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Firefox (and likely other web browsers) tends to write data to fixed storage very frequently. When certain browser extensions are installed, the write operations can occur every few seconds.

Because of this, when using platter-based hard drives (HDD), I typically put the needed Firefox profile(s) onto a RAM disk (and then just use a script to automatically write them to non-volatile storage before the computer powers down).

I do this primarily for performance reasons, and also to reduce disk thrashing and power consumption.

With an SSD (as opposed to a HDD), is it fine to just keep the Firefox profiles on the SSD instead of using a RAM disk? Or will the very frequent writes (which can be as many as 30,000 write operations per day) wear out an SSD in less than a decade?

At this time, I only have accurate data as to the number of write operations per day, but not the quantity of data being written. That said, the largest file in a Firefox profile is typically 25MB. So that's the worst case scenario.

The OS is Windows 7.

BTW, the SSD most commonly used at this particular installation is the SK hynix Gold S31 1TB SATA Gen3 2.5 inch internal SSD. The marketing data for those drives claims "MTBF reaching 1.5 million hours, up to 600 TBW".

RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket
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  • You should be running TRIM weekly to spread out the write load. – John Dec 21 '21 at 16:31
  • @John Is that a manual operation that needs to be *run* on modern SSD? – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket Dec 21 '21 at 16:34
  • If Windows, then Admin Tools, Defrag and Optimize. TRIM can be scheduled there. Linux, I am not sure. – John Dec 21 '21 at 16:39
  • @John Is that Windows 10? What about Windows 7/8/8.1? – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket Dec 21 '21 at 16:42
  • Admin tools is for Windows 10. Look in System Tools in Windows 7 (my Win 7 VM here). Look in similar places for Windows 8, 8.1 – John Dec 21 '21 at 16:51
  • @John Thanks. You're just talking about the regular Windows defrag tool, correct? – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket Dec 21 '21 at 16:54
  • Windows 7 I am not sure about (SSD not that common). Windows 10, yes the defrag section offer disk optimize (TRIM) . But do not try to DEFRAG an SSD drive - TRIM only. – John Dec 21 '21 at 16:55
  • My oldest drive is currently showing total LBAs of 540,000,000,000, after 66,000 hours with no signs of quitting yet. I perhaps bought it 2014 or so, can't find the invoice. It has been running on a 24/7/365 machine ever since. Never sleeps, reboots for OS updates. I think people get a bit too worried about how fragile these things are. I have managed to kill a couple of teeny 128s in a couple of years, but they were cheap as well as too small. – Tetsujin Dec 21 '21 at 17:20
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    Windows 7 and up is 'ssd aware' and automaticly enables TRIM for SSD drives. No need to manually trigger it. You should trust your operating system knows what its doing and leave things alone. Not only that, the defrag option is actually a sort of 'retrim' command. You can read more about it on this (old) blogpost https://www.hanselman.com/blog/the-real-and-complete-story-does-windows-defragment-your-ssd from a microsoft employee. – Silbee Dec 21 '21 at 17:45
  • And as far as your question is concerned, you'll be hard pressed to make a dent in total write cycles with some cache files. I wouldnt go through any trouble trying to prevent wear. In fact i make my SSD's do as much as possible to get the full benefit of their speed. – Silbee Dec 21 '21 at 17:49
  • No-one actually mentioned an OS [though that usually means it's safe to assume Windows]. If your drive doesn't automatically TRIM 'properly' you will occasionally [every year or two] have to do a full TRIM of free space. idk if this is the equivalent of Windows' defrag for SSD. If it is, I certainly would **not** do it every week. – Tetsujin Dec 21 '21 at 17:51
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    @Tetsujin I can't believe I left out the OS in the question. Thank you for noticing. Fixed. – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket Dec 21 '21 at 19:01
  • @Tetsujin How did you obtain the stats you mentioned? – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket Dec 21 '21 at 19:01
  • [Disk Sensei](https://sensei.app) - Mac app, though I have the previous version. idk a Win equivalent, sorry. – Tetsujin Dec 21 '21 at 19:04

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