Seeking tips for tuning a Windows-based SSD
Phillip Mitchell wants to make the most of his new solid-state hard drive.
“I recently splurged and bought a 1TB SSD. It’s the only drive on my computer. Could you give some advice on how to set up SSDs for best performance?
“There is a lot of conflicting information out on the Web, such as turn on/off hibernation and/or the pagefile (I have 12GB of memory) and so forth.
“Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.”
The technology for solid-state drives used for desktops and laptops is still relatively new, and some unusual combinations of drive, OS, BIOS, and so on can cause trouble.
But on normal, mainstream setups — i.e., current-generation SSDs on standard Win7 or Win8 PCs — you shouldn’t need to do anything special to get the most from your SSD.
Here’s what you should know about SSD maintenance.
TRIM: Periodically, SSDs need to be run through a TRIM process (more info), which prepares previously used sections of the drive for rapid reuse. Without TRIM, an SSD will, over time, drastically slow down.
Both Win7 and Win8 automatically apply TRIM as needed to SSDs. No user intervention is required. (See the Jan. 7, 2010, LangaList Plus column, “Windows, solid-state disks, and ‘trim.'”)
SuperFetch: The SSD-aware routines in Win7/8 also disable SuperFetch (info) automatically to help improve performance. SSDs are so fast that SuperFetch’s file pre-caching would only cause delays, needless drive wear, and wasted disk space.
Windows 7 totally disables SuperFetch; Win8 selectively disables it on SSDs while leaving it enabled for conventional drives. (See the related Microsoft video clip.)
Defragging: The classic method for boosting performance on conventional drives isn’t needed on SSDs. The mechanical parts of a standard drive cause various amounts of read/write latency. But an SSD is completely electronic; accessing one data location is just as fast as accessing any other. Not only is it pointless to rearrange your files on an SSD for improved performance, the process wastes time and causes needless drive wear.
Both Win7 and Win8 know not to defrag an SSD. Vista, however, does not; you should manually disable or unschedule defrag operations on SSD-equipped Vista PCs.
Partition alignment: Incorrectly aligned partitions can also reduce drive performance. But all current versions of Windows are partition alignment (info)–aware — both for classic hard drives and SSDs. Again, no user intervention is required. (For more on this topic, see the Oct. 4, 2012, LangaList Plus column, “Drive alignment and solid-state drives.”)
So to maximize SSD performance, you don’t really need to do anything. Win7 and Win8 generally handle these already fast drives just fine, on their own.
Removing the pagefile and/or the hibernation file won’t improve drive performance per se but does free up drive space.
That’s generally a worthy goal, though there are good and bad ways to do it. You’ll recall that the pagefile (info) is disk space used as virtual memory. When Windows is running out of space in physical RAM, it temporarily relocates some lower-priority or infrequently changing data from fast RAM to the much slower hard drive — to the pagefile. Effectively, this lets Windows use far more RAM than is actually installed.
Windows can run with either a smaller pagefile or with no pagefile at all — saving disk space. However, if you run lots of apps or really big files, exhausting your physical RAM — and there’s no available pagefile — something’s gotta give. Apps might crash or fail to load, the OS could stutter or blue-screen, or there could be some other unexpected consequence. In terms of system stability, it could feel like you’ve turned the clock back to Windows 3.
So you can run your PC without a pagefile, but only if you’re careful to never load more programs and data than your RAM can hold. That’s not always an easy task to manage. I routinely exceed my main system’s 8GB of RAM. When that happens, Windows uses the pagefile to temporarily borrow some disk space. That’s how the OS is supposed to work.
Only Phillip can say whether his 12GB of system RAM is sufficient to live without a pagefile. Depending on his computing load, 12GB of RAM might simply delay the onset of trouble. To be safe, he’ll need to monitor RAM use and limit the number of apps running at any one time. That’s not how Windows is supposed to work.
That said, here’s how you reduce or delete the pagefile. In a Win7/8 admin account, click Control Panel/System and Security/System. Next, click the Advanced system settings link in the left pane. Follow steps 3 through 7 on the Microsoft help page, “Change the size of virtual memory.”
Removing the hibernation file: Windows creates a hibernation file (info) when you select either hibernation or hybrid sleep. (See the MS FAQ, “Sleep and hibernation: frequently asked questions.”) A hibernation file stores the full contents of RAM, information about what the CPU is doing, and the state of important system services and devices. When you restart your system, Windows uses the hibernation file to more quickly restore the system to its previous, fully active state.
You can eliminate the hibernation file to save space, if you’re willing to forego the hibernation or hybrid-sleep options. But you might also increase the chances of data loss. If your PC is in standard sleep/suspend mode and you lose power or the battery runs down, you will permanently lose any unsaved data.
So, as with the pagefile, I don’t recommend disabling hibernation. But of course, it’s up to you. For help on removing the hibernation file, see the MS page, “How to disable and re-enable hibernation on a computer that is running Windows.” To ensure that hibernation won’t reactivate, deselect all hibernation and hybrid sleep options in your PC’s power profiles prior to removing the hibernation file.
A better way to gain SSD space: Instead of deleting system files and disabling Windows features, simply enable Windows’ built-in file-and-folder compression for your bulkier user folders (e.g., Documents) — or enable drive compression for the entire drive. (See the Sept. 12, 2013, LangaList Plus item, “Two ways to solve a space crunch on SSDs.”) Compression can shrink files an average of 30 to 50 percent, so it’s an excellent way to maximize space without having to delete system files or give up functionality.
In short, on Windows 7/8 PCs, you can have all the speed benefits of today’s mainstream SSDs without resorting to any special performance tricks.
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