TRIMkäskyä

TRIMkäskyä, often referred to as the TRIM command, is an ATA command that provides a way for an operating system to inform a solid-state drive (SSD) which blocks of data are no longer in use and can be wiped internally. This is crucial for maintaining the performance and longevity of SSDs.

SSDs use a different method of data management than traditional hard disk drives. When data is deleted on a hard drive, the operating system simply marks the space as available. The actual data remains until it's overwritten. However, with an SSD, when data needs to be overwritten, the drive must first erase the entire block containing the old data before writing the new data. Without TRIM, the SSD wouldn't know which blocks are truly empty, leading to unnecessary erase and write cycles.

When TRIM is enabled, the operating system tells the SSD which data pages are no longer needed. The SSD can then proactively erase these pages in the background during idle time. This process, known as garbage collection, ensures that when new data needs to be written, the drive has readily available empty blocks, significantly speeding up write operations and preventing performance degradation over time.

TRIM support is essential for optimal SSD performance. Most modern operating systems and SSDs support TRIM automatically. If TRIM is not supported or enabled, an SSD's performance can degrade significantly as it fills up, and its lifespan may also be reduced due to excessive wear.