System restore defrag every 28 days

[Adelan1]

Hei , I newly came over this http://www.ghacks.net/2015/01/20/windows-ssds-and-defragmentation-the-definitive-answer/

SSDs are defragmented every 28 days on Windows 8 and newer if Volume Snapshots are enabled (the feature is used by System Restore and thus enabled by default) on the system.

After this , I became sceptical about using System restore as it will defrag my SSD.

Should I turn System restore off ?

 

[razel]

On your own system, check what it says on the defragment/optimize windows. If it says SSD you are fine. Feel free to hit the Defrag/Optimize button and see what happens. When it begins working, chances are you'll see it say, 'TRIM' at some point and not a 'defrag'

 

[SSBrain]

File system fragmentation can cause a degradation of system performance, even on an SSD. Contrarily to hard disks though, that's not directly due to the data being physically fragmented on the NAND, but due to logical fragmentation on the file system causing additional I/O operations from the operating system (host), which increases overhead. In practice, this does take much longer than hard disks before starts being noticeable, though.

I did some tests myself to check this out:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37091621&postcount=34

Given that Windows 8.x doesn't do it very often, that defragmentation doesn't cause such an alarming amount of writes (if file system fragmentation is within normal levels) and that SSDs are way more durable than people generally think, I would leave that alone.

On your own system, check what it says on the defragment/optimize windows. If it says SSD you are fine. Feel free to hit the Defrag/Optimize button and see what happens. When it begins working, chances are you'll see it say, 'TRIM' at some point and not a 'defrag'

You're misunderstanding the issue (not actually an issue, though). Windows will defragment SSDs on a more or less regular schedule (about monthly) regardless of user settings in the defragment/optimize window. Also, clicking the defrag/Optimize button will perform trim on the available free space, regardless of this. Try reading the source provided by the OP for more information.

This was the original blogpost: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheRealAndCompleteStoryDoesWindowsDefragmentYourSSD.aspx

This was the best one on this matter before it was found out that periodical system fragmentation, even on an SSD, is the intended behavior on Windows 8: http://www.outsidethebox.ms/why-windows-8-defragments-your-ssd-and-how-you-can-avoid-this/

 

[BonzaiDuck]

So . . . If Win 8 does it automatically, I should check every 28 days (a month) to see if it needs it in Windows 7?

 

[SSBrain]

On SSDs it's more of a long run concern. You shouldn't have to check that out yourself on a regular basis unless you know that your usage patterns are causing significant file system fragmentation. Just keep in mind that on a logical level both the SSD and the operating system aren't immune to fragmentation, so disabling built-in checks and forgetting about them can eventually cause issues, even if that will save the SSD some writes (though not a huge amount over its life).