New workstation with SSD & Spinner

[Terry Evans]

So I received my new Dell 7020 with 256G SSD & 1TB Spinny Thingy.

Everything is installed on the SSD & the 1TB is empty.

This is my first SSD, so just wondering what you install on each drive.  Are programs usually installed on the SSD and data, documents and pics on the old school drive?  Is there a "typical" or standard thought process?

Thanks for any feedback.

[Jeff Golas]

The mechanical is intended for your libraries, like music, pictures, etc - things that take up tons of space. Programs should be installed on the SSD.

[Jeff Zylstra]

So what is the advice for SSDs on defragmenting the hard drive?  I have heard that is taboo and can harm SSD drives, but I have not changed the standard Windows defrag tasks in task scheduler.  Is this true, and should I be changing this?

[Jeff Golas]

Absolutely not needed. The whole defragment process had to do with mechanical drives and the linear fashion in which the data is stored on them. In SSDs, its like going back to core memory where everything is stored flat and there's no difference in speed accessing section 1 vs section 2.

The reason to shut off defragging is that since its unnecessary, you are not only wasting time running it, but you're also creating wear and tear by running it (SSDs have a finite lifespan) and supposedly in some cases that can drastically decrease the lifespan.

[Joshua Conner]

I thought windows knew when it was an ssd and disabled automagically.