Setting up an ssd disk for windows 7. Setting up the system after installing the SSD. Set up the system from scratch

So you've got a brand new SSD. You installed a system on it, armed yourself with an optimization guide found on the net, and after a couple of hours you did everything possible to ... slow down your work in the system!

Don't believe? Think about what constitutes high performance. Advantages SSD speeds you can experience in three categories:

• system, for example, the speed of its loading and operation
• programs, including web surfing and working with documents, images and media files
• your actions, including disk navigation and copy/move files

How myths are born

I'm pretty sure that your SSD tuning measures have negatively affected at least one of these components. You will learn why this happened next, but first about the reasons for this optimization.

If you read the inscription "buffalo" on the cage of an elephant ...

There are tons of guides and even tweaks on the web to optimize your SSD. In fact, the same information is used everywhere, and:

• obsolete, since it is aimed at saving disk space and reducing the number of rewrite cycles, which is irrelevant for modern SSDs in home PCs
• useless, because Windows itself takes care of what they offer to configure
• harmful, because it leads to a decrease in the speed of work - yours, programs and system

look critical to your guide or tweaker and think about which items fit into one of those categories!

There is another problem - bad presentation of information including misplaced accents.

If you have an HDD alongside an SSD, measure the speeds of both drives and keep the picture in mind. I will return to her, and more than once!

Special Notes for Dissenters

After the publication of the material, I decided to specifically clarify a few points so as not to repeat them regularly in the comments when answering opponents.

In this article:

1. All myths are considered solely from the point of view of speeding up the system, programs and user. If a measure is declared useless or harmful, it means that it does nothing to speed up the work.
2. Reducing the amount of writes to disk is not considered as an optimization measure due to the irrelevance of this approach. If this is your goal, myths 3 - 11 are for you, as well as storing an SSD in a sideboard.
3. RAM disk usage is not considered as it is not directly related to SSD optimization. If you have an excess of RAM, you can use the RAM disk regardless of the type of drives installed in your PC.
4. All recommendations are given taking into account a wide audience, i.e. most users. When analyzing tips, keep in mind that they may not match your tasks, work skills, and ideas about the optimal and competent use of the operating system.

Now - let's go! :)

myths

1. Disable SuperFetch, ReadyBoot and Prefetch

This advice: controversial, can slow down programs, and in Windows 10 - increase the amount of disk writing and reduce the overall performance of the OS when there is not enough RAM

The speed of launching programs from the hard drive

When each program is launched, the prefetcher checks for the presence of a trace (.pf file). If one is found, the prefetcher uses links to the file system's MFT metadata to open all necessary files. It then calls a special memory manager function to asynchronously read data and code from the trace that is not currently in memory. When the program is started for the first time or the startup script has changed, the prefetcher writes a new trace file (highlighted in the figure).

It is unlikely that SuperFetch is capable of speeding up the launch of programs from an SSD, but Microsoft does not disable the feature, given the presence of hard drives in the system. If a proprietary SSD manufacturer's utility (such as Intel SSD Toolbox) recommends disabling SuperFetch, follow its advice. However, in this case it is more than logical to keep all programs on the SSD, which will be discussed below.

Compress memory in Windows 10

This aspect is covered in a separate article Nuances of disabling the SysMain service in Windows 10. Earlier on this page there was an excerpt from it, published impromptu.

2. Disable the Windows Defragmenter

This tip: useless or harmful, may degrade disk performance

One of the functions of the CheckBootSpeed ​​utility is to check the status of a scheduled defragmentation job and the Task Scheduler service. Let's see how these parameters are relevant for the latest Microsoft OS installed on the SSD.

Windows 7

Windows 7 does not defragment the SSD, which is confirmed by the words of the developers in the blog.

Windows 7 will disable defragmentation for SSD drives. Because SSDs excel at random reads, defragmenting won't provide the same benefits that it does on a regular drive.

If you don't believe the developers, take a look at the event log. You won't find any entries there about defragmenting an SSD volume.

So when the SSD is the only drive, the scheduled task simply doesn't run. And when the PC also has a HDD, disabling a task or scheduler deprives the hard drive of decent optimization with a standard defragmenter.

Windows 8 and newer

In Windows 8, the place of the defragmenter was taken by the disk optimizer!

Optimizing hard drives, as before, comes down to defragmentation. Windows no longer ignores solid state drives, but helps them by sending the controller additional a set of TRIM commands for the entire volume at once. This happens according to the schedule as part of automatic maintenance, i.e. when you're not working on a PC.

Depending on the SSD controller, garbage collection can be performed immediately upon receipt of the TRIM command, or delayed until a period of inactivity. By disabling the disk optimizer or task scheduler, you reduce the performance of the drive.

3. Disable or move the paging file

This tip: useless or harmful, reduces the speed of the system when there is not enough memory

The hardware configuration must be balanced. If you don't have enough RAM installed, you should add more, as an SSD only makes up for some of the lack of RAM by speeding up swapping compared to a hard drive.

When you have enough memory, the swap file is practically not used, i.e. This will not affect the life of the disk in any way. But many people still turn off paging - they say, let the system keep everything in memory, I said! As a result, the Windows memory manager does not work in the most optimal mode (see #4).

In extreme cases, the paging file is transferred to the hard drive. But if suddenly the memory is not enough, you will only benefit in performance by having pagefile.sys on the SSD!

IN Q: Do I need to put the swap file on the SSD?

ABOUT: Yes. The main operations with the swap file are random writes of small volumes or sequential writes of large data arrays. Both types of operations work great on an SSD.

Analyzing telemetry focused on evaluating writes and reads for the swap file, we found that:

• reading from Pagefile.sys prevails over writing to pagefile.sys in a ratio of 40:1,
• read blocks for Pagefile.sys are usually quite small, 67% of them are less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% are less than 16 KB,
• write blocks in Pagefile.sys are quite large, 62% of them are greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% are almost exactly 1 MB

Generally speaking, the typical swap file usage patterns and SSD performance characteristics are a great fit, and it is this file that is highly recommended to be placed on an SSD.

But in practice, the desire to extend the life of an SSD at any cost is indestructible. Here is a blog reader shaking his SSD, transferring pagefile.sys to the hard drive, although he himself even sees with the naked eye that this reduces performance. By the way, my netbook cannot install more than 2 GB of memory, and with a solid state drive it became much more comfortable than with a standard 5400 rpm HDD.

Finally, don't forget that completely disabling the swap file will prevent you from performing critical error diagnostics. The paging file size can be flexibly adjusted, so you always have a choice between disk space and performance.

Tricky question: what was my swap file size when i took the task manager screenshot?

Special note

On the Internet (including in the comments to this entry) you can often find the statement: “The paging file is not needed if you have installed N GB RAM. Depending on fantasy N takes the value 8, 16, or 32. This statement does not make sense, because it does not take into account the tasks that are performed on a PC with a given amount of memory.

If you set yourself 32GB, and 4-8GB is used, then yes, you don’t need FP (but then it’s not clear why you bought 32GB RAM :). If you have purchased such an amount of memory in order to use it as much as possible in your tasks, then the FP will come in handy for you.

4. Disable hibernation

This advice: vague and harmful to mobile PCs, can reduce battery life and speed of your work

I would put my advice like this:

• stationary PCs - shutdown is normal, because you might as well use sleep
• mobile PCs - turning off is not always advisable, especially when the battery consumption is high during sleep

However, people have disabled, are disabling and will disable system protection regardless of the type of disk, this is already in the blood! And no, I don't want to discuss this topic in the comments for the hundredth time :)

6. Disabling Windows search and/or disk indexing

This tip: useless, slows down your work

This is sometimes argued by the fact that SSDs are so fast that the index will not significantly speed up the search. These people just never really used real Windows search!

I believe that it is pointless to deprive yourself of a useful tool that speeds up the performance of everyday tasks.

If you have fallen victim to any of these myths, tell me in the comments if I managed to convince you of their futility or harm and in what cases. If you don't agree with my assessment of "optimization", explain what is the benefit of these actions.

You can mark fragments of text that are interesting to you, which will be available via a unique link in the browser's address bar.

about the author

Vadim, in recent days I have bought 4 SSDs for installation in all my computers. Let's just say... life has changed :-)

I also thought for a long time whether to buy a laptop with an SSD or a hybrid drive, the second one won, I chose 340GB + 24 SSD. I was surprised that the standard installation of Windows 8 was on a 5400 drive, but not an SSD. After suffering for a long time, I moved Windows 8 to an SSD and went a little nuts, because. about 3 GB left on the SSD. Knowing that over time W8 will swell and will need to fight for space, I returned everything back, transferred TEMP and Page file to SSD, plus I put frequently run programs.

Still, you just had to buy a laptop with an SSD and not soar your brain. They gave me an SSD for NG and now I'll stuff it into an old netbook, install W8 and be happy.

Thanks for the articles about SSD, we have the whole department reading.

Alexey

You, Vadim, have gone through SSD myths very well, we can hope that now there will be fewer fans of SSD perversions. I have Win8 on an SSD, as I installed it and it plows, I’m satisfied and don’t bother my head with all sorts of optimizations, the exhaust from which is doubtful.

PS: Answer to the question: 1Gb.

• Alexey, thanks for the response. You can’t put your head on everyone, but I don’t try :)

  The answer to the question is incorrect. How did you come to him?

madgrok

Before buying an SSD, I read a mountain of forums, benchmarks, etc. And I came to the conclusion that all tweaks are in the furnace.
Why do people buy their own SSD? Of course, what would be faster! :) And most of the optimization tweaks basically negate the entire performance gain, which Vadim wrote about.
I use my Vertex 4 256 GB as a regular disk for the system. Bought somewhere in the fall. The flight is excellent, health is 100%
An excellent article, I will recommend it to all my friends, friends for reading so as not to suffer. :)
And in general, thanks to the author for a great blog. I really like the fact that the topic is trying to "disassemble the bones."

Andrey

Vadim, at the end of the article there is a survey about the presence of SSD on our computers, I think that this topic is still relevant - there are those who are not going to, at least in the near future, acquire a solid state drive for a number of reasons - someone does not see the point of installing it on an old one they save up a computer for a new one, or, as in the polling point, arranges an HDD, or this is how Pavel Nagaev thinks for a long time which one to prefer ....
What would you advise? Is it worth moving the OS to an SSD for "increasing system performance", so to speak?

Andre

Hello Vadim, I think a lot of people are now looking at buying an SSD, and it would be very cool if you wrote an article on choosing an SSD!

Alexey Matashkin

Vadim, thanks for the article.
In my practice, I did not have to deal with these myths, I only heard some advice separately, so I read it with pleasure.

I don’t quite get into the survey :) The main PC is not home, and it has an SSD. And at home, there is still enough of the usual.

There is nothing to add on questions, because I don’t use tweaks, all installed SSDs work normally with the system.
Although, an important detail is updating the firmware on the disk. In my practice, there are 3 cases of serious failures that were eliminated with firmware version updates.

Valentine

Pavel Nagaev,

Your 24 SSD was most likely designed for caching, which is why it is so small, maybe you needed to use it as a cache, in which case you get the benefits of both media - volume and speed. Vadim, do you have an article regarding hybrid hard drives or combining HDD with SSD? I think many readers might be interested in such an article. I consider the topic of 12 myths very useful, since I have many friends who consider themselves experts, but make such mistakes and impose these mistakes on ordinary users, thanks to the link to this article, it will be possible to convince them to make such mistakes

Vadims Podans

Nice and good article.

Sergey

Yes, indeed, people are surprised who buy an SSD to speed up work, but then they themselves transfer everything and turn it off and lose performance again ..

MythBusters in action! We went through all these myths with a skating rink.

Alexey G

At first I fell for disabling hibernation, but then I realized that it was inconvenient.
I remove labels 8.3. Because I use new versions of the program, and I don't need it)

From life: when I build a PC with an SSD, I transfer user files to the HDD. If the PC for unknown reasons (playful hands, viruses) starts not to boot, then if I am nearby, then I will restore the customized image of the installed system (thanks to the blog), but if the person called another “master”, then the first thing he will do is format the disk: (More Unfortunately, I have not seen a smart way in my city, so this is a forced need to save the user's files.

Answer to the question: 2834mb?

Dima

Thanks Vadim.
As always intelligible and with a light sense of humor.
As promised, I part with the myths easily and see you off on your last journey. I'll turn everything back on.
Sincerely, Dima.

PGKrok

I agree on all points, but I myself had to transfer the index files, some programs and personal photo-videos to the HDD, because. SSD - only 60 GB (which one I mastered :))
For comparison (to the question of "keeping the picture in mind")
Result CrystalDiskMarc (HDD)
http://pixs.ru/showimage/HDD1301020_6347406_6812031.png
Result CrystalDiskMarc (SSD)
http://pixs.ru/showimage/OSZ3010201_4238885_6812055.png

controller SATA-3 SSD - SATA-6

dawn

I bought a 60gb ssd, left only Windows 8, program files, appdata, program data on it. The rest is on hdd.
Reason: the system partition is growing too fast, just look, the place will go to zero.
When buying, there was one task: to speed up the cold boot of the system. What he achieved - 8 seconds.
Vadim, the article is a test, thanks!

Ruby

About transferring TEMP and cache - I stupidly put them on a gigabyte ramdisk - this is a real speed increase, incomparable with SSD.

Denis Borisych

I have been working in IT for a long time and still do not cease to be surprised at the grief of optimizers.

I have had an ssd in my home computer for a year now and everything is in a bunch. 7 starts in 10 seconds, programs load quickly and easily without any optimizations. Well, except that the folder of necessary and important documents is not on ssd (its size is over 500 GB). And in the folder "My Documents" there is usually a routine.

As a person, well, I am very close to IT, sometimes I am not enthusiastic about the innovations of MS (only the inability to use Explorer without a mouse is worth something). But I must objectively admit that in terms of optimizing the operation of the OS on ssd and stability of work, they are undoubtedly great.

Ruby

I would also transfer the search index, but on the Windows blog they write that it is still kept in memory, so it makes no sense.

SuperFetch is needed in any case, it preloads files into RAM in advance, increasing speed and reducing the number of accesses to the drive.

Valery

Vadim, I read your articles quite regularly and often put the advice from them into practice.
Having bought an SSD (Intel 520 120GB), I also first read about all sorts of optimizations and even applied some, but now I left only the indexing transferred to the HDD and Intel's recommendations for their disks, and here some of your advice and recommendations from Intel diverge:
http://123foto.ru/pics/01-2013/42746566_1358157387.jpg
Whom to listen to?))

Alexey

Vadim Sterkin,

Came by typing :-)
My swap file takes up 1 Gb per 16Gb of RAM (the size of the system's choice). Moreover, the system monitor shows almost zero% load. I decided that 8Gb should have at least 1Gb.

Oleg

Hello Vadim. I always look forward to new articles from you, this article was VERY useful for me and for my friends. To my regret, my arguments and advice do not reach some friends, for some reason they trust more forums where they do not always write useful information.
I hope this article will convince you.

I will wait for articles about choosing an SSD.
Thanks.

George

Thank you for the article.
To be honest, I didn’t quite understand about Superfetch - what is the increase in performance on an SSD?

And about the size of the swap file, the answer seems to be this: 10.7 GB is written in the allocated line. From this figure, you must subtract the amount of RAM.

Alexander

I recently bought a Kingston Hiper X 3K 120GB SSD. I installed Seven sp1. I did not see any increase in download speed and program operation.
Previous configuration: Asus P5Q, 2 WD 500Gb Raid 0, DDR2 2 1GB each.
My conclusion: when connecting an SSD to a "slow" Sata 3Gb / s port, the performance gain of the system, compared to that set to stripping, is negligible. You will have to upgrade to a motherboard with Sata 6Gb / s and at least 8GB DDR3 memory.

GlooBus

Pavel Nagaev,

From 16-32 GB SSD disks soldered on laptop motherboards, there is no sense. The best thing in this case would be to take a laptop in a simple configuration with an HDD and upgrade it yourself. I did just that, took the ASUS X301A with 2 GB of memory, 320 GB of HDD and upgraded to 8 GB of memory and 128 GB of SSD. The laptop worked in a completely different way! Loading the computer from pressing the button until the password entry window appears is 6-7 seconds. I didn’t do any tweaks, except that I turned off indexing, tk. I don't use search.

Alick

The other day I installed VERTEX 4 128Gb Win 8 on it, applied optimizers, and after a week I realized that it was in vain, incl. will have to be reinstalled. And here's another great article.

Michal

Vadim Sterkin,

I think this is due to the fact that most people simply have not yet had a specific practice in using an SSD, like you have.
and there are many myths.
for example, I'm from Uzbekistan, we have SSDs here that have just appeared.
no experience with them yet. yes, and very expensive.
I read your article, I realized that in vain I transferred the swap file.
thanks for the article, I hope not the last :)

Windows 7 was not originally designed to run on an SSD. Since they appeared, Microsoft has released numerous updates designed to improve the operation of the OS on solid state drives. However, you need to carry out additional optimization manually, which gives a much greater effect.

SSD

A Solid State Drive is a storage device based on flash memory and a control controller.

They are widely used in computing and have some advantages over HDD:

• high speed;
• impact resistance;
• heat resistance;
• small size and weight;
• noiselessness.

In Windows 8 and above, they work stably and quickly, but under older OS, problems with wear and performance are inevitable. To avoid this, you need to optimize the parameters, which is what this article is about.

What gives optimization

Windows 7 has several services that increase the performance of conventional hard drives. But with SSD, they not only do not bring benefits, but interfere with work and significantly reduce the life of the device. Setting up Windows 7 on an SSD nullifies all attempts by the OS to destroy it, and allows you to achieve greater performance.

Are SSDs faster?

Even if we compare the maximum read / write speed declared by the manufacturer, the difference will be huge.

The linear speed of solid state drives is 3-4 times higher.

It's rare for a typical hard drive to achieve 180 MB/s read speeds. At the same time, he does not spend time moving the head, but focuses on reading data.



For a regular SSD, such as the Kingston SKC380S3, the limit is 550 MB/s. for reading and 520 for writing. In linear read mode, it uses all channels and reads data in large blocks. However, if we take a closer look at performance, the superiority of SSDs will be even more impressive.

When testing the speed of reading blocks of 512 KB in size (small files), the gap becomes even larger. The SSD does not spend much time looking for a block, as a result of which its speed is still within 500 MB / s. The hard drive spends more time moving the head than reading files. Its speed is reduced three times and averages 60 MB / s, which is 8 times slower than SSD.



If we go deeper into the tests and check the speed on blocks of 4 KB, then the SSD will bypass the hard drive 50 times. Loading the OS, copying documents, small images and launching programs all correspond to this mode of operation. In addition, SSDs can handle multiple requests at the same time, while HDDs are single-threaded.

Video: how to properly set up the system for work

Setting up an SSD in Windows 7

This process requires patience and includes the following procedures:




Setting up Windows 7 for an SSD starts with flashing the drive. All manufacturers regularly release new versions of software for their devices, in which errors and weaknesses of previous versions are eliminated. You can download it from the official websites of the brand. The software package also usually comes with instructions for installing it and updating the firmware.

AHCI and TRIM

The SATA interface has many features that speed up data transfer. In order for them to become available, you need to enable the AHCI controller, since most PCs are still configured to work with the outdated ATA controller by default. You can switch to AHCI either automatically or manually.

Automatic switching:




The next time you start Windows 7 will do the rest of the work itself. If for some reason the utility does not work, then you can do everything manually.

Manual switching:




As a result, after a reboot, the AHCI controller will be visible in the device manager.



AHCI is over, the TRIM command is next. It helps the OS notify the SSD about what data the file system no longer contains and what the drive can delete. That is, this command removes garbage and does not allow it to reduce the performance level.

You can enable TRIM if the following conditions are met:

• the SSD controller supports this command;
• SATA mode: AHCI enabled.

If the conditions are met, you can proceed to enable TRIM:



Disabling system protection

The instruction is quite simple:




It is important to understand that by disabling protection, the OS will not make restore checkpoints, and in the event of a failure, it will be impossible to resort to Windows recovery. Therefore, it is worth using software from other developers to provide the recovery function, for example, Acronis True Image.

Disable disk indexing

Indexing is carried out only in order to speed up the search process on the hard disk. Given the multi-threading of the SSD and its speed, the indexing and searching service is not needed.

Disable search like this:




Disable indexing like this:

1. open "Computer";
2. right-click on the section -> Properties;
3. at the very bottom of the window that opens, uncheck the box "allow indexing ...";
4. apply and close the window.

Along the way, you can also disable defragmentation, which is useless on SSD drives due to quick access to cells.

You can do this:

1. by going to the tab Service -> Optimize;
2. by selecting a section and clicking change settings;
3. by unchecking the "Run as scheduled" checkbox.

   

Disabling paging

The paging file is necessary for running programs that need a large amount of memory. If there is not enough RAM, then temporary data is loaded into this file. You can disable it only if the computer has enough RAM installed (at least 8 GB). Otherwise, it is better to move the swap to another partition, i.e. to the hard drive.

Shutdown:



Disabling hibernation

Hibernation or deep sleep of the computer was invented by Microsoft so that the computer does not spend a lot of time starting up. This feature allows you to power off your computer without closing applications. When you wake up again, all programs continue to work.

At the same time, when the PC goes to sleep, a large amount of data is written to the drive and the SSD wears out faster. Also, for many, hibernation is not necessary, since a PC with a solid state drive boots very quickly.

If you decide to disable hibernation, then you can do it like this:




SSD Tweak Utility

To optimize your system to use the SSD drive automatically, you can use the SSD Tweak Utility. The program allows you to quickly and easily do everything that was described above, except for enabling AHCI mode. The program is published with a different set of tools.



There is a free version with a basic set of functions:

• disabling defragmentation;
• disable recovery;
• stop indexing.

Other features available in the paid version of Tweaker Pro include:

1. enabling and disabling services;
2. setting hibernation options;
3. verification and experimental optimization of the TRIM command.

The program also allows deeper customization, which includes many more parameters. After starting the program in the right part of the window, you can see a detailed description and tips on setting up the system.

To start optimization, just press the big button in the middle of the program window - auto-tuning configuration. The utility itself will configure the main parameters and provide a report.

Setting up and optimizing Windows 7 for an SSD is not a quick process, accompanied by several system reboots and visits to the BIOS. However, if you do not configure it, do not disable unnecessary services, then after a few months the once-fast SSD may exhaust its supply of write cycles and stop working.

To prevent this from happening, after each reinstallation of the system, it is necessary to optimize it. This can be done either manually or automatically using the SSD Tweaker utility.

The emergence of solid-state hard drives or SSD for short, of course, can be considered a breakthrough in the development of technologies for creating devices for recording and storing digital information. The first SSDs that entered the market, with the exception of the high speed of access to arbitrary blocks of information, were in many ways inferior to traditional HDDs. Not only could their volumes, without exaggeration, be called more than modest, they also had low fault tolerance and cost a lot of money.

What's wrong with SSD?

The high speed, quietness and low power consumption of solid state drives have served as good drivers for their development. Modern SSD drives are lightweight, very fast and mechanically quite reliable devices used in tablets, ultrabooks and other compact devices. The price of SSDs has also dropped significantly. However, they cannot be called perfect. All SSDs have a significant drawback - a limited number of write cycles.

The flash memory of most SSDs is of the MLC type and allows you to write data from about 3 to 10 thousand times, while conventional USBs exhaust their resource in 1000 or less rewrite cycles. There are also such SSDs, for example, with the SLC memory type, which can withstand several hundred thousand rewrite cycles. There are many nuances, so it is not surprising that just this feature of SSD drives raises a lot of questions from ordinary users regarding their operation, and most importantly, extending their service life. Is SSD optimization necessary in Windows 7/10 or is it just another myth created by manufacturers and commercial software developers themselves?

Basic training

Yes, you can leave everything as it is on a PC with an SSD, and you might be right, but if you really care about your drive and want it to last as long as possible, it's worth considering tuning it. Let's start with whether you bought a computer with an integrated SSD, or just the drive itself, with which you want to replace the HDD by transferring Windows from it. In the first case, you can limit yourself to setting up the system. If you install the SSD yourself, be sure to check if the AHCI connection mode for the SATA controller is enabled in the BIOS.

There are two points here: after enabling AHCI and transferring Windows to an SSD, the system may not boot, as it will not have the appropriate drivers. Therefore, either install the drivers ahead of time, or reinstall Windows from scratch. Second. The BIOS of older PCs may not have AHCI mode. In this case, the BIOS will have to be updated. Now for the SSD controller firmware. SSD owners often ask if a drive will run faster if they install the latest firmware. Yes, it will be, but if you decide to update it and in general, if the need arises, it is better to contact the maintenance service for help.

System settings. Disable defragmentation

For HDDs, defragmentation is a useful thing, but for SSDs, on the contrary, it can damage it, so Windows usually disables it automatically. However, it's worth checking to see if it's actually disabled. Run command dfrgui disk optimization utility and click "Change settings".

Make sure the "Run on schedule" checkbox is unchecked. If it's there, be sure to remove it.

Enabling TRIM

The TRIM mechanism optimizes the SSD drive by clearing memory cells of unnecessary data when they are removed from the disk. The use of TRIM ensures uniform wear of the disk cells and increases the speed of its operation. To check if TRIM is active on your system, run the following command from an administrator command prompt: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify.

If the value of the returned parameter DisableDeleteNotify will be 0, then everything is in order and the trim function is enabled, if 1 - it means it is disabled and it should be enabled by the command fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0.

This SSD setting only applies to Windows 7/10, while Vista and XP do not support it. There are two options: either install a newer system, or look for an SSD drive with hardware TRIM. Also note that some older SSDs don't support TRIM at all, though it's very unlikely they're still available in digital hardware stores.

In the process, a significant amount of data can be written to the hiberfil.sys file on the system disk, comparable to the amount of RAM. We, in order to extend the life of the SSD, need to reduce the number of write cycles, so it is advisable to disable hibernation. The disadvantage of this SSD setup is that you will no longer be able to keep files and programs open when you turn off the computer. To disable hibernation, run the command in a running with administrator privileges powercfg -h off.

Restart your computer and make sure that the hidden system file hiberfil.sys is deleted from the C drive.

Disabling Search and Indexing of Files

What else can be done to properly set up an SSD drive for Windows 7/10? The answer is to disable indexing of the contents of the disk, because the SSD is already fast enough. Open the properties of the disk and uncheck "Allow the contents of files to be indexed ...".

But here's the thing. If you have a HDD in addition to an SSD, then you are unlikely to want to disable indexing on it. What will come of it? By default, the index file is located on drive C and data from drive D will still be written to the solid state drive.

If you do not want to disable indexing on the user volume, you will need to move the index file from the system SSD to the user HDD. Open by team control /name Microsoft.IndexingOptions indexing options.

Now click "Advanced" and specify your index location, having previously created a folder on the user's drive.

If your PC only has an SSD, you can completely disable indexing and search by opening the Services.msc snap-in and stopping the Windows Search service.

Disabling system protection

Controversial moment. By disabling the creation of system shadow copies, on the one hand, you will reduce the number of write cycles, on the other hand, you will increase the risk of getting a non-working system in the event of some unforeseen failure. Using rollback is one of the most effective and easiest ways to return Windows to a working state, for this reason we would not recommend disabling this feature, especially since points are created infrequently and they do not take up much space.

It does not recommend disabling system protection for its Intel SSDs, the same opinion is shared by Microsoft. However, it's up to you. If you use other backup tools, such as Acronis True Image, you can disable system protection. To do this, go to the system properties, on the "System Protection" tab, select the SSD drive and click "Configure". Next, in the recovery options, activate the "Disable system protection" radio button, move the slider to zero and click the "Delete" button.

Disable or not paging file?

An even more controversial solution is to disable the swap file. Someone advises to transfer it to the HDD, someone completely disable it, but not everything is so simple. The paging file is necessary to optimize the performance of the system and programs that require significant RAM resources. Disabling swap can indeed reduce disk usage, but the resulting effect will be very small. In addition, this disabling can significantly reduce the performance of your computer.

There is no particular point in moving the paging file to a hard HDD either, since it is many times slower than an SSD, and the system’s constant access to it will slow down its work. Disabling, or even better, reducing the paging file is permissible only in one case - if your computer has more than 10 GB of RAM, and at the same time you do not use resource-intensive applications. And so, of course, it is better to leave everything by default. You can perform all manipulations with the paging file in the performance parameters window called in the "Run" window by the command system properties performance(hereinafter Advanced - Change).

Prefetch and Superfetch

In theory, it is also better to leave everything by default here. The function does not affect the durability of SSDs in any way, as it does not produce any writes. Moreover, when you install Windows on an SSD, the system automatically turns it off. Want to make sure it's disabled? Go to Registry Editor at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/Memory Management/PrefetchParameters and see the parameter value EnableSuperfetch. It should be set to 0. You can also disable it through the Services Control snap-in.

As for Prefetch, its writes to disk are so insignificant that it can be ignored. However, you can turn it off, nothing bad will happen. To do this, in the same registry key, set the value of the parameter EnablePrefetcher 0.

The same can be said about disabling the additional Prefetch ReadyBoot feature that logs the process of loading applications. The volume of records it produces in a folder C:/Windows/Prefetch/ReadyBoot is negligible, but if you want to disable them as well, set the Start parameter in the key to 0 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/WMI/Autologger/ReadyBoot.

Programs for optimizing an SSD drive

Almost everything that was shown in the examples above can be done using special utilities. How to set up an SSD under Windows 7/10 using third-party programs? Very simple. Most of them have an intuitive interface, represented by a set of options that can be enabled or disabled. There are many SSD optimizers, but we will focus only on the most popular ones.

SSD Mini Tweaker

The most convenient portable program for optimizing solid state drives. The utility supports working with defragmentation, hibernation and system protection functions, Trim, Superfetch and Prefetcher, paging file and Layout.ini management, indexing, file system cache and some other settings.

The SSD Mini Tweaker interface is represented by a window with a list of functions available for management. You may need to restart your PC after applying the new settings.

A shareware utility for optimizing and tuning the performance of an SSD drive. There is no Russian language in Tweak-SSD, but there is a convenient step-by-step wizard that offers optimal settings. Features of this program include disabling file indexing, program compatibility assistant, hibernation, paging file, defragmentation, last file access time recording, working with TRIM, increasing the file system cache, removing the NTFS limit on memory usage, as well as removing the kernel in memory instead of unloading parts of modules to disk.

SSD Fresh Plus

Another SSD optimizer. Unlike analogues, it supports working with S.M.A.R.T. With Abelssoft SSD Fresh Plus, you can disable defragmentation, the use of abbreviated names for folders and files, timestamps, Windows log, prefetch services.

In total, the utility supports nine different settings that optimize the performance of the SSD. Additional program features include viewing detailed disk information. Distributed in paid and free editions.

Conclusion

On this, perhaps, everything. There are also other SSD optimization recommendations, but for the most part they are either dubious or harmful. In particular, it is not recommended to disable write caching for the SSD drive and the USN journal of the NTFS file system. You should also not transfer programs and Temp temporary folders, browser cache, etc. from the SSD, because then what's the point in buying an SSD drive? We need to speed up the work of programs, transferring them to the HDD, you will only slow down the system.

And finally, here's some good advice for you. Don't bother with SSD optimization especially. Even a budget 128 GB solid state drive will take at least a decade to wear out, unless you start writing and deleting terabytes of data every day. And during this time, not only the disk model, but also the computer itself will become hopelessly outdated.

If you decide to purchase a solid state SSD drive, then there may be several reasons for this:

• You are not satisfied with the speed of your HDD.
• You need fast windows and certain types of applications, games.

However, installing an SSD in a computer or laptop and then filling it with information is not enough. It is also necessary to optimize its work with the work of your OC.

Consider the main methods for optimizing an SSD drive.

AHCI SATA

A technology that allows TRIM to be used with various SSDs. It is enabled at the BIOS level of your PC or laptop.

Enable AHCI SATA:

1. Open the command prompt with the key combination win + R.
2. Enter the command: "regedit" (access to the registry).
3. Go to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SYSTEM → CurrentControlSet → Services → storahci.
4. Change the value of the ErrorControl subsection to 0 (3 by default) by calling the context menu and clicking the Modify option.
5. Change to the branch called "StartOverride" and change its value to 0 (default 3).
6. Reboot your PC (laptop), enter the BIOS / UEFI (how to enter the BIOS, see separately for your laptop model or PC motherboard). In the “storage configuration” section, and in the “SATA port” subsection, set AHCI or in the “SATA RAID / AHCI Mode” section, set AHCI (For different BIOS versions, their sections and subsections).
7. Check if the function works in Windows. Go to the following path: Control Panel → Device Manager → IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. In the last subsection, the device should appear: "Standard SATA AHCI Controller".

TRIM function

By default, this feature is enabled on windows 7 and above, however, it is better to manually check if this feature works. The meaning of TRIM is that after deleting files, windows sends information to the SSD drive that a certain area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe disk is not in use and can be cleared for writing. (the data remains in the HDD and the recording is made "over" the existing one). Over time, if the feature is disabled, there will be a drop in drive performance.

TRIM check in Windows:

1. Launch Command Prompt by pressing the win + R key combination.
2. Enter the command: "fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify".
3. If after entering the message: "DisableDeleteNotify = 0", then the TRIM function is enabled, if "DisableDeleteNotify = 1", then TRIM does not function. If TRIM does not work, enter the command: "fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0", then repeat steps 2 and 3.

defragmentation

This feature helps to optimize and speed up the HDD, but for SSD, it has a detrimental effect. For SSDs, the "auto defrag" feature is disabled by default. To check if it works:

1. Press the combination win + R.
2. In the command line window, enter the command: "dfrgui" and click "OK".
3. In the window that opens, highlight your SSD and look at the “Scheduled Optimization” item. For our SSD, it should be disabled.

Indexing

A Windows feature that helps you quickly search for files on a disk with large amounts of information, however, it increases the write load on the SSD. To turn it off:

1. Go to the section "This computer", "My computer", "Computer" (for each OS in different ways).
2. Select your SSD and select "Properties" from the context menu.
3. In the window that opens, uncheck the box next to the option: "Allow the contents of files on this drive to be indexed in addition to file properties."

Search Service

Its function creates a file index, thanks to which finding a variety of files and folders is faster. However, the speed of the SSD is quite enough to refuse it. To disable it, you must:

1. Go to the following address: Control Panel → System and Security → Administrative Tools → Computer Management.
2. Go to the tab: "Services".
3. Find the service "Windows search" and in the tab "Startup type" select "Disabled".

hibernation

A mode that allows you to save the contents of RAM on your hard drive, so that when you turn it on again, information and open applications from the previous session are saved.

When using SSD, the meaning of this function is lost, since the drive starts up so quickly. And “Hibernation”, creating “write-rewrite” cycles, reduces the lifespan of an SSD drive.

Disabling hibernation:

1. Run cmd.exe again with the win + R key combination.
2. Enter the command: "powercfg -h off".

Write caching

This feature improves the performance of your SSD. When enabled, NCQ write and read technology is used. NCQ - accepts multiple requests at the same time, and then organizes their execution order in such a way as to achieve maximum performance.

To connect you need:

1. Call the command line with the combination win + R
2. Enter the command: "devmgmt.msc".
3. Open "Disk Drives", select SSD and select "Properties" in the context menu.
4. Go to the "Policy" tab.
5. Check the box next to the option: "Allow caching entries for this device."

Prefetch and Superfetch

Prefetch- a technology with which frequently used programs are loaded into memory in advance, thereby accelerating their subsequent launch. At the same time, a file of the same name is created on the disk space.

Superfetch- a technology similar to Prefetch with the difference that the PC predicts which applications will be launched by loading them into memory in advance.

Both features are of no use when using an SSD. Therefore, it is best to disable them. For this:

1. Call the command line with the key combination win + R.
2. Run the command: "regedit" (go to the registry).
3. Follow the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SYSTEM → CurrentControlSet → Control → Session Manager → Memory Management → PrefetchParameters.
4. Find several parameters in the registry subkey: "EnablePrefetcher" and "EnableSuperfetch", set their value to 0 (3 by default).

SSD Mini Tweaker Utility

All of the above actions can be performed manually, but the hands of programmers created programs - tweakers, the purpose of which is to customize the windows OS, as well as its individual components with a few clicks. One such program is SSD Mini Tweaker.

SSD Mini Tweaker- a program, a kind of tweaker that allows you to effortlessly optimize your SSD.

Advantages:

• Full Russification.
• Works on all operating systems starting from Windows 7.
• Free.
• Clear interface.
• Does not require installation.

other methods

Such manipulations as transferring the browser cache, paging files, Windows temporary folders, system backup from SSD to HDD (or disabling this feature) are useless, because although they increase the lifespan of the SSD, they limit the potential of its use.

Thus, by performing the simple above manipulations with your OS, you can extend the life of your drive, as well as set it to maximum performance mode.

» How to Tune SSD to Improve Windows 7 Performance?

How to Tune SSD to Improve Windows 7 Performance?

SSD setup under Windows 7

Introduction

Solid state drives, according to manufacturers, are noticeably faster than hard drives based on mechanics. Of course, their cost is much more expensive. Although SSD performance figures are high, many users claim that they can be improved. All that is required is the appropriate optimization and configuration of the SSD under Windows 7. The most effective ways in this article will be considered:

• Enable AHCI and TRIM
• Disabling system protection
• Disabling the paging file
• Disabling hibernation
• Disabling Windows 7 Record Caching
• Disabling Super fetch and Windows 7 search
• Power Options Settings

Enable AHCI and TRIM

Before starting the optimization, you need to make sure that the SATA controller can work in AHCI mode and the TRIM function in Windows 7 is activated.

During system startup, press the DELETE key and see that AHCI mode is enabled in the BIOS for your SATA controller. This mode is required to support TRIMa on SSD. You can also verify this by doing the following in the system:

• In the start menu "Start" select "Control Panel"
• Select "System" and switch to classic view (small and large icons mode)
• Go to "Device Manager"
• Search for an item with a list of ATA / ATAPI and IDE controllers
• If there is such an item, your system is already loaded with AHCI mode enabled

If the operating system was installed with IDE mode, then you need to switch to AHCI mode in the BIOS, provided that the "motherboard" supports this functionality.

• Check if TRIM support is enabled
• Check TRIM to make sure mode commands are sent by Windows 7 to the SSD.
• In the start menu of applications, type [ cmd ] on the keyboard to search for the built-in command line
• Click on it with the right mouse button, choosing "Run as administrator"
• On the command line, write [ fsutil behavior query Disable Delete Notify ]

If the Disable Delete Notify parameter is 0, the TRIM function is enabled. If the value is 1, it is disabled.

Do not use parentheses when entering a command.

The SATA - TRIM protocol command will tell the OS which blocks of the previously recorded data on the SSD will never be needed in the future due to deleting files or formatting the disk.

Disabling system protection

The "System Protection" function should be disabled to limit the number of write operations on SSD drives, as well as to return the space freed up by disabling it back to the SSD.

Disable disk indexing

Description of the deactivation process:

You may see a pop-up window reporting an error in applying attributes to files, which is normal. Selecting the "Ignore all" option, continue your steps.

The meaning of disabling disk indexing boils down to the following:

1. Disk indexing was developed for mechanical devices in order to provide quick access to information. Given that the response time of an SSD drive is approximately 0.1 ms, there is no need to enable this technology.
2. Eliminating unnecessary read-write operations on the SSD, we get a minimal effect. But keep in mind that actions that allow you to limit the number of write cycles on the SSD will help increase the life of the SSD.

Disabling the paging file

• Right click on the "My Computer" icon
• Select "Properties"
• Select the "Advanced" tab
• In the "Performance" section, click on the "Settings" button
• Select the "Advanced" tab and click on the "Change for virtual memory" button
• Remove the checkbox "Automatically select the size of the paging file"
• Agree to accept the changes by confirming the system reboot, and the next step is to disable swap for your SSD drive.

The paging file is a Windows functionality that is designed to help the computer's physical memory in case of insufficient capacity, allowing the transfer of part of the information from the "RAM" to the hard drive to free up the available RAM. Disabling the PageFile function will free up space reserved for paging on the hard drive.

Disabling hibernation

Disabling hibernation will free up 2 Gb (possibly more, depending on the amount of installed RAM) of SSD disk space. This functionality will not provide significant benefits due to fast loading.

Description of the deactivation process:

• In the start menu search type [ cmd ] to search for Windows 7 utility
• Right click on the cmd program and run it as administrator
• At the command line type [ powercfg -h off ]

Hibernation helps to quickly restore work in the system after inactivity. When it is used, the information contained in the random access memory device is written to disk, and then read out upon awakening.

Disabling Windows Record Caching

Description of the deactivation process:

• Press the right mouse button on the "My Computer" icon, selecting "Properties"
• Select "Device Manager"
• Select "Disk Drives"
• Press the right mouse button on the SSD, choosing "Properties"
• On the "Policy" tab, remove the "checkbox" from the item "Allow caching records on this device"

The write caching functionality in Windows 7 can access high-speed RAM and accumulate commands that then need to be executed on an SSD drive. SSD drives outperform mechanical hard drives in speed, so there is no speed gain when using cache.

Disabling Superfetch and Windows Search

Description of the deactivation process:

• Press Windows Key + R to enter the application launcher dialog.
• Type and press the Enter button.
• Scrolling the scrollbar to Superfetch, right-click on it, selecting Properties
• From the "Startup type" drop-down menu, selecting "Disabled", click OK.
• After scrolling the "scrollbar" to the item "Windows Search", right-click on it, selecting "Properties"
• Click on the "Stop" button, then on "Startup Type" and select "Disabled".

The Windows Search feature creates an index of some folders, files, and additional items on your devices. It is located in the Program Data Microsoft Search folder on the TRIMa:/ drive and takes up approximately 10% of the contents of the indexed information. When searching for any file, parts of the indexes are loaded into memory. This will provide a fairly fast search. This functionality will not make a big difference, and it can also negatively affect the performance of the SSD drive.

Disabling Clear Page File At Shutdown and Large System Cache

Description of the deactivation process:

• Type in the start menu
• Select the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM Current Control Set Control Session Manager Memory Management
• Press the right mouse button on the item "Clear Page File At Shutdown" and "Large System Cache"
• After selecting "Change", change the value from 1 to 0, and then restart the system.

This OS functionality is designed to clear the paging file. This leads to an increase in the number of read-write operations. Since the swap file was previously disabled, there is no reason to use purge anymore, since there is nothing to purge.

The Large System Cache parameter indicates whether the operating system supports a standard cache size or an increased one, and is also responsible for the frequency of processing cached data. Enabling Large System Cache mode will reduce the amount of physical memory available to applications and services.

Setting power options:

• Open your "Control Panel"
• Select "System and Security"
• Select the power settings item
• Check the box "High performance" by applying it with the OK button
• Select "Power Plan Settings" for your "High Performance" plan
• Click on Change advanced power settings
• In the "Hard Disk" item, set the drop-down menu for disabling the hard disk to the "Never" mode
• Click OK to save the setting.

Conclusion

Setting up an SSD under Windows 7 can affect system performance, either positively or negatively. Let's assume that there is no need to enable write caching when using the Intel X25M/G2, since the performance increase in this case, as is usually the case, is not achieved. So is it worth doing the actions discussed in the article at all?

One important factor in SSD optimization is the increase in storage capacity.

This will give an undeniable advantage if the Windows 7 operating system is installed on the SSD. It becomes possible to install more software, games and other software. Disabling system protection, disk indexing, paging file, and hibernation will result in a slight increase in performance, but the free capacity of the SSD will increase significantly.

The most discussed issue among SSD users is disabling, moving or keeping the swap file. There is no unequivocal opinion and there are many supporters of various options. If you plan to disable the paging file, then you need to check the amount of memory used by Windows 7. Make sure that the amount of installed memory is half the maximum used. In this case, the paging file can be disabled without loss of PC performance. Alternatively, its size can be reduced or even transferred.

Disabling unnecessary operations when reading and writing data to an SSD drive effectively affects the life of the device. Considering the cost of SSDs, this is an important advantage.

As a result, the user himself decides whether he needs to set up an SSD under Windows 7 or not. This OS from Microsoft already works quite well with an SSD, but with the help of additional optimization steps, there is the possibility of a small performance gain compared to working with the "default" settings.