HDD to Samsung SSD swap. Defrag HDD first?

[ChrisAttebery]

I have to delete about 50% of the data on my HDD to migrate over to a 840EVO. I usually run defrag weekly, but I'm sure it's going to be AFU after I delete that much data. Should I defrag the drive before I run Samsung's data migration tool?

 

[npaladin-2000]

No don't bother. It won't speed it up appreciably.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

OK. Thanks!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Mr. Paladin Have-gun-will-travel there may be absolutely right. Absolutely.

But instead of posting a thread for your question, I would simply have done the defrag as a rule of thumb before proceeding.

I'm currently contemplating a migration from accelerated HDD to an Samsung 840 Pro, which has been sitting in its retail-box here for about 3 months now. I want to know that my windows installation, software installation, event-logs and overall system stability is tip-top-posi-lutely-abso-tively-perfect before I migrate.

And at the moment, I believe I am now "there yet."

And of course -- we're all trying to avoid a complete reinstall, "Upgrade-repair" and/or rebuilding our software and driver installations from scratch.

Aren't we?

 

[Compman55]

Defrag is needed for mechanical platter drives because the speed at which the data can be read from the center of the disc vs the outer edge differs. Also if the head needs to move back and fourth a lot, there is wasted time. So yes, defrag is good for the mechanical drive, making it a tad faster for transferring. On the SSD, no difference whatsoever, as the chips are the same speed regardless of the data location.

This is the elementary version....... There are super in depth articles that explain this on HDD;s and SSD's.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Defrag is needed for mechanical platter drives because the speed at which the data can be read from the center of the disc vs the outer edge differs. Also if the head needs to move back and fourth a lot, there is wasted time. So yes, defrag is good for the mechanical drive, making it a tad faster for transferring. On the SSD, no difference whatsoever, as the chips are the same speed regardless of the data location.

This is the elementary version....... There are super in depth articles that explain this on HDD;s and SSD's.

Oh, I agree with that also 100%.

On the other hand, when cloning your HDD to an SSD and without reviewing the procedure or likelihood that something might go wrong, I'd consider the HDD installation to be a backup drive for safety, so I'd defrag it anyway.

 

[npaladin-2000]

In fact, an SSD will perform BETTER with fragmented data, as it's spread across more chips that are accessed in parallel. Theoretically anyway, in reality most files are large enough to span multiple chips regardless of fragmentation level.

Frankly, if your HDD is your backup, don't defrag it anyway. In fact, don't touch it. Leave it as-is. The more you touch it, the more possibility of it breaking.

Have SSD, will travel.

 

[code65536]

In reality, with the way SSD space is allocated and wear-leveled, a contiguous file on a SSD would not necessarily be stored as a contiguous block on the actual flash media, so defragging is mostly moot.