Today we will talk about the so-called TRIM function and its connection with SSD solid-state drives.

The TRIM function is needed to avoid performance degradation in, and has appeared since Windows 7. Now I will explain in more detail how TRIM works and how to check if it is enabled on the computer.

What is TRIM?

First, let's look at the HDD (regular hard drive with moving parts). Most file systems are now designed specifically for HDDs and there is the following type of data processing: we have a file that we decide to write to the hard drive, the system writes data about the file to a cluster stored on the disk, and the coordinates of this file are recorded in an address table called MFT(Master File Table). To access this data, the system takes coordinates from the MFT. When we delete a file, the data is deleted from the MFT, but not erased from the cell (cluster). After we decide to write other files to the disk, maybe new ones, the data is written to cells on top of the deleted ones.

This type of recording to a drive is in no way suitable for SSDs, since they are developed using a different technology. The drives use flash memory and writing data over deleted data is not allowed here. In other words, unnecessary actions would be performed that would load the SSD drive: first, data is copied from the cluster to the cache, then the cluster is cleared, and new information begins to be written on top of the old one. If there is nothing in the cell, that is, it is empty, then only recording occurs. It is clear that when writing information to an empty cell, this happens many times faster than unnecessary actions, such as overwriting and replacing old data. Under such circumstances, the SSD drive would lose its original speed.

Fortunately, we have TRIM technology that solves this problem. In simple words, as soon as the data from the MFT is erased, it will be deleted from the cells, and then new data will be written.

By the way, there are also older SSD drives that do not support TRIM; they were simply created for older operating systems that did not have this function.

TRIM requires the following conditions to work:

• Availability of drives that support TRIM;
• An OS that supports TRIM. This is in Windows 7;

You also need to have the Microsoft Storage driver installed, but usually it is installed automatically, if, of course, the SATA controller supports AHCI mode. Also TRIM will not work if the function is active and if you are using .

TRIM works not only on Windows, but also on Linux. You must have kernel version 2.6.33 or higher.

To check the activity of the AHCI mode for the SATA controller, you need to go to the device manager and expand the tab "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers", or something similar.

How to check if the TRIM function is enabled, and if not, how to enable it?

First, we will check the activity of this function. Open the command line as administrator and enter the command there:

If the value is 0, then the TRIM function is enabled, and if it is 1, then it is disabled.

Do we enable the TRIM function?

Yes, everything is very simple here, we again open the command line as administrator and enter the following command:

Now you can check the functionality of the function again.

I think we can end this article here, if you have an SSD drive, then it’s a good idea to know the definition of TRIM, especially before purchasing a drive you should make sure that this function is supported, otherwise the service life of the disk without it will decrease sharply, and the speed will be so to yourself.

First in Windows Server, and now Windows 10 has a modern REFS (Resilient) file system File System), in which you can format computer hard drives or disk spaces created by system tools.

This article is about what the REFS file system is, its differences from NTFS and possible applications for the average home user.

In addition to functions related to maintaining data integrity on disks, REFS has the following main differences from file NTFS systems:

• Typically better performance, especially when using Storage Spaces.
• The theoretical volume size is 262144 exabytes (versus 16 for NTFS).
• No file path limit of 255 characters (in REFS - 32768 characters).
• REFS does not support DOS file names (i.e. accessing the folder C:\Program Files\ on the way C:\progra~1\ it won't work). In NTFS, this feature was retained for compatibility with older software.
• REFS does not support compression, additional attributes, or file system encryption (NTFS has this, but it works for REFS).

At the moment, it is not possible to format a system disk in REFS, the function is available only for non-system disks (not supported for removable disks), as well as for Storage Spaces, and, perhaps, only the last option can be truly useful for regular user, who is concerned about the safety of data.

Please note that after formatting a disk in the REFS file system, part of the space on it will immediately be occupied by control data: for example, for an empty 10 GB disk this is about 700 MB.

Perhaps in the future REFS could become mainstream file system on Windows, however at the moment this did not happen. Official information on the file system on the Microsoft website:

TRIM is a "garbage collection" feature on SSD drives.

When a file is written to a hard drive, the operating system writes the coordinates of this file into a special table on the disk - MFT (Master File Table), thereby informing the system exact location clusters with the required data.

When a file is deleted, the system erases its address from this table without touching the file itself, and when a new file is written, it is written over the old one.

This happens on HDD hard drives, but for SSDs it is necessary, in addition to deleting the entry in the MFT, to delete the file itself from the flash memory cells (a NAND feature).

This is where TRIM comes to the rescue, all of whose work comes down to deleting data from memory cells when the record about them is erased from the MFT, thereby increasing the write speed and significantly reducing the number of rewrite cycles.

Conditions under which TRIM will work:

The SSD drive controller must support the TRIM command,
- this function must be enabled in the operating system,
- the AHCI mode of the disk controller is activated.

In Windows OS (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 8), as well as in Linux starting from kernel version 2.6.33, this function is enabled.
It should install automatically if your SSD is running in AHCI mode.

Check what for SATA controller The BIOS is set to AHCI mode.
You can also verify this in the “Device Manager”.

To check whether TRIM is active in Windows:

Click the "Start" button
cmd

- in the command line window enter: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify and press
- if the answer is “0”, then TRIM is enabled
- if “1” - disabled.

To enable TRIM you need to:

Click the "Start" button
- enter the line in the search field: cmd
- on cmd.exe, click with the right mouse button and select “Run as administrator”
- V command line enter: fsutil behavior query|set DisableDeleteNotify = 0 and press .

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Solid state drives have become increasingly popular over the past couple of years. It's also likely that you've read or at least heard someone talk about how fast an SSD (solid state drive) compares to traditional hard drives. If you already use one or are looking to buy an SSD to improve your computer's performance, you should know that TRIM support is essential. What is SSD TRIM, why is it important for SSDs, and how do you check if it's enabled in Windows? You can find answers to these questions in this guide.

What is TRIM for SSD drives?

TRIM is a command that the operating system can use to tell a solid-state drive (SSD) which blocks of data are no longer needed and can be deleted or marked as free to be overwritten. In other words, TRIM is a command that helps the operating system know exactly where the data you want to move or delete is stored. This way, the SSD can only access blocks that contain data. Additionally, whenever a delete command is issued by the user or the operating system, the TRIM command immediately destroys the pages or blocks where the files are stored. This means that the next time the operating system tries to write new data to this area, it does not have to wait to delete it first.

Let's dive into this concept: To understand what TRIM is and what it is you first need to know, how SSDs work and how they process the information stored on them.

A Solid State Drive is nothing but a device full of flash memory chips. The operating system must be able to read and process data on these chips. To do this, the SSD must have a way to organize this data. The information stored on the SSD is divided into data blocks. These blocks are in turn divided into data pages. To better demonstrate, imagine the SSD as a library. There are many shelves in the library, and these shelves are filled with books.

However, what happens when you no longer want to keep one of these books? Say you want to sell it or lend it to a friend. It would seem that all you need to do is remove the book from this shelf. Well, if your library is a solid state drive, things won't work that way. On an SSD, if you decide to delete some data, it doesn't matter if it only takes up a page from the block. The entire block will need to be removed! All information on other pages has moved to temporary buffer memory and will then return to the original block. It's like emptying an entire shelf from your library when you want to check out a book or replace it with a new one. Then you will need to return all the other books to their places. It's not effective!

In conclusion, for a solid state drive to write new data in previously occupied space, you must first erase it completely. Doing this every time you move or delete data on your SSD results in performance degradation for data write speed.

Why is TRIM useful for SSD drives?

You already know that when deleting and overwriting data, a solid state drive that does not use TRIM must partially move a significant portion of the information, destroy any blocks containing it, and finally write new data to those blocks. On the one hand, this means that the device's performance is low. On the other hand, this means that the SSD does a lot of erasing and rewriting. All of them accumulate and cause rapid wear of the flash memory chips that are located inside the SSD.

TRIM ensures that both of these problems are prevented by eliminating the need to constantly erase and rewrite large chunks of memory. Instead of managing entire blocks, a TRIM-enabled SSD can operate on smaller clusters of memory called pages. Moreover, whenever a delete command is issued by the operating system or user, the SSD automatically sends a TRIM command to erase the erased space. This provides more fast speed records when saving new data in this area.

How to Check if Windows TRIM is Enabled for Your SSD

If you want to check whether TRIM is enabled or disabled on your SSD, you must use the command line. Fast way run it - use search.

Then, in the Command Prompt window, enter the following command: fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify.

Press Enter on your keyboard and after a short time a message will appear on the command line containing one of these two options:

• “NTFS DisableDeleteNotify = 0” means that the TRIM function is enabled on your SSD.
• “NTFS DisableDeleteNotify = 1” means that the TRIM function is disabled on your SSD.

NOTE. You may have noticed that on our test PC, which is running Windows 10, the above command also produced a different response: "ReFS DisableDeleteNotify is not currently installed." This is nothing to worry about and means that the TRIM feature is automatically enabled if you connect an SSD that uses ReFS. ReFS, also known as Resilient File System, is a proprietary file system Microsoft system, which is not typically used on Windows home PCs.

How to enable SSD TRIM on Windows

If you ran the command to find out whether TRIM is enabled or not on your Windows PC and you find that it is disabled, you can enable it. To do this, you need to open the command prompt as an administrator, enter the following command: fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0 and press Enter on your keyboard.

If you receive the message "NTFS DisableDeleteNotify=0", it means that TRIM has been enabled on your SSD.

How to disable SSD TRIM in Windows

Although there is no reason to do so, if you want to disable TRIM on your Windows PC, you can do that too. Open a command prompt as an administrator, enter the command: fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1 and press Enter on your keyboard.

If you receive the message "NTFS DisableDeleteNotify=1", it means TRIM is disabled on your SSD.

Recently, an increasing number of laptop manufacturers and users desktop computers are allocated a separate one for installing the Windows operating system. It allows the system to boot much faster thanks to its solid-state architecture.

But to SSD drive you need your own approach. It is necessary to operate correctly, including paying attention to the TRIM command. In this article, we will consider what TRIM is and how it affects SSD operation, and how to check whether this functionality is enabled in Windows or not.

What is TRIM for SSD

One of the problems with SSD drives is their fragility, especially if used incorrectly. The user can always conduct testing to find out how long the solid-state drive will last him, after which he can save the data in time and transfer it to new disk. But it’s better to delay as much as possible the day when the SSD becomes unusable.

The TRIM function allows you to extend the life of your SSD. This command performs a complete cleaning of data storage cells when deleting information. Thus, when writing new information, it is immediately written to the free space, rather than waiting for the preliminary deletion of information previously placed in the cells. As you know, when a user deletes data from a computer, it is first marked as unused, rather than immediately erased from the partition.

On Windows operating systems starting with Windows 7, Microsoft enables the TRIM feature for SSDs by default. But if some specialized assembly is installed on the computer, then this may not be the case. Accordingly, if you do not enable the TRIM function for the SSD in time, the solid-state drive will not last as long as it could, and its operating speed will be somewhat lower.

Important: If you have the IDE operating mode set in your BIOS or UEFI, you need to switch the emulation mode to AHCI for the TRIM command to function correctly. This will allow the TRIM function to work without restrictions.

How to Find Out If TRIM Is Enabled in Windows

As noted above, in some Windows versions The TRIM command is enabled by default. Through the command line running in administrator mode, you can check whether TRIM is running on your computer:

1. To do this, first run Command Prompt as a computer administrator. The easiest way to do this is to find the utility in the search, click on it right click mouse and select the “Run as administrator” option;
2. After launching the command prompt, run the following command in it:

When you run this command, you will see two results. The first indicates whether TRIM support is enabled for the NTFS file system, and the second for the ReFS file system. If set to “0”, this indicates that the TRIM function is enabled and working. If the value is “1”, the function does not work.

Please note: In some cases, next to the file system indication, there may be an inscription “not installed”. This indicates that there is currently no drive that is set to TRIM with the specified file system type. But when connecting a drive of this type, the TRIM command will be enabled.

How to enable TRIM on Windows

If the TRIM function is disabled and your computer has an SSD drive, it is recommended to activate it. This can be done in the operating room. Windows system in a couple of clicks:

If necessary, the TRIM command can be enabled manually. To do this, you need to run the following command on the command line:

Fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify NTFS 0

This command will enable TRIM for all SSD drives with the NTFS file system.

If you need to enable TRIM for everyone solid state drives with the ReFS file system, you need to use the command:

Fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify ReFS 0

Please note: If you need to forcibly disable TRIM, you need to execute the above commands, but instead of “0” use the value “1”.

It is important to note that the option discussed above is how to enable TRIM support for SSDs on computers where this option is included in operating system. This is relevant for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10. If you need to activate TRIM on earlier versions, you can use specialized applications for this, for example, SSD Toolbox or 0&0 Defrag.