SSD secure erase tools provide access to a hardware-based Secure Erase routine during which the SSD’s controller ensures that all the storage, including the areas not normally directly accessible, can be wiped clean. These areas include blocks that have been marked as bad, or overprovisioning and wear-leveling blocks. If an SSD contains sensitive information and needs to be disposed of or reused, it is sensible to erase the data on it first.The problem is that many HDD software tools that delete data by overwriting a drive multiple times cannot access all the storage areas on an SSD. Conversely, the space taken up by garbage collection and other performance-related features means less storage on the SSD, but it also means improved performance and longer drive life. By reducing the amount of overprovisioning that is set, you increase the storage amount available on the drive but decrease its performance. The amount of overprovisioning in an SSD is usually set at the factory, but SSD overprovisioning tools allow this to be changed. Since data stored on an SSD is frequently moved around for wear leveling and garbage collection purposed, the SSD itself is “overprovisioned.” This means that there is actually more storage space available than is advertised by the SSD.This extra space is used as a staging area so that the process of moving data around can be carried out more quickly and efficiently.

Health tools monitor the overall health of the SSD and predict when it is nearing the end of its life. SSD health tools can monitor the amount of wear that the NAND cells are experiencing and the amount of error correction that needs to be applied. This is called “wear leveling,” and is carried out to prevent some cells being used so frequently that they wear out and become unusable early in the life of the SSD. This ensures that the individual NAND cells are all used as evenly as possible. This can have a marked effect on the drive’s performance.Many tools allow users to optimize or tune their SSD for different requirements, so that, for example, they can increase performance while losing some storage capacity, or maximizing storage capacity at the cost of performance and reliability.Īlso read: Best SSD Benchmark Tools Type 1: SSD Wear Leveling Toolsĭuring garbage collection, data can be transferred to new areas of the SSD. SSD tools enable users to vary when the SSD controller carries out garbage collection and other parameters. Be aware that different vendors may have slightly different terminology for these tools. Before you buy, read the software’s description carefully to see if the features you need are included.

Not every piece of SSD health check software has all of the following types of features included. While the most effective health check software is often free and provided by the SSD manufacturers themselves, there are additional SSD health check tools that can be used with any solid state drive.Īlso read: Best & Fastest SSDs of 2021 Types of SSD Health Check Tools When the data stored on them reaches around 70% of the total capacity, performance noticeably declines. However, over time, as they fill up, the performance of SSDs can decrease dramatically. Solid state drives offer blisteringly fast disk performance compared to conventional hard disk drives (HDDs), especially when they are new. Utilizing an SSD health check tool will allow you to minimize slowdown and optimize performance. The purpose of an SSD health check it to monitor the status of your solid state drive and identify issues that need to be addressed. Why Is It Important to Monitor SSD Health?.Health check tools reveal maintenance data like needed updates, benchmark information, and drive failure. SSDs store data for critical applications and high-performance workloads, and enterprises need them to perform consistently and reliably. SSD test tools play an important role in monitoring the health and performance of today’s solid state drives.

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