Does running low on SSD space (around 8GB free space left)..
August 6th, 2016
I’m currently editing videos, and they took up a hella huge chunk of the space of my 240GB SSD.
It won’t hurt it but it will make it a lot slower on writes.
Finding free space for files is more important on SSd than a HD, and they need more free space per file than a HD (even if they save the same file).
8 Gig should be OK though – I think you’ll see performance drops when you get to 1 G.
Others think differently:
Don’t Fill Them to Capacity
You should leave some free space on your solid-state drive or its write performance will slow down dramatically. This may be surprising, but it’s actually fairly simple to understand.
When an SSD has a lot of free space, it has a lot of empty blocks. When you go to write a file, it writes that file’s data into the empty blocks.
When an SSD has little free space, it has a lot of partially filled blocks. When you go to write a file, it will have to read the partially filled block into its cache, modify the partially-filled block with the new data, and then write it back to the hard drive. This will need to happen with every block the file must be written to.
In other words, writing to an empty block is fairly quick, but writing to a partially-filled block involves reading the partially-filled block, modifying its value, and then writing it back. Repeat this many, many times for each file you write to the drive as the file will likely consume many blocks.
As a result of its benchmarks, Anandtech recommends that you “plan on using only about 75% of its capacity if you want a good balance between performance consistency and capacity.” In other words, set aside 25% of your drive and don’t write to it. Only use up to 75% of your drive’s free space and you should maintain ideal performance. You’ll see write performance start to slow down as you go above that mark.
It won't hurt it but it will make it a lot slower on writes.
Finding free space for files is more important on SSd than a HD, and they need more free space per file than a HD (even if they save the same file).
8 Gig should be OK though - I think you'll see performance drops when you get to 1 G.
Others think differently:
Don’t Fill Them to Capacity
You should leave some free space on your solid-state drive or its write performance will slow down dramatically. This may be surprising, but it’s actually fairly simple to understand.
When an SSD has a lot of free space, it has a lot of empty blocks. When you go to write a file, it writes that file’s data into the empty blocks.
When an SSD has little free space, it has a lot of partially filled blocks. When you go to write a file, it will have to read the partially filled block into its cache, modify the partially-filled block with the new data, and then write it back to the hard drive. This will need to happen with every block the file must be written to.
In other words, writing to an empty block is fairly quick, but writing to a partially-filled block involves reading the partially-filled block, modifying its value, and then writing it back. Repeat this many, many times for each file you write to the drive as the file will likely consume many blocks.
As a result of its benchmarks, Anandtech recommends that you “plan on using only about 75% of its capacity if you want a good balance between performance consistency and capacity.” In other words, set aside 25% of your drive and don’t write to it. Only use up to 75% of your drive’s free space and you should maintain ideal performance. You’ll see write performance start to slow down as you go above that mark.
I was thinking, since SSD’s lifespan depends on the amount of read/write reccuring (about 10,000 cycles) that it uses up the unused space to do those tasks, and since having such low amount of space can result in SSD failure much more quickly than if it had lots of space.
Good lord. Check this for the 120G Samsung EVO 840 – expect about 8 years at 50G per day.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7173/samsung-ssd-840-evo-review-120gb-250gb-500gb-750gb-1tb-models-tested/3
Bigger drives have longer lifespans.
So … look in your computer and count the drives you still have in use say even after 5 years – 0 here as drive capacities have increased dramatically.
I wouldn’t be worried.
nope, you’ll be fine.
nope, you'll be fine.
Wrong! the drive will be fine, however he will experience severe slowdowns before long, issues with temp files to say the least, just out of curiosity are you clearing all the temp crap.
If you are using Win 8.1, you can move enough stuff to other partitions to operate at under 8GB (actually under 7gb) on C:\ .
It does somewhat lower the lifespan. But the thing to notice is that… You will most likely be upgrading to an much faster drive before it die. Do what you got to do and dont worry about the lifespan. It wont die on you in an year or 2 (unless its cheap brand). My ssd go down to the extreme from times to times and sometime stay at it for an few weeks. It has been almost 3 years now and the ssd is still running strong with no sign of slowing down. Still waiting patiently for it to die so I can upgrade to an 850 1tb.
nope, you'll be fine.
Wrong!
Does running low on SSD space (around 8GB free space left)..
which is the OP’s question so I said:
nope, you'll be fine.
which in theory; is correct.
as said , life span depends on write , basically when u fill all 232 gb , the temporary read and writes system and other things does will happen at 8 gb area so theoratically it will fasten the happening of bad sectors at that part , which will effect SMART later. but i wouldnt worry much about that. the main thing is performance drop when u filled your ssd. this slowdowns change depend on brand and depend on model of that brand. ocz are more durable to work under heavyload as far as i know.