The 4 ways I speed up a sluggish SSD on a PC or Mac

• Clearing up space on the drive
• Running another TRIM optimization
• Checking for OS, driver, and firmware updates
• Adjusting Power Mode(s)

You probably don’t need me to tell you that the leap from a platter-based hard drive to an SSD can be dramatic. I remember when I first made the jump — I was impressed by Windows booting in about a minute, never mind near-instant file transfers. More recently, the shift from SATA SSDs to NVMe tech has been equally significant, to the point that PC makers have decided to drop SATA like a hot stone.

Something to remember, however, is that even the fastest NVMe drives can get bogged down. In most circumstances this is simply irritating, but if your job depends on shuttling gigabytes of data around every day, the lost time can gradually amount to a real problem. It’s not too difficult to whip an SSD back into shape, but you may or may not need to make some sacrifices. You’ll see what I mean in a second.

Clearing up space on the drive

Wise no matter what

Before you try anything else on this list, check how full your SSD is. If it’s at or above 90% of its capacity, it’s time to start moving or deleting unwanted files. The drive may no longer have enough space for caching, or even enough free blocks for new data, forcing it to perform “garbage” collection before it can write anything. This can become a very serious issue if the SSD is the same one your operating system runs from.

Thankfully, both Windows and macOS include built-in functions for keeping storage under control. In Windows 11, the main tool is Storage Sense, which can automatically scrub temporary files, and offload the local copies of data from services like OneDrive and iCloud Drive if they haven’t been opened in a while. You can customize when (or if) these things happen by going to Settings -> System -> Storage -> Storage Sense. You’ll find some similar options on a Mac by going to Apple menu -> System Settings -> General -> Storage.

Ultimately, though, you may need to consider uninstalling unused apps, and deleting any large media files you no longer care about. There are two reasons for this, the first being that apps, videos, and lossless music files are liable to take up much more space than text documents or system caches. Some individual games can now consume dozens or even hundreds of gigabytes, as can some 4K movies, particularly if they’re ripped from a Blu-ray disc.

The other reason is that when you reduce your storage footprint, some operations become inherently faster, such as the background indexing performed by Windows. A second example is the one in my next tip.

Running another TRIM optimization

Your default schedule might not be enough

When you delete a file on an SSD, that space isn’t automatically available for rewriting. Instead, the associated blocks have to be flagged for clean-up, hence the garbage collection I talked about a moment ago. If this TRIM optimization doesn’t happen often enough, it can not only slow down a drive, but shorten its lifespan.

The good news here is that by default, both Windows and macOS perform optimization automatically, so there’s often no need to run anything yourself. In fact, you may just end up inconveniencing yourself if you run a manual TRIM, since optimization is typically scheduled to happen only during certain events or when a drive is idle.

Windows 11 seems to be the best about this. It defaults to at least one TRIM cycle per week, and you can either modify this schedule to a daily or monthly one, or perform manual optimizations as needed. In the Windows 11 taskbar, search for defrag, then open Defragment and Optimize Drives.

For whatever reason, macOS is pickier. While any built-in SSDs will be optimized automatically, you can’t necessarily count on this for third-party drives. Check your status by Option-clicking the Apple menu, then selecting System Information. Under Hardware, the TRIM support for your drive(s) should show either Yes or No. If the answer is No, you may need a third-party utility, or the sudo trimforce enable command in Terminal.

An important note here: never, ever defragment an SSD. Defrags are essential for platter-based hard drives (HDDs), since data can get scattered across their disks, forcing them to seek longer. That’s not only unnecessary on SSDs, but actively detrimental to their longevity, as flash chips have a limited number of write cycles.

A second note: some drives may not be TRIM-able by your OS because of their formatting. Usually, though, these are portable SSDs that don’t require much maintenance, and may have third-party tools available.

Checking for OS, driver, and firmware updates

More of a Hail Mary play

There’s no denying that some of us are more proactive with software updates than others. Being a tech journalist, part of my job is keeping on top of the latest software so I can speak about it with authority. Other people, though, are happy waiting until their devices update automatically, or will actively refuse to install updates until they’re forced to for compatibility purposes. We all know that one person who’s still using Windows 10 or the last major iOS release.

It’s unlikely that an OS update is going to improve SSD speeds, but it’s not impossible, so it’s worth checking Windows Update or (on Macs) Software Update if you haven’t updated in a while. More directly relevant is the possibility of driver and firmware updates, which should normally be delivered via the same utilities.

If you’re not seeing any storage-related updates, and you’ve got a third-party SSD (which is always the case for Windows), you may want to check a manufacturer’s website for associated downloads. You’ll want to verify the exact model of your drive before you download anything, using Device Manager in Windows or System Information in macOS. As a rule, Mac owners are going to be updating using Software Update or a drive maker’s app.

Adjusting Power Mode(s)

A jolt to overall performance

Let’s be clear about something — changing Power Modes in Windows or macOS won’t directly impact an SSD. What you’re mainly affecting is how much power your CPU and/or GPU can consume. Lower settings put less stress on your system, and in the case of tablets and laptops, extend battery life. This comes at the cost of speed, however, and if the rest of your system isn’t shuffling data as fast as possible, some file transfers and app functions may take longer than they need to.

Windows users can adjust Power Modes by navigating to Settings -> System -> Power & battery. If you’re set to Best Power Efficiency, try bumping up to Balanced. Choose Best Performance only if your machine is plugged in or you’re otherwise unconcerned with battery life.

On a Mac, going to Apple menu -> System Settings -> Battery/Energy will present you with Low Power, Automatic, and High Power options. These work differently from their Windows equivalents, though — what they’re actually doing is changing how fast a Mac’s fans are allowed to run, only affecting speed when a system is under high load. It’s doubtful this will do much to help SSD operations unless, say, you’re playing an advanced 3D game, or you’re an audio or video editor working with dozens or hundreds of gigabytes at a time.