess to wade through them all, and then you'd just be deleting them for the benefit of the human recognition and aesthetics of it, like keeping a room neat instead of messy because it's easier to find things and *work* in the area. It's not cool to have so much clutter around that you lose your blow so your hookers leave. lol

 

[VirtualLarry]

It's not cool to have so much clutter around that you lose your blow so your hookers leave. lol

Good point to remember, thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

To the OP: SSDs are NOT "WORM" drives, although there are extremely high-capacity QLC drives sold to enterprise as such for WORM drive replacement applications.

The thing is, SSDs are erasable / re-writable, but not directly.

They are writable in blocks, but only erasable in collections of blocks called pages.

So, if you have a page 1, with blocks 0-7, and you write to blocks 0-3, then 4-5, then 6-7, then you want to erase 4-5, then the SSD has the take page 2, copy blocks 0-3, and 6-7 from page 1, onto page 2 blocks 0-5, and update its internal mapping tables appropriately. Then page 1 can be erased and sent to the free pool, ready to be written upon again.