SSD Hardrive

[norton]

Is CCleaner safe to use on a solid state hardrive?

 

If so any precautions that need to be taken?

 

 

Thanks

 

Norton

[Andavari]

Some useful info by forum member Aethec in this post that was asking the same thing you wish to know:

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=29437&do=findComment&comment=175889

[Augeas]

Except that the thread is nearly five years old, and time (and operating systems) have moved on. We now have TRIM, Win 7 and 8, and SSD optimise functions. Although the general advice in the thread is fine, I'm sure that I would modify my comment today.

[norton]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Reading the attachment it looks to me like cleaning cookies/temp files on SSD's is something that needs to done with caution. Am I right in this interpretation?

 

I would be interested in further comments.

 

Thanks

 

N

[Augeas]

Not much more caution than running CC against an HDD. When you run CC is up to personal taste, but I run it say every three or four days, and I find I have around 150 to 250 mb to clean. The idea behind not running CC obsessively is that browsing uses. or tries to use, previously loaded content, so downloads are faster (not that I've noticed any difference).

 

The idea that frequent clearing of browser content etc will shorten the life of flash storage is gathering the same mythological status as that other canard, Guttmann. Technically it will, but from a very, very, very long time to a very, very long time. I suppose somebody has had a flash device wear out, but I've never heard of it. I've hammered a 256k flash drive for years with no problem. Well, I lost it, so I suppose that is a problem.

 

Take a nand flash storage device with a low cell life cycle, say 3,000 writes (reads don't hurt flash). Lets imagine the device has a convenient 365 gb of storage, not an excessive amount these days. You could, in theory, write 1gb a day for a year. The device would then last for 3,000 years. OK, you write far more than that, say 10 gb a day, so we're down to 300 years. And the write process involves an empty the block then write data process, so lets say that each write is actually two writes. 150 years. And the device is cheap rubbish so 50% of it dies before you do. 75 years. And all that I've written is actually ten times worse in real life. You're still left with a life of 7.5 years - you probably won't have your pc that long.

 

You just have to have a sense of proportion. If I had an SSD I would run CC just as I do now, every few days. And writing around 50 mb a day temporary files my SSD would last er, just under 60 thousand years.

[norton]

Thanks Augeas for this very informative theories. I will take your advise and install CCleaner on my new computer.

 

Thanks