Patch whether ssd for windows 7. Optimal configuration of the SSD drive

Even in very powerful PCs, the main brake for a long time remained hard drives(HDD). The reason for this phenomenon is that the principle of operation of such a disk is associated with the rotation of the spindle, and the rotation speed cannot be increased above a certain limit. This manifests itself in the form of delays in accessing data. Modern solid state drives(SSDs) are free from this shortcoming, but SSDs require some optimization to get the best performance. The article deals with issues related to setting up an SSD drive when working in Windows 7.

Intended use of SSD drives

Considering that the cost of an SSD is still significantly higher than the cost of an HDD (although there is a tendency to reduce it), then the main area of ​​​​application for SSDs is the media on which the operating system is installed. The speed of the system partition usually determines the overall speed of the PC, including the speed of loading and shutting down, the time it takes to perform most OS functions while the PC is running, which are sometimes even invisible to the user. Moreover, such an application does not require a high-capacity SSD, usually no more than 80 GB is enough, and the price of such a drive will not greatly affect the user's wallet.

The need for SSD optimization

Modern operating systems, not excluding Windows 7, were designed to work with SSDs, but many OS features designed for HDDs were still allowed for SSDs, although they did not give a performance increase, and sometimes even reduced it. These are features such as indexing, defragmentation, PreFetch, SuperFetch, ReadyBoot and some others.

An SSD, unlike a HDD, has a large but limited number of write cycles, which determines its “lifetime” and the reliability of the entire system as a whole. To achieve the maximum effect and maximum lifetime of such a drive, it is required to optimize (configure) both the SSD itself and Windows.

SSD Optimization

Before installing Windows 7 on an SSD, the following settings must be made:

• Make sure the SSD has the latest firmware. You can find out the current firmware version using the CrystalDiskInfo utility. Then you need to go to the SSD manufacturer's website and compare the current version with the latest one listed on the site. If the need to update the firmware is detected, then you need to know about it before installing the OS, otherwise all data will be lost after the update! The firmware must be updated in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions;
• Switch the SATA disk controller to AHCI mode. This mode allows you to use the latest technologies to increase the speed of disks, in particular SSDs. This mode supports technologies such as:
  1. Hot Plug, which provides "hot swap" and installation of the drive (without turning off the PC);
  2. NCQ, which supports deep command queues;
  3. TRIM, which significantly increases the performance of SSDs and their service life.

  Switching to this mode is done through the BIOS, but this is only if it is done before installing Windows. Switching to AHCI mode when the OS is already installed means getting an unpleasant effect - you will not be able to boot the OS;

• In cases where the "seven" is already installed, you can also switch to this mode if you know how to edit the system registry. To do this, you need to go through the branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci, find the Start parameter and set its value to 0. Then restart the PC, enter the BIOS and change the SATA controller mode to AHCI. After rebooting, Windows 7 will detect the new device and install it;
• When installing the OS, it is advisable to leave about 15-20% of the entire SSD capacity unallocated. This area will be used when the drive wears out gradually.

SSD Drive and Windows 7 Optimization

When optimizing, keep in mind that some actions will require editing system registry. Therefore, before performing optimization, you should create a restore point or a copy of the registry. It is also desirable to determine the index before optimization Windows performance 7, so that after it you can see the result of the settings.

SSD setup-disk when working in Windows 7 is to perform the following steps:

• Disable indexing for SSD drive. To do this, click Start - Computer. Then right-click on the system drive and select Properties. In the window that appears, there is an option "Allow the contents of files on this disk to be indexed in addition to file properties", you need to uncheck it;
• Disable automatic defragmentation of the SSD. The easiest way to do this is to type the word “defragmentation” in the search bar (by clicking the “Start” button) and click OK. A window will be displayed in which the only thing to do is to uncheck the “Run on schedule” item and click OK;
• Disable NTFS file system journaling. To do this, click "Start" and enter cmd in the search box. A window will appear for entering the command line (administrator privileges are required), in which you need to enter a command like fsutil usn deletejournal /D C: (if the system drive is C:) and press Enter;
• Disable sleep mode. If the OS is located on an SSD drive, then its loading without hibernation will be very fast, so there is no need for it. To do this, you need to do the same as in previous paragraph, but then enter the line -powercfg -h off and press Enter;
• Disable swap file. This action is desirable to perform if you have a 64-bit OS and a RAM size of 4 GB or more. To do this, you need to go along the path Computer - Properties - Advanced system settings - Advanced - Performance Settings - Advanced - Virtual memory - Change. Uncheck option automatic selection size and check the box "No paging file";
• If the paging file is still used, then disable the unloading of kernel codes and drivers from RAM. If they remain in RAM, the number of writes on the SSD will decrease and the system's response to user actions will improve. To do this, you need to open the registry key KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management, find the DisablePagingExecutive parameter in it and change its value to 1.

Optimization with SSD Tweaker

Many PC users do not have enough training to do manual setting Windows 7 under SSD. It is for them that the SSD Tweaker utility was developed. It exists in several versions - free and paid. In the demon paid version some features are disabled, but even without them, you can achieve optimal interaction between Windows 7 and SSD, and do it both manually and automatically.

Recently, solid state drives are gaining considerable popularity and are becoming more affordable. Considering that the speed SSD work-disks far exceeds the speed of conventional HDD-drives, it is quite logical that many people decide to increase the performance of their computer by purchasing this miracle of modern technology. A solid state drive can really help your computer "think" faster, but for this you should take into account several points, which we will talk about now.

Make SSD your system drive

Performance gains can only be achieved by installing an SSD as a system drive. Otherwise, the speed of work will increase only in those applications that are installed directly on the SSD, and even then not by much.

Update disk firmware

The newer the firmware version, the faster your SSD drive will work. The latest firmware version can always be found on the official website of the manufacturer. Download the driver and install in accordance with the instructions (should come with the driver).

Set up the system from scratch

On a new SSD drive, it is best to install the operating system from scratch, and not restore from an image. This will help avoid compatibility conflicts in future operation.

Disable other drives

Before installation operating system to an SSD drive, it is recommended to turn off the power or unplug the SATA cables from all other drives. This is necessary for Windows 7 to accurately determine the type of drive and reconfigure services to work with an SSD drive.

Set up a clean image

Only the original and full image Windows 7. "Optimized" Windows builds Of course, they take up less disk space, but they can disable or even remove services and functions that are vital for the stable operation of the operating system on an SSD.

Activate AHCI mode

Before installing Windows 7 on your SSD, enable SATA device recognition in AHCI mode in the BIOS settings. This option allows you to activate some new Windows features aimed at speeding up the disk subsystem.

Format the disk

If your SSD has already been used before, then before installing the operating system, you need to completely format it. Since the principle of writing data to HDD and SSD is significantly different, a quick format for an SSD will not be enough.

Mark up wisely

Partitioning a solid state drive into partitions is more convenient and reliable using third-party utilities, for example Acronis Disk Director.

Check

Having installed Windows 7 on your SSD, it does not hurt to check how correctly it is recognized by the system. For this, it is best to use free program CrystalDiskInfo. We launch the program and look at information about our disks. In line Rotational speed Disk type must be SSD. Also in line Capabilities the TRIM function must be specified.

Now let's check if AHCI mode is active. We go to the Task Manager and in the item IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers looking for a controller called AHCI. If there is none, then we restart the computer, go to the BIOS settings and try to activate the AHCI mode again.

Turn off indexing

The indexing feature helps speed up searches in the OR environment Windows systems. However, this option increases the load on the disk, thereby accelerating its wear and slowing down the work (a little, but still). In addition, the solid state drive, due to its high speed and without indexing, quickly finds necessary files. Therefore, you can safely disable indexing. To do this, go to Explorer, right-click on the icon of our SSD drive and select in context menu paragraph Properties. Then uncheck the option Allow the contents of files on this drive to be indexed in addition to file properties.

Disable the defrag service

Due to a different mechanism of operation than HDD, the defragmentation service is not needed for solid state drives and is even contraindicated (NAND memory used in SSD drives has a limited number of rewrite cycles). As a rule, Windows 7 during installation on an SSD drive automatically disables the defragmentation service, but if this does not happen, then we can disable it manually. Opening the menu Start, press Run and write in line: services.msc. Now we find the service in the list Disk Defragmenter, double-click on it with the mouse and in the field Launch type choose a parameter Disabled.

Turn off the creation of restore points

With the active function of creating Windows restore points, work is blocked that is very important for the SSD TRIM functions, which ultimately leads to a gradual decrease in the speed of the SSD drive. To disable the function of creating restore points by the operating system, right-click on the icon My computer, go to Properties and go to tab System protection. Here we press the button Tune and choose the item disable system protection.

Do you have any questions? - We will answer them for FREE

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. Windows setup 7 on the SSD nullifies all attempts by the OS to destroy it, and allows you to achieve better 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.

Ordinary HDD rarely can achieve a read speed of 180 MB / s. 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.

Photo: 512 KB random block reading test

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:

During the next Windows startup 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:

• controller solid state drive 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 checkpoints recovery, and in the event of a failure, you will not be able to use Windows Recovery. Therefore, it is worth using software other developers to provide recovery functionality, such as 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:

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:

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 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 detailed description and advice 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 and Windows optimization 7 under SSD - the process is not fast, 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.

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 is made up 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 are not in memory on this moment. 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 utility SSD manufacturer (eg Intel SSD Toolbox) recommends disabling SuperFetch, follow her 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 dispatcher Windows memory 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!

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

O: 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 complete shutdown swap file will not allow you to diagnose critical errors. 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. Surprised that the standard Windows installation 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.

Alexei

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."

Andrew

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, as I have many acquaintances who consider themselves experts, but make such mistakes and impose these mistakes 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 to fail to boot, then if I'm nearby, then I will restore the customized image installed system(thanks to the blog), but if a person called another “master”, then the first thing he will do is format the disk: (Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a smarter 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?))

Alexei

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.
Thank you.

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 :)

More recently, all computers worked with HDD, with low speed and low efficiency. But they have been replaced by a new generation of drives, the so-called SSDs, which are much faster than their older counterparts. Like all new devices, at first they were expensive, and their volumes did not differ in large capacity. But over time, manufacturers began to increase production volumes, and because of competition, the cost began to decline.

An SSD is a solid state drive that uses NAND memory that does not require electricity to store data. In fact, an SSD is a capacious flash drive that is characterized by high speed of writing and reading information.

It would seem, what else does an ordinary PC user need? But the SSD has one feature: excessive overwriting of data can completely disable it. Helps avoid trouble Windows setup 7 for optimal SSD performance, resulting in longer SSD life.

Why do you need an OS setup?

All flash drives have their own memory, it is based on chips. They don't have any moving parts like HDDs, so they don't take any kind of shock. SSD memory is made up of many cells that can wear out with a lot of overwriting.

And a very important point is correct setting OS, to transfer data to a flash drive, since calling some services and operations from the drive is slow if you do not configure Windows.

The setting will reduce the use of space, accesses to it, which will certainly increase the life of the removable media. If the SSD is used in normal mode, it can last for a decade, and if you use it actively, then the period is reduced to 2 years.

To install windows on the drive, you need to prepare the system. We check:

1. we go to the website of the manufacturer of the computer or SSD, check the relevance of the versions. If you intend to reflash it, then you can erase all the data, and you should know about this before installing the OS. Find information about the update, download it to your computer;
2. change system startup to BIOS setup on AHCI, that is, we set removable storage first. Use the latest modes, otherwise it will work with glitches;
3. removable media must be formatted, you can use windows tools, it is up to the task;
4. then you should check the system boot from removable media, connect it, create logical partitions on it. If it was previously split, then update them, delete the previous breakdown, and split again. Now install on it latest version disk controller driver, previously downloaded from the manufacturer's website.

Video: Optimizing SSD Drives

How to properly disable OS services and features

The many services and functions enabled by default in windows 7 slow down the system startup from an SSD, we will tell you how to disable them correctly, and which services it is not rational to disable. Since running services consume a lot of computer resources, disabling them will speed up the start, and the very operation of removable media.

Indexing and caching

Disable write cache, to do this, do the following:

The option to create a write cache in windows 7 constantly accesses the device's RAM, and records the most requested commands, and then they will be executed on removable media. But SSD is much faster than HDD, and this option is superfluous.

Indexing is useful only for the system with HDD, but for removable media it is not effective: it will not affect the speed, and the disk will last much less, since the index data will be constantly updated.

Disabling this feature will not affect the database, and therefore the shutdown operation will be transparent to system startup. Make a transition to disable:

• My computer;
• storage device;
• properties.

In the window that opens, uncheck the “allow indexing” option, and if the system gives you an error warning, you don’t need to return everything back, and uncheck it anyway.

defragmentation

Defragmentation is the process of redistributing fragments of files and logical structures file systems on disks to ensure a contiguous sequence of clusters. After thedefragmentation speeds up the reading and writing of files, and, consequently, the operation of programs and the operating system.

But at this stage, we do not need this function, so we disable defragmentation in automatic mode, it will only reduce its capabilities, so we perform the following steps:

1. press the Start button;
2. go to Find;
3. defragmentation.

In the window that opens, find the option "schedule settings", and remove it.

hibernation

Hibernation is a computer power-saving mode that allows you to save the contents of the OP to the hard disk before turning off the power. Windows has a similar functionality to save energy, these include both sleep and hibernation. These features are designed specifically for laptops that are in power saving mode.

Hibernation is computer data when it goes into sleep mode, Windows writes it down and saves it in the Hiberfil.sys folder on the HDD.

When you exit this mode, all data is unloaded and the computer starts from where it left off. If you disable this mode, then you can significantly increase the space, and if you start the system from it, then there is no need for them. The system will start much faster, and you can disable it from the start menu:

It is important to remember that the service should be started as a computer administrator, with the right mouse button.

When the command prompt opens, enter:

Powercfg -h off and press Enter. After these steps, the service will be disabled.

System Restore

With this function, you can roll back the system if some glitches have begun. Windows creates restore points, writes everything to separate file which takes up a lot of space. You can disable this feature, but it would be better if you limit the size of the file intended for system recovery for this:

• open the "My Computer" folder;
• select Properties;
• open additional options in the window;
• defense, then find system disk and click on the "configure" function;
• there is a slider in the window, with the help of which we set the value for using the volume of the file for recovery, 3% is enough.

Prefetch and SuperFetch

SuperFetch is responsible for caching the most requested files, and this service is not needed to start from the drive, and it should be disabled by following the instructions described below.

We disable the Prefetch service, it is responsible for loading programs into the computer's RAM, and in our case it is useless

Video: Disk Setup

How to move the swap file

Before proceeding with this setup, let's find out what a swap file is and why you need to move it at all.

Swap file or otherwise swap file(swap-file) is virtual memory located on one of hard drives, and represents an "extension" of physical random access memory (RAM). If, when an application is running, it does not have enough installed RAM, then Windows 7 uses a swap file to store application data, that is, it writes to and reads from it data that does not fit in RAM. This process of writing and reading is called swapping. In Windows 7, this file has a strictly defined name pagefile.sys, which cannot be changed.

And moving this file can just come in handy in cases where there is not enough space on the system partition (and for some reason it cannot be expanded) or, for example, in order to place the swap file on a faster drive. It is advisable to do the transfer if the OS is 32-bit, as follows:

• Control Panel;
• System;
• Additionally;
• performance;
• Options;
• Additionally;
• Virtual Memory

If your computer has 64-bit windows with RAM more than 8GB, then you can safely disable the swap file option

To disable the paging file in a 64-bit OS, with an 8-gigabyte operating system, you must follow the following steps of the instruction:

Is TRIM enabled?

With the TRIM command, the OS transmits important information to the SSD about unused data blocks, which can be cleared by it. Since the option to format and delete files can lead to poor performance of the drive, this feature allows you to reduce the number of unnecessary files and clean it up.

TRIM is important function(command) to significantly extend the life of your SSD.

This is one of the most basic commands that must be enabled, otherwise the write level will be low, which will reduce the functionality of the disk space.

What is TRIM and how to enable it: detailed video instruction

Windows 7 operating systems

First, open the Command Prompt console with administrator rights. Next, the Start menu - Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt. Pressing the right mouse button - Run as Administrator.

Then in command line the command is entered: fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify - Run.

In the event that the output of the command shows - disabledeletenotify=1, this means that the TRIM command is disabled. We connect using the command:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0

Be careful: 0 - enabled command, 1 - disabled command.

Setting up windows 7 for an SSD drive, SSD Mini Tweaker

SSD Mini Tweaker is a small program for tweaking and optimizing your operating system to work with an SSD solid state drive. If you are not a computer genius, but you want to transfer the OS to an SSD, then this utility is just for you, it does its job quite quickly, and is relevant for those users who are going to transfer the launch of a Windows 7 system of 32 and 64 bits to SDD .

The window of the running program looks like this, it is here that you can immediately configure the necessary parameters.

Many features for Windows Migration are not needed, they can only slow down the process itself:

The program will help you configure about 13 parameters that will increase performance if it starts from an SSD. The purpose of optimization is to reduce access to removable media, which prolongs its performance.

Your operating system can be activated by running it from an SSD drive, and Windows 7 adapts perfectly to run from a solid state drive. Even if you have a lot of energy-intensive programs installed, proper optimization you can debug it to run from SDD, paying special attention to Superfetch/Prefetcher and defragmentation.

If you have a big operating memory, then it's even better: you can successfully optimize it, which will only lead to high-speed performance and a long life of removable media.

Solid state drives are becoming cheaper every day, and let's hope this trend doesn't change. .

Many new computer models already contain this type of drive, manufacturers themselves have optimized the operating system to work efficiently with a solid state drive.

Of course, you need to choose the optimization method yourself, and we only gave the most important tips on how to do this without losing important data when transferring the system to an SSD.