Question on my SSD usage - I've defragged manually!!!

[idata]

I have an Intel 310 80 g SSD. Installed in Feb 2011 on a laptop with Windows Pro, 64 bit. Well I didn't receive anything on my SSD and I've defragged a few times (because this is what I used to do with the standard HD). The most recent defrag was last week. Did this because my SSD was humming away like crazy the last few months. I was told not to do a ckdisk. So I didn't. I went to update my Garmin GPS and was having trouble loading the data. Called them and bottom line I did not have enough space on my SSD to load the file. He had me check my HD storage and it was almost used up. I have 80G and believe me, my usage should not have used half of that. Well he had me do a scan disk and it freed up enough space to download my Gamin update. Since then I have gone to many sites on how to locate big files so I can delete. I've been doing this and deleting like mad but have found no files that should take up that much space.

So my computer friend tells me about the Intel ToolBox. Did it today, all is good but I have only 9.4 G free and 64.9 used. So I started googling about what could be wrong - and have seen that defragging a SSD can be real trouble.

Short of doing the secure erase and starting over (one of the suggestions) any suggestion on what I can do or if that is my problem?

Thanks

[DShar11]

Best option is to SE the drive. After that just monitor it from the toolbox, and of course do not defrag it again.

[idata]

Have a look at these two articles:

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/techfiles/Cleaning-Up-After-Windows.html http://www.helpwithwindows.com/techfiles/Cleaning-Up-After-Windows.html

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/Windows7/Optimize-Windows-7-for-use-with-Solid-State-Drive.html http://www.helpwithwindows.com/Windows7/Optimize-Windows-7-for-use-with-Solid-State-Drive.html

Windows XP is not the best option for running on an SSD drive.

[idata]

Trial Software "FolderInfo" will search for folders/files over a specific size.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/FolderInfo.shtml http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/FolderInfo.shtml

Also check Doc's & Settings/Application for large leftovers from any Video or Burning sofware.

[idata]

Three things you can do to gain a bit of free space on either XP or Win7:

1- Run "Cleanup" by Steven Gould, excellent multiple profile cleaner.

2- Run "CCleaner" by Piriform, great single profile cleaner with free Registry cleaner. Run the cleaner and the Registry tool.

3- Assuming your machine is otherwise running fine, turn off "System Restore" (XP) "System Protection" on Win7. After it's done, turn it back on. Set only as large as need be about 10% is sufficient. This is where you gain at minimum 6 GB if it were turned on.

4- How much memory do you have installed? By default, Windows allocates 1.25X the amount of memory towards the system Swap File. So, if you have 4 GB of memory, you are using 5 GB of diskspace. 2GB of Ram uses about 3 GB of disc space.

If you have 4 GB of ram, you can run without a swap file. I have 4 GB of Ram on this Win7 LT, with an Intel 80GB G2, with NO swap file. It's run fine w/o the Swap File and is plenty fast.

*****Lastly, try at your own risk***** I run defrag about every 3 months IMMEDIATELY followed by the Intel Toolbox. Could be my imagination, but it seems to run out-of-the-box FAST again. My G2 drive is now 2-3 years old, so I don't care if it shortens the life at this point. It has NEVER bluescreened on me EVER, never lost any data.

Best,

Tom