While reading through forums, I’ve noticed that a ton of people are now using solid state drives (SSDs) instead of hard disk drives (HDDs) for their operating system partition and, sometimes, for the entire computer’s storage. That’s all fine and dandy, but if you run an SSD, you pretty much don’t benefit as much from it as you would if you knew how to prepare your operating system for it. Windows 7 supports certain features that SSDs need to operate at optimum velocity, but it doesn’t enable them by default. This means that you have to come in and change OS settings to support the full potential of your SSD. Let’s get down to it!
1. Enable AHCI
The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a paramount feature for ensuring that Windows will support all of the features that come with running an SSD on your computer, especially the TRIM feature, which allows Windows to help the SSD perform its routine garbage collection. The term “garbage collection” is used to describe the phenomenon that occurs when a drive gets rid of information that is no longer considered to be in use.
To enable AHCI, you’ll have to enter the BIOS of your computer and enable it somewhere within its settings. I can’t tell you exactly where the setting is, as each BIOS functions differently. You’ll have to do a bit of hunting. Chances are that newer computers will have this enabled by default. It’s most recommended that you enable this feature before installing the operating system, although you might be able to get away with enabling it after Windows has already been installed.
2. Enable TRIM
We’ve talked about TRIM enough in the previous section. You could see how such a feature would benefit your computer’s speed greatly, so let’s get to enabling it!
Open up your command prompt and enter the following:
fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0 |
That’s all you have to do! Onto the next step!
3. Disable System Restore
This isn’t an obligation. But, just so you know, your drive doesn’t exactly have infinite space. System restore undermines both the speed and space of your SSD. Why don’t you just get rid of it?
Click your Start menu, right-click “Computer,” and click “Properties.” Click “System Protection” on the upper left-hand corner:
Once in the window, click “Configure,” like so:
Once in the configuration dialog, click “Turn off system protection.” Click “OK” and you’re all set!
4. Disable Indexing
A good part of your SSD speed is consumed in indexing files for Windows search. This could be useful if you store everything you have on your SSD, but you might be annoyed by it if you experience slow-downs due to the periodic indexing process that occurs every time you add new data to the drive. You’re better off without it in an SSD, because the speed boost from the indexing process is superfluous in such environments.
Click your Start menu and click “Computer.” Right-click your SSD and click “Properties.” De-select the box labeled “Allow files to have contents indexed in addition to file properties” and click “OK.” Once you do this, the operating system will apply this to all the files and folders on the drive. If you see a dialog telling you that it couldn’t remove a file from the index, click “Ignore All.” That will streamline the process and ignore any errors.
5. Disable Scheduled Defragmentation
Because the SSD is a solid media with no moving parts, you often don’t see a performance drop due to file fragmentation. Therefore, there’s no need to actually defragment the drive as frequently as you would defragment an HDD, per se. That’s why we’re about to disable this!
Access your Start menu, click “Accessories,” click “System Tools,” and then click “Disk Defragmenter.” Click “Configure schedule,” like so:
Once in the schedule configuration window, uncheck the box labeled “Run on a schedule.” Click “OK,” and you won’t have to worry about scheduled defragmentations again.
6. Remove The Page File
The page file in Windows refers to a file on a disk reserved for the storage of application components that would otherwise fit into physical memory. It’s like a form of RAM on your hard drive. Disabling the page file on a solid state drive would greatly increase the focus it would have on running system processes. Don’t do this if you run your computer solely on one SSD. If you paired an SSD with an HDD, then you can easily configure the HDD to handle the page file. The most ideal setup, though, is one SSD to run the page file, another SSD to run Windows, and an HDD for storage.
The process of configuring the page file differs based on your setup, so we’re only going to teach you how to reach the configuration window.
Right-click “Computer” in the Start menu and click “Properties.” Click “Advanced system settings” on the top left-hand side of the window and access the “Advanced” tab. Click “Settings” under “Performance.” You should now be at a window like this:
Click the “Advanced” tab and click “Change.” The rest of the configuration process should be easy enough!
7. Disable Hibernation
Windows occupies at least 2 GB for the hibernation state image. If you want to keep it, that’s fine by me, but you’re not getting all the juice you can out of your drive. Type “powercfg -h off” in your command line to disable it. You’ll be thankful for those two extra gigabytes when you have an intense game to install on it!
8. Disable Prefetch and Superfetch
Windows sometimes places information in your physical memory and virtual memory belonging to programs that you don’t currently use, but use very often. This is known as “Prefetch” and “Superfetch.” If you are stuck with having to cope with virtual memory on your SSD, you’re better off just doing away with these two features. You can find them on your registry editor under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters |
as two values: EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch. Set both values to zero and be done with it!
9. Configure Write Caching
On many SSDs, user level write caching can have a detrimental effect on the drive. To figure this out, you’ll have to disable the option in Windows and see how the drive performs afterwards. If your drive performs worse, enable it again.
To reach the configuration window, right-click “Computer” on the Start menu and click “Properties.” Click “Device manager,” expand “Disk Drives,” right-click your SSD, and click “Properties.” Select the “Policies” tab. In this tab, you’ll see an option labeled “Enable write caching on the device.”
Benchmark your SSD with and without the option and compare results.
10. Disable Services for Windows Search and Superfetch
Even with the above-mentioned registry tweak and index removal, your computer might continue slowing your hard drive with their respective services. Press “Win+R” on your keyboard, type “services.msc,” and press “Enter.” Find both services mentioned in the title of this section and disable them.
11. Disable ClearPageFileAtShutdown and LargeSystemCache
Windows is quick to implement things that are no longer necessary. An SSD operates on flash memory, making it possible to easily overwrite things on the disk. Therefore, the page file doesn’t need to be erased while the computer’s shutting down. This will make the Windows shutdown process much faster. LargeSystemCache, on the other hand, exists primarily in Server versions of Windows, and tells the computer whether to use a large cache for pages on the drive.
Both these options are found in your registry editor under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management |
Set them to 0.
12. Set the “High Performance” Power Option
This should be a no-brainer. When your SSD powers on and off all the time, you’ll notice a slight lag whenever you use your computer after you’ve been idle for a while.
To switch your power options, access your control panel, click “System and Security,” and then click “Power Options.” Select “High Performance” from the list. You might need to click “Show additional plans” to find it.
The Finale
And that’s how you reach SSD Nirvana! If you have any questions, shoot them at us in the comments section, and we’ll get to you as soon as we can!
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you will most likely need drivers if you enable ACHI for OS install. A lot of ppl get stuck right here because it will complain that the cdrom isn’t detected etc.
For the memory management settings it should read:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSessionManagerMemory Management(left out “SYSTEM”)
Before enabling AHCI, you MUST do the following http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976
AHCI is only applicable in non-RAID setups
not true, not even close…
TRIM will work under IDE mode; AHCI is not needed.
The pagefile should always be kept on an SSD, not a mechanical HDD. An SSD is ideally suited for the fast frequent writes a page file will receive. Moving these writes to an HDD will slow down the system needlessly; there’s nothing to be gained, unless your SSD is so full that it can’t accommodate a page file, in which case you really should move up to a larger unit. Dedicating a second SSD for a page file works, but appears to be overkill, unless you just happen to have one lying about collecting dust.
I would like to run a HDD for everything else (programs, user files) and dedicate the SSD for the OS. Since the OS will create all the User file structures on the SSD upon setup, how do I move all that to the HDD and manage the two sepeate drives. Is it as easy as just recreating folders on the HDD and pointing everything there (downloads, program installs)?
It’s not that easy
I used symlinks to redirect User files structure and similar to regular HDD.
It works fine so far
With Windows 8, there are now some new caveats. Win8 gives us something called “fast startup”, which makes use of the hiberfile to hibernate the kernel session. This greatly improves startup times, in my case less then 8 seconds from my SSD. So if you disable hibernate, you can’t take advantage of “fast startup”, which for me helps makes the value proposition of the SSD worthwhile. The second caveat is that if you turn off indexing, some of the tile apps like photo & music can’t find your pictures & mp3′s. You don’t need to store photos on the SSD for the app to work, but those must rely on indexing to find them even if they are.
Well, thank you a lot ! Now my computer won’t boot up and i’ll have to reinstall everything…
How about some warning or something….
Petr—>Which part of the instructions caused this? This info would be greatly appreciated before myself or anyone else starts optimizing our ssd’s. thx
Generally a poor article.
First and foremost, AHCI is not needed for TRIM. In fact, I’d recommend NOT enabling AHCI. There are too many people having SSD freezing problems with AHCI enabled. Also NCQ (part of AHCI) has limited benefit for an SSD and has the penitential to hamper performance. Do not enable AHCI!
Secondly, many of the other suggestions are all about paranoia. If you really think you SSD is going to die if you use it, then you bought the wrong SSD.
There are a few good ideas (such as ensuring defrag is not scheduled), but this article has far too many incorrect assumptions. It should should be pulled from the site.
I am sorry if you believe this is a poor piece. I have a rebuttal, though:
1) Correct. NCQ has been shown by some critics to have a slow-down effect on the SSD. People are welcome to turn AHCI off if they experience problems. However…. The benchmarks I’ve seen were performed on single-core computers. As I’m sure you know, the CPU sends instructions to the hard drive. Let’s see how the benchmarks test out on our machines:
Without NCQ:
I/O: 208.12 MB/s (R)/ 38.12 MB/s (W)
With NCQ:
I/O: 228.15 MB/s (R)/ 72.80 MB/s (W)
I’d call that an improvement. Others have speculated on this as well: http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Why-do-i-need-AHCI-with-a-SSD-Drive-Guide-Here-Crucial-AHCI-vs/td-p/57078
A link to an overview mentioning NCQ and performance on SSDs (a more reputable source): http://techreport.com/review/15931/intel-x25-e-extreme-solid-state-drive
You now have the benchmarks from a server running an SSD (performed in front of me), the benchmarks from a forum user, and a reputable source detailing how NCQ is used in spindle-less environments (despite the fact it was designed for hard disk drives).
2) Perhaps it would be paranoia for the occasional desktop user. I’m sure people change equipment more often than every 20 years. However, some people like to install their old hard drives on their new machines to maintain the same data. While you can argue against my paranoia (and I completely respect the use of that term, given that I’m a little edgy even about the most durable hardware), many people (including myself) leave their computers on for more than 8-10 hours a day. I have two servers running night and day hosting a number of CPU and HDD-intensive applications. Through the wear and tear, I often find myself changing equipment at the very most every five years (sometimes every year).
3) I’m sincerely curious about what incorrect assumptions you’d like to point out. This is not a challenge. It is an invitation to discuss :)
All the best!
- Miguel
If you’re speaking about write caching (I just did skimmed a bit through the piece again)…. It’s a bit of a weird and inexplicable thing here. I have seen many people say that it’s better to have the SSD without it. But there have been sufficient people who also say that the opposite is true. While two SSDs I benchmarked perform better, there’s sufficient evidence showing the opposite on others throughout the Internet. It’s an ambiguous subject and that’s why I suggested that readers benchmark their drives with and without the feature to determine what’s best.
penitential -> potential
The spell checker went in the wrong direction (probably because my spelling was that far off to begin with).
Disabling write caching, at least on this system I just built (A Z77 board and Samsung 840 120 GB SSD) made 4k write speed drop so low that I literally couldn’t stand to finish the benchmark, down from 72 MB/s to 1.04 MB/s. So it definitely can have some disastrous results, don’t just leave it off assuming it’ll be better or at least not that much worse.
It happens a lot. SSDs can be very moody across different makes and models due to the different technologies used across generations. I’m glad you managed to remain with a decent speed with write caching.