Installing an ssd in a computer question.

I recently installed a 120Gb ssd in a computer, I installed Windows 7 on that and I was using a 1TB HDD for programs and data.

A couple of programs that I intended to install on the 1TB drive didn't give me an option as to where to install they just automatically went the default C: Drive, grrr!

Now I keep reading things like never defrag an SSD and I also read you need certain software to delete/wipe files because as most of you know an SSD is different to a HDD in the way files are stored.

So to my question, with a normal HDD I/we can load files and delete them move files around and do disk clean ups etc but with a SSD it seems this is a bit of a no no, so this got me thinking, OK they are faster than a HDD but if we try to do what we can do on a HDD it can ruin the drive and they have a short life too from what I have read, so are they worth it?

I took the SSD out of my PC now and I just use the 1TB HDD, but I have the SSD sat there with Windows 7 loaded, I have a drive caddy that holds an SSD so I was thinking of wiping it when I get the program to do it.

Another question, what do people do that have installed an SSD on their laptop when they want to delete files like they did with their old HDD, if doing it wrong can ruin or shorten it's life then it is going to be expensive so how does that all work?

You can move around and delete files on the SSD just like a hard drive, and the last generation or two of SSDs will last about as long as a hard drive, if not longer, under normal use. Basically you would need to be writing to and deleting from all areas of a SSD 24/7/365 to wear one out in under a few years. As most of us aren't doing this, it isn't something to worry about (that said, as with a hard drive, you should still have back ups of your important data).

https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead

As far as defragging, no, you don't need to do it like you would with a hard drive. Defragging also isn't going to kill the drive if it is done once in a while either, but it just adds wear and tear without any benefit. The position of files on a SSD doesn't matter the way it does on a hard drive, and in fact, the OS really doesn't know which flash modules the drive has saved a given file to.

So basically install your SSD and don't worry about ruining it!

Well I tried to format the SSD but for some reason nothing was happening, all I got was the light flashing on the drive caddy, I retried it again and this time the SSD shown up with 5 different drive letters, one said system information or something and one of the others looked normal with data stored on it the others were blank.

I looked online and read posts saying not to use the Windows software to format an SSD but to use a program called Secure Erase, which I'm downloading now, it cost me £5 too by the way.

You shouldn't need to use any other software to format the drive when installing Windows 7 or later. I have always just let Windows format the entire SSD when doing a clean install, and it worked fine each time. From within Windows I have also not had any troubles using the Windows Disk Management to format SSDs.

What specific SSD are you using?

I'm not installing Windows 7.

I already have Windows 7 on the SSD which I have removed from the PC and have it in a drive caddy, I wanted to erase the SSD.

Any way moving on, I managed it by using the Windows format method, the reason it didn't do it before was I had the format set for NFTS, as soon as I set it for the Default it formatted the drive in a second.

Thanks for your help too by the way.