Windows 10 Under Bootcamp + TRIM
I’m trying to understand how I can avoid wear on my expensive 2TB SSD I use Windows 10 under bootcamp for games on my 2019 MBP 16inch.
Can I enable trim as supported by macOS, on Windows?
Will macOS also trim the windows partition?
If no to both, what’s the impact?
Do I need to destroy the windows partition semi regularly to avoid the disk being over worn?
macOS will not trim Windows partition and similarly Windows will not trim the macOS partition.
Both however will automatically trim their own partitions (and any other mounted file systems they understand).
You don't need to destroy either partition "semi-regularly" - just use them both as normal.
As a bit of background, Windows under Boot Camp will enable trim automatically if it identifies your disk as a SSD. You can check this by the running the command fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify.
If it shows NTFS DisableDeleteNotify = 0 then trim is enabled. See How to Check if TRIM Is Enabled for Your SSD (and Enable It if It Isn’t)
The actual trim is run automatically on a schedule (weekly by default) or you can search for Defragment and Optimize Drives from the Start Menu and click on the "Optimize" button to run it immediately.
This is from my Boot Camp partition:
These days I wouldn't worry at all about SSD wear-levelling, especially on a large SSD.
For one, just because the drive appears to the user to be partitioned in 'halves' doesn't mean the SSD itself will treat it that way at all - it's all just data, which it will write wherever it feels like, according to some pretty complex levelling routines. It will not respect the partitions as 'hard borders' in the slightest.
Secondly, modern SSDs are considerably more likely to be discarded with the computer they're in when both eventually become obsolete - far earlier than they are likely to reach the end of their useful life.
Anecdotally, my current 1TB SSD is now 6 years old & still going strong. I did manage to kill a tiny 128GB in a PC inside 2 years [which I think is simply a side-effect of it a) being constantly near capacity & b) a real budget brand], but I have several larger ones showing no sign of getting old yet.