The TRIM command is an essential part of SSD maintenance and helps keep the drive running at top speed. It’s available natively for Macs using SSD’s purchased from Apple but if you’ve got a third party drive, enabling TRIM requires some fancy Terminal work. Until now, that is.
This command works in the background when files are deleted, informing the drive that the blocks are now unused and can be removed. Without it, write speed quickly plummets and the drive’s service life suffers — especially if large amounts of data are routinely overwritten.
TRIM Enabler 2.0 is a more user-friendly GUI option for people reticent to employ the command line. It automatically patches the system’s kext file and adjusts permissions with a single click. In addition, it includes the S.M.A.R.T monitoring system, which helps track the drives overall health. This free app is compatible with OS X Lion and most SSD models, though you should use caution as it doesn’t play nicely with SandForce drives. It’s available at Groths.org. [Groths.org via AnandTech]