SSD performance improvements

sdfuk

sdfuk

sdfuk

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Just found these suggestions on the net - would anyone agree / disagree: Got my ssd sitting on the table so will hopefully install tonight.


Increase System Speed
Disable indexing
Description: Indexing creates and maintains a database of file attributes. This can lead to multiple small writes when creating/deleting/modifying files. Searching for files will still work.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Windows Search -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK

Disable defragmentation
Description: Defragmenting a hard disk's used space is only useful on mechanical disks with multi-millisecond latencies. Free-space defragmentation may be useful to SSDs, but this feature is not available in the default Windows Defragmenter.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Disk Defragmenter -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK

Disable Write Caching
Description: There is no cache on the SSD, so there are no benefits to write caching. There are conflicting reports on whether this gains speed or not.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Device Manager -> Disk drives -> Right-Click STEC PATA -> Properties -> Policies Tab -> Uncheck Enable write caching -> OK

Configure Superfetch
Description: Frees up RAM by not preloading program files.
Instructions: On second glance, I would recommend leaving this one alone. However, there are some customizations that you can follow in the post below.

Firefox - Use memory cache instead of disk cache
Description: If you use Firefox, there's a way to write cached files to RAM instead of the hard disk. This is not only faster, but will significantly reduce writes to the SSD while using the browser.
Instructions: Open Firefox -> Type about:config into the address bar -> Enter -> double-click browser.cache.disk.enable to set the value to False -> Right-Click anywhere -> New -> Integer -> Preference Name "disk.cache.memory.capacity" -> value memory size in KB. Enter 32768 for 32MB, 65536 for 64MB, 131072 for 128MB, etc. -> restart Firefox

Free up extra drive space
Disable the Page File
Description: Eliminate writing memory to the SSD, free over 2GB of disk space. Warning - If you run out of memory the program you're using will crash.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Settings (Performance) -> Advanced Tab -> Change -> Uncheck Automatically manage -> No paging file -> Set -> OK -> Restart your computer
Alternatively, if you want to play it safer, you can set a custom size of 200MB min and max.

Disable System Restore
Description: Don't write backup copies of files when installing new programs or making system changes. Can free up between a few hundred MB to a couple GB. Warning - Although unlikely, if a driver installation corrupts your system, there won't be an automatic way to recover.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> System Protection Tab -> Configure -> Turn off system protection -> Delete -> OK

Disable Hibernate
Description: You may free up 1GB of space on the SSD if you have 1GB of memory, 2GB of space if you have 2GB memory. You will lose the hibernation feature which allows the equivalent of quick boots and shutdowns.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off -> Type exit
 
sdfuk said:
Just found these suggestions on the net - would anyone agree / disagree: Got my ssd sitting on the table so will hopefully install tonight.


Increase System Speed
Disable indexing
Description: Indexing creates and maintains a database of file attributes. This can lead to multiple small writes when creating/deleting/modifying files. Searching for files will still work.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Windows Search -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK
Click to expand...

Agree/Disagree. You won't notice it. The SSD is fast enough that it makes this redundant however, so it's fine to disable it.

Disable defragmentation
Description: Defragmenting a hard disk's used space is only useful on mechanical disks with multi-millisecond latencies. Free-space defragmentation may be useful to SSDs, but this feature is not available in the default Windows Defragmenter.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Disk Defragmenter -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK
Click to expand...

Agree. Ensure it is disabled. For Windows 7 it should do this automatically on your SSD. You can leave the service/application running if you have mechanical drives in addition to your SSD. Just check the Schedule does not include your SSD instead.

Disable Write Caching
Description: There is no cache on the SSD, so there are no benefits to write caching. There are conflicting reports on whether this gains speed or not.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Device Manager -> Disk drives -> Right-Click STEC PATA -> Properties -> Policies Tab -> Uncheck Enable write caching -> OK
Click to expand...

Disagree, you'll see a difference in benchmarks.

Configure Superfetch
Description: Frees up RAM by not preloading program files.
Instructions: On second glance, I would recommend leaving this one alone. However, there are some customizations that you can follow in the post below.
Click to expand...

Agree. You can leave it. Windows 7 _should_ disable this if it finds an SSD, but rarely does (I have had one install where it did). I can't tell any difference with it on/off.

Firefox - Use memory cache instead of disk cache
Description: If you use Firefox, there's a way to write cached files to RAM instead of the hard disk. This is not only faster, but will significantly reduce writes to the SSD while using the browser.
Instructions: Open Firefox -> Type about:config into the address bar -> Enter -> double-click browser.cache.disk.enable to set the value to False -> Right-Click anywhere -> New -> Integer -> Preference Name "disk.cache.memory.capacity" -> value memory size in KB. Enter 32768 for 32MB, 65536 for 64MB, 131072 for 128MB, etc. -> restart Firefox
Click to expand...

I don't use Firefox, but would tend to agree if you have the RAM. This would be true whether SSD or mechanical HD. I wouldn't change it just to reduce the writes though, they will be insignificant in the scheme of things.

Free up extra drive space
Disable the Page File
Description: Eliminate writing memory to the SSD, free over 2GB of disk space. Warning - If you run out of memory the program you're using will crash.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Settings (Performance) -> Advanced Tab -> Change -> Uncheck Automatically manage -> No paging file -> Set -> OK -> Restart your computer
Alternatively, if you want to play it safer, you can set a custom size of 200MB min and max.
Click to expand...

Agree in general. If you need a page file leave it on the SSD, by all means reduce it to a fixed size. You may see other recommendations to move it to a mechanical drive, I disagree with that!

Disable System Restore
Description: Don't write backup copies of files when installing new programs or making system changes. Can free up between a few hundred MB to a couple GB. Warning - Although unlikely, if a driver installation corrupts your system, there won't be an automatic way to recover.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> System Protection Tab -> Configure -> Turn off system protection -> Delete -> OK

Disable Hibernate
Description: You may free up 1GB of space on the SSD if you have 1GB of memory, 2GB of space if you have 2GB memory. You will lose the hibernation feature which allows the equivalent of quick boots and shutdowns.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off -> Type exit
Click to expand...

Horses for courses. If you don't use these features turn them off and give you back the space.
 
Disable indexing - left it on

Disable defragmentation - disable it

Disable Write Caching - left it on

Configure Superfetch - left it as it is on

Firefox - Use memory cache instead of disk cache - yep done this

Disable the Page File - limited it to 4gb min/max and left it on the ssd drive

Disable System Restore - disabled dont use it

Disable Hibernate - disabled dont use it

also winrar, make sure you set the path to a normal drive, default unzipping path is set to c drive
 
wolvers69 said:
Can you elaborate a bit more on that please?
Click to expand...

when you unzip a file to lets say d drive, by default winrar will unzip it into c:\appdata\ temp .... and then move it to D drive

so writing to your c (ssd) drive then moving everytime you unzip / rar something

in winrar click on options / settings / path and change it to the appropriate drive
 
maddness said:
when you unzip a file to lets say d drive, by default winrar will unzip it into c:\appdata\ temp .... and then move it to D drive

so writing to your c (ssd) drive then moving everytime you unzip / rar something

in winrar click on options / settings / path and change it to the appropriate drive
Click to expand...

What's the benefit of the tweak?

The other tweak not mentioned, that I forgot about earlier, is that from a space perspective, it's a good idea to move your documents (C:\Users\foldernames) to a storage drive or home server drive.

You need to be selective what you move though, as many games will write saves and custom maps/mods to the C:\User\variablegamefoldername and moving them could spoil your gaming experience if that was why you bought an SSD :)
 
well for me I only have the 40gb ssd drives so space is one thing, I had intended to unzip files to another drive only, but without the above it always writes to the c drive unnecessarily and then transfers to another, just an observation really which might be of some help to some as its not something you'll notice straight away.
 
Win7 will disable most of that itself as soon as it even sniffs and SSD ;)
For those of you who just checked and saw those services running, I can assure you there not running on your SSD, only any machanical drives you have.
 
maddness said:
when you unzip a file to lets say d drive, by default winrar will unzip it into c:\appdata\ temp .... and then move it to D drive

so writing to your c (ssd) drive then moving everytime you unzip / rar something

in winrar click on options / settings / path and change it to the appropriate drive
Click to expand...

Gotcha, thanks.
 
maddness said:
well for me I only have the 40gb ssd drives so space is one thing, I had intended to unzip files to another drive only, but without the above it always writes to the c drive unnecessarily and then transfers to another, just an observation really which might be of some help to some as its not something you'll notice straight away.
Click to expand...

Thanks Maddness. Good tip for those with little space :)

Venares said:
Win7 will disable most of that itself as soon as it even sniffs and SSD ;)
For those of you who just checked and saw those services running, I can assure you there not running on your SSD, only any machanical drives you have.
Click to expand...

Not so Venares, out of about 20-30 clean installs of Windows 7 to various SSDs only once has it reliably disabled all the features mentioned in this article by MS. The only tweak it seems to reliably apply is to disable defrag on the SSD. Superfetch, boot prefetching, application launch prefetching, ReadyBoost and ReadDrive should all be disabled if Windows 7 identifies a suitable SSD. The need to disable them is questionable, but from my experience is that these are not reliably disabled during setup.
 
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