SSDs replaced hard drives as primary storage for multiple reasons. They're significantly faster, which makes almost everything you do on your PC way more responsive. They don't contain any moving parts, which eliminates noise and mechanical wear. And they're thin and compact, which reduces cable clutter inside your PC. That said, SSDs aren't perfect; over time, they can start to exhibit sluggish performance. You may notice boot times getting slightly longer, applications taking longer to launch, and file transfers slowing down. Due to the way SSDs store and manage data on NAND flash, the drive can struggle to maintain the same performance as free space starts becoming a luxury. Low-level maintenance operations start taking a toll on the performance, making your system feel sluggish. However, you can try a built-in fix to restore performance before thinking about replacing the SSD.

Your SSD gets slower as it fills up

"I am inevitable"

Whenever your SSD needs to write new data to the flash memory, it needs empty blocks (no partials). When it's brand-new, it has an abundance of empty blocks to store new data, which is why everything feels snappy. As time goes on, however, the number of empty blocks goes down, and the drive spends more time finding empty cells or clearing partially filled cells by moving the data elsewhere. This process is called garbage collection, and is one of the most important low-level operations that keeps your SSD feeling fast for a long time. Garbage collection is a routine process that keeps shifting data around in the background, but a lack of enough vacant blocks forces it to take much longer. It can also occur during drive writes sometimes. This naturally increases the latency when writing new data to the drive, making the system feel slower with time.

An SSD that's almost full leads to unnecessary low-level writes as it struggles to relocate data to create vacant blocks. This can lead to write amplification, which can degrade the drive's lifespan over time. Hence, it's inevitable that your brand-new SSD will start feeling slower in a few years. It's a by-product of the way SSDs store data, but thankfully, you don't need to chew through multiple SSDs to keep your PC feeling new and responsive.

Ensure TRIM is enabled

It should be, but it doesn't hurt to check

You don't need to rely on third-party tools to restore your SSD's performance. There's a built-in Windows command called TRIM that informs the SSD about which blocks can be safely erased. This aids the garbage collection process, since the SSD doesn't need to hunt for empty blocks during drive writes. The TRIM command flags these blocks early, helping the drive separate invalid blocks from the valid ones. And as I mentioned earlier, more efficient garbage collection reduces unnecessary drive writes. TRIM helps in this department as well, extending your SSD's lifespan. Although TRIM is enabled on Windows and almost all Linux systems by default, it might be disabled on your system due to an unforeseen error.

You can check if TRIM is enabled on your Windows PC by entering the command "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify' in an elevated Command Prompt window. If the result is "DisableDeleteNotify = 0", then TRIM is already enabled and functioning. If not, you can enable it by entering the command "fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0".

Alternatively, you can check whether Windows is already running the TRIM command, i.e., optimizing your SSD, by checking the "Properties > Tools" section of your boot partition. Click the "Optimize" button and check whether "Scheduled optimization" is "ON." If it is, then you don't need to do anything else. You could manually optimize your SSD if the "Current status" shows that the drive hasn't been optimized in months.

Try to keep around 15% of your drive empty

You'll enjoy a snappy SSD for longer

SSDs need breathing room to maintain snappy performance. If your SSD is over 90% full, it will struggle to run garbage collection efficiently, and eat into the performance. Keeping around 10–15% of your drive free ensures that there is always a sufficient number of empty blocks for garbage collection to work as intended. It can seem wasteful, but on a 2TB drive with 1.8TB of usable space, that amounts to only around 180–270GB. By avoiding filling up your SSD to the brim, you are improving performance, extending drive lifespan, and still enjoying most of the capacity of your SSD.

You could also consider buying SSDs with DRAM cache. Thanks to a dedicated DRAM chip on the drive, these drives are more adept at garbage collection, since they keep track of the mapping tables on the drive. The drive controller is informed about valid and invalid cells, optimizing performance and longevity. SSDs with DRAM are usually not much more expensive than DRAM-less drives, so you aren't spending a premium for the feature.

Your SSD loves TRIM and some free space

Over time, your SSD loses some of its performance as it runs out of free space. Garbage collection becomes suboptimal as the drive struggles to find empty blocks to distribute data around. The TRIM command aids your SSD's garbage collection capabilities, but it could be disabled on your PC. Ensuring TRIM is running and keeping a portion of your drive empty can help you enjoy a faster drive for longer, delaying needless upgrades.