Read Vs. Write?

[andrewboon]

I am very nooby when it comes to computers and I just received my first SSD (Crucial M4 64GB).

I heard that writing to a SSD a lot can lower its life, so I was wondering what exactly is a read and a write? If I move a folder from my external hard drive and put it into my SSD, would that count as a write? Would reading be simply just opening a folder that is already in the SSD? That's all the knowledge I have on read and write. I would appreciate your thoughts! Thanks

 

[BrightCandle]

Correct. A read is simply moving the contents of the file into RAM and then viewing it or running. Every time you run a program you have to read the exe off the drive, everytime you open a document in an editor it reads the file in.

A write is when new information is stored. Copying a file onto the drive is one example, as is changing a document and then saving it.

But don't worry about the so called endurance problems on SSDs, you are not going to hit it before the drive becomes completely obsolete.

 

[Hulk]

Writes are when you put new data on the SSD. Reads are when the drive simply reads data that has been already written previously. Yes, opening a folder is a read and moving a file to your SSD is a write.

Don't worry about wearing out your drive with normal day-to-day use. It won't happen. Unless you are writing GB's per day you won't have an issue.

 

[andrewboon]

Okay thank you both for your replies!

 

[razel]

Most importantly is for you to NOT WORRY about wearing out an SSD. Chances are you will upgrade before you even get close to wearing it out. Also your Crucial has excellent warranty. So just use it.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

You should forget that you ever heard that you could ever possibly wear out your SSD. Seriously, completely forget you ever heard it.

 

[kmmatney]

You should forget that you ever heard that you could ever possibly wear out your SSD. Seriously, completely forget you ever heard it.

I don't disagree, but I've still moved some of my temp folders to a RAM drive. Besides niot writing constant temp files to the SSD, it is also faster.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I don't disagree, but I've still moved some of my temp folders to a RAM drive. [size=+1]Besides not writing constant temp files to the SSD[/size], it is also faster.

There is zero reason to try to avoid writing (even constantly writing) temp files to your SSD. This is what an SSD is good at. Graduating to a RAM disk, sure, that's going to be faster, but gaining speed is the only reason to ever even muck with it.