Solid state drives or SSDs are the true evolution of computers in recent years, the hardware "piece" that most affects the speed of loading programs and the operating system. We have already seen the differences between hard drives and SSDs, how the latter are significantly faster and how they can give decisive acceleration even to older computers.
In short, the advantages of an SSD are the absence of moving mechanical parts, less battery consumption, less heat, noisiness and, above all, they are faster to load data.
We have therefore seen several guides to replace the hard disk with an SSD and to add an SSD to the laptop.
When using a computer with a solid state drive or SSD as a data storage disk, there are programs that can improve its performance and optimize the way the SSD writes and reads the data on its memory.
An SSD, in fact, requires a very different type of maintenance than hard drives and requires that Windows be configured in a certain way to make it last as long as possible.
The best SSD management software will therefore optimize the operation of the unit in terms of reducing writes, updating the firmware and its general management, speeding up everything related to access to the disk including boot times, the app launch and much more.
In addition to the unofficial programs, we also see how Samsung and the other manufacturers supply their official management program to optimize the performance of the SSD drives .
In this article we see the best of these programs, to be used according to the brand, to optimize the management of an SSD memory and also to update their firmware .
READ ALSO: configure Windows to keep an SSD disk fast and make it last longer .
1) Samsung Magician for Samsung SSD.
Samsung's SSDs are the best-selling on the market with the Samsung Evo series dominating the rankings of the best SSDs to buy.
The tool allows you to optimize the SSD to give maximum performance and maximum reliability and to update the firmware.
The software user interface is also easy to navigate and use and includes the following functions:
- Measurement of health status.
- Possibility to activate AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) technology to have an optimized communication between motherboard and disk.
- Possibility to activate TRIM, for the best space management
- Rapid Mode activation to make uploads faster
to make it simple for everyone, the program has a performance optimization function that scans the computer settings and advises the user on all those that need to be changed.
For example, it will be recommended to disable automatic defragmentation if it was enabled.
2) SSD Tweaker is a portable, open source program for Windows 7 and Windows 10 that works with SSDs of all brands, including Samsung EVOs.
This SSD management software allows you to change the system settings that affect the performance of the SSD, so you can do it from a single console.
Another advantage is its one-click auto-adjustment feature, which allows you to change all common settings simultaneously with and a reduction in the total number of writes.
3) SSD Life is a generic program that shows how much data was written or read during the life of the SSD disk also estimating the time left before the performance can decrease.
There are therefore no options to change, but all the technical information on the SSD is indicated.
4) Tweak SSD is a powerful SSD management software (all brands) that helps keep the solid state drive running at maximum speed and performance.
With a simple user interface, it provides a wizard to change system settings, to enable quick optimization, to use disk cleanup and to change the suggested options.
It is a specialized product that is designed to optimize Windows for using solid state drives to get the most out of it.
5) SSD Utility Toshiba is a very feature-rich SSD management software that allows you to maintain, monitor and optimize the SSD mounted inside your computer.
You can see a real-time overview of the system status, capacity, SATA interface, updates and the life of the SSD.
It is possible to use its regulator to optimize the unit in order to have maximum performance for as long as possible.
The automatic optimizer allows you to choose between three automatic modes: reliability / performance / capacity
6) Intel Solid-State Drive Toolbox is an easy-to-use Intel SSD management tool on Windows PC that allows you to manage solid-state drives of all brands.
The program can be used to perform diagnostics scans of solid state drives, to read information about drives or to run management tools.
Nothing that cannot be done manually even without this program but with the toolbox everything becomes simpler.
Among the various components are:
- Intel SSD Optimizer which according to Intel should be used once a week to keep the SSD in shape so that it maintains high performance (via the TRIM command)
- System Configuration Tuner checks if the system configuration is set for the best performance, endurance and energy savings with Intel SSDs.
Clicking on the Tune button will change the computer settings to optimize the use of the SSD memory, for example by deactivating defragmentation or prefetching operations.
- Secure Erase can, unfortunately, only be used to erase all data on the Intel SSD secondary drive.
This means that the tool cannot be used if, on the SSD that contains the operating system.
- Quick and complete diagnostic scans to test read and write functionality
7) CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo are SSD management programs that are used to analyze the drive and know how and how much it was used, the time left before it got wrong and the firmware version.
CrystalDiskInfo reports on disk life expectancy from its SMART sensors, while CrystalDiskMark compares SSDs to determine their speed.
8) Corsair SSD Toolbox, simple and compatible with all models of solid state disks, allows you to view the temperature in real time, the model and the serial number of the installed SSD and to optimize the unit through manual execution of the TRIM command.
You can also assign a small portion of the SSD space to the SSD controller in order to improve its performance.
9) Crucial® Storage Executive has been designed to optimize Crucial SSD disks to the latest version of their firmware, reset the drive's encryption password and view overall disk health.
10) SanDisk SSD Dashboard allows you to view the model and serial number of the unit, update the firmware version and view the current health condition of the disk to make it go at the maximum supported speed.
The tool also shows performance graphs and allows you to run the TRIM command to free up disk space.
11) Transcend SSD Scope to update the firmware of the Transcend SSD, optimize performance, with diagnostic tools, ability to enable the TRIM and clone Windows and data from an old disk to the new one.
12) Kingston SSD Toolbox allows you to monitor the health of the units, update the firmware, safely delete data and see other technical data.
The tool supports SandForce-Kingston SSDs installed in AHCI mode.
13) To measure the performance of a solid state memory card, you can use the portable benchmark program (comparative analysis) AS SSD Benchmark.
The performance analysis is based on the read and write speed parameters and on the access time to the solid drive.
This tool is useful to check the SSD degradation over time and to make a comparison with SSDs of other brands.
READ ALSO: Hard disk check, health, performance and speed of the hard disk
