Superfetch On Or Off?

davedudes · 17 Aug 2009 at 18:11

Ive heard people saying they switch it off because in the long run it can run your HD in the ground, on the other hand some people say leave on it can speed up your system. So what do you guys think?

asim18 · 17 Aug 2009 at 18:25

Dolph · 17 Aug 2009 at 18:29

On, anyone who said otherwise clearly has no clue what they are talking about. Superfetch is one of the best performance enhancing features of Vista/7

Ratbag · 17 Aug 2009 at 18:40

On. If hard drive thrashing is a problem, reduce the areas of indexing or switch that off instead if you don't use it.

Mattus · 17 Aug 2009 at 18:40

On. Your HD won't really wear out any faster because you access it a bit more.

Burnsy2023 · 17 Aug 2009 at 18:46

Mattus said:
On. Your HD won't really wear out any faster because you access it a bit more.

It won't affect the failure rate at all according to Google research.

davedudes · 17 Aug 2009 at 18:50

Thanks guys, i personally leave it on, just wanted to know your views on the matter

pingwing · 17 Aug 2009 at 19:00

It makes vista feel like a propper os (been getting used to osx having basically a similar feature in spotlight) and going back to xp feels a little bit rubbish without it...

MadMatty · 17 Aug 2009 at 19:57

OFF, If you turn the computer off after use. Can take ages to preload stuff. the more memory to fill the more hd thrashing occurs which slows down execution of other apps.

On If you use the sleep function as it wont have to keep preloading.

I have mine set to just preload boot files as other wise it can spend upto an hour just preloading games I havent fires up for months, mp3's and emulation roms. Preloading dir of mame roms ....it goes on forever

Can look at all the useless stuff its preloading in resource manager.

Mattus · 17 Aug 2009 at 20:10

MadMatty said:
OFF, If you turn the computer off after use.

What? The main benefit is in if you've turned the machine off. When I (rarely) shut my machine down, I turn it on and go and get a cup of tea. By the time I get back, Firefox and all my commonly-used apps load right up.

The thrashing shouldn't slow anything down because it runs with a low I/O priority.

tolien · 17 Aug 2009 at 20:27

If you're turning the machine off for power/noise saving, you could always use (Hybrid) Sleep. Same effect, but the data's left intact so less thrashing.

Amnesia · 17 Aug 2009 at 20:59

vista OFF
win7 ON

Burnsy2023 · 17 Aug 2009 at 21:14

Amnesia said:
vista OFF
win7 ON

Why? I don't think they've even changed SuperFetch in 7.

Memphis · 17 Aug 2009 at 21:17

Burnsy2023 said:
Why?

Ignorance

.

Dolph · 17 Aug 2009 at 21:19

MadMatty said:
OFF, If you turn the computer off after use. Can take ages to preload stuff. the more memory to fill the more hd thrashing occurs which slows down execution of other apps.

Which is what readyboost is for.

Tute · 17 Aug 2009 at 22:57

ON, always.

Seriously, what's the point of leaving it off? Give one good reason - and no, HDD thrashing is NOT one as it's more likely to be Defender/Indexing.

MikeHunt79 · 17 Aug 2009 at 23:06

Tute said:
ON, always.

Seriously, what's the point of leaving it off? Give one good reason - and no, HDD thrashing is NOT one as it's more likely to be Defender/Indexing.

noise

Faustus · 17 Aug 2009 at 23:23

MikeHunt79 said:
noise

What noise? My HP Quadcore Viiv PC with WD Blue whisper quiet HD is genuinely so quiet that I hardly know there is a PC in the room. That was one of my main reasons for buying it as I work from home sometimes and have quite a demanding job which requires quiet and concentration.

If you want noise well come and listen to my old P4 with the HD not suppressed in any way - that sound like our microwave oven going full chat!

barnettgs · 17 Aug 2009 at 23:23

Off, off, off!!!

marc2003 · 18 Aug 2009 at 00:10

hard disk thrashing? never noticed it tbh. and i only have some old hitachi drive i bought from purple shirt land. :eek:

turning it off is losing one of the best features of vista/7 over xp.