Summary:
Based on data storage necessity you will have to enable or disable TRIM command on SSD. To make a complete use of TRIM you need to know whether the command is enabled or disabled. This article helps you to know about TRIM and how it is useful on SSDs.
SSD has gained a wide popularity over hard disk drives due to its exceptional features. SSD’s work faster, lighter, use less energy and are more durable compared to HDDs. With TRIM on SSD, improves the performance of writing data to SSDs and contributes to longer SSD life.
Quick Navigation
4 How to Enable or Disable TRIM on an SSD in Windows?
5 How to enable SSD TRIM in command prompt?
What is TRIM on SSD?
TRIM is an advanced technology command (ATA) that enables the computer’s operating system to erase the data blocks when they are no longer used. The TRIM command allows SSD’s to manage the available storage space and improves the performance of SSD’s and speeds up the writing process on SSD.
Why is TRIM Important?
TRIM is a process by which the operating system sends a flag down to the SSD providing address of an invalid (deleted data) data that is to be cleared or erased permanently. Enabling TRIM is important because invalid data on drives might cause performance issues such as system slow down over time as the drive begins to accumulate more and more invalid data.
What if your SSD shows read only mode? You will be unable to write any data on SSD if the SSD shows read only mode. You will have to fix the problem and try working on SSD.
How TRIM Works?
- TRIM is a built-in feature that is driven by the operating system. SSD uses a unique method called Garbage Collection to handle invalid data.
- Garbage Collection manages and maintains the available storage space. Garbage Collection handles the disparity between the erase block and the read/write block.
- When a previously written block is targeted for garbage collection, the valid data pages are moved to another block on the SSD so that the block containing the old, invalid data pages can be erased.
- SSD TRIM is complementary to garbage collection. TRIM eliminates any unnecessary copying of invalid data pages during the garbage collection process to save time and improve SSD performance.
Therefore, if you have deleted or formatted the SSD drives when TRIM is enabled, it is clearly not possible to recover data from the SSD. However, you can verify and check whether TRIM is enabled before the recovery process.
How to Enable or Disable TRIM on an SSD in Windows?
Before enabling or disabling the TRIM on SSDs, you need to check the status of the TRIM.
Check if TRIM command is enabled or disabled
Most of the SSDs come with the TRIM function enabled by default. However, there’s no loss in verifying if TRIM is enabled on your SSD
Step 1: Right-click on the start button, select Command → Run as Administrator
Step 2: Type the displayed command: fsutil behavior query disabledeleteNotify and hit enter
Step 3: if the command displays DisableDeleteNotify=0, TRIM is enabled on the computer.
If the value is DisableDeleteNotify=1, TRIM is disabled.
How to enable SSD TRIM in command prompt?
Step 1: Right-click on the start button, select Command Prompt → Run as Administrator
Step2: Type the command: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify=0 and press enter
Step3: When TRIM gets enabled DisableDeleteNotify=0 is displayed.
How to disable TRIM on SSD?
Step 1: Right-click on the start button, select Command Prompt → Run as Administrator
Step2: Type the command: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify=1 and press enter
With TRIM disabled on your computer, you can recover data from deleted or formatted SSD drives.
Bottom Line:
Enabling or Disabling TRIM has its own advantages and disadvantages. Although Enabling TRIM ensures the excellent performance of SSDs, if the data is lost from the SSD when TRIM enabled you will lose data from the drive forever.
However, disabling TRIM might hinder your SSD performance but the chance of recovering deleted or lost data from the SSD is made possible. Therefore, depending upon your priority you can make your choice with the TRIM command on the SSD.