SSD paging files / temp directories...Drive saving.

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damian5000

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Nov 26, 2012
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I'm a new SSD owner. I read a blog post about turning off the paging file and changing temp directories to save writes on SSD.

I'm curious how many people actually follow this type of "SSD saving" techniques...And whether it's worth it or not.
 
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There were issues with early SSDs losing performance over their lifetimes, most modern drives now have garbage collection routines and various other down-time tasks to keep their performance in good shape (they're run by the drive's controller itself - no need to configure or schedule at a software level). Again, I think the concerns there are really legacy concerns from the early days of SSDs that keep getting perpetuated.

In terms of performance over time, the only software-level setting that is worth checking is TRIM. If you did a fresh build with Windows 7 or newer and AHCI turned on in the BIOS, it should be. But Google "how to check if TRIM in working" and your OS if you want to look into that.
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rhysiam

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Mar 24, 2013
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I don't follow it... I think the write endurance issues on SSDs are massively, massively overstated.

Even the lowest endurance SSDs have a rated duty cycle of 1000 writes... which when anyone actually goes to test it turns out to be hugely under-rated (stress-tests have successfully completed many times more writes than rated).

Let's go with a worst-case scenario of 1000 writes on a 100GB drive. That means in theory you can write 100GB a day, every day of the year, for about 3 years before the drive reaches its write cycle. Now admittedly it will actually turn out a little less than that because of write-amplification, and the fact that the drive will move static data around via wear-levelling processes. But even so, we're talking a huge amount of writes.

The pagefile does add to writes on the drive, but we're not talking about anything like the amount of data required. It's not a bad idea to turn it off, or if you have a secondary HDD, move the pagefile there (though if you're short on RAM that will impact system performance). But unless you really want to keep the drive a long, long time, or have an extremely unusual use-case for your system, it won't matter.

Is it technically possible to reach the rated endurance within 2-3 years: absolutely
Is it likely that servers (such as those hosting write-intensive databases) would reach the rated write endurance: absolutely
Is it possible for an enthusiast to reach it within 2-3 years: maybe with very unusual use-cases. Maybe someone processing hours and hours of 4K video every day on and off the drive might get there.
Is it likely that any 'normal', even heavy computer user will get to 1000 writes within the life of the drive: absolutely not.
 
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damian5000

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Nov 26, 2012
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Thanks for your detailed answer. I have moved the temp drive to an external USB cased HDD, and turned off the paging file, but I'm running into issues with temp directory accessing errors (even though logged in as admin and giving myself full control), and running out of memory error that forced shutdown of apps (even though have 6GB RAM). So I wonder if I'm putting myself through this headache for nothing. Sounds like by what you say that I am.

I should say my main concern is degraded performance. Have you noticed significantly degraded performance?
 
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rhysiam

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Mar 24, 2013
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There were issues with early SSDs losing performance over their lifetimes, most modern drives now have garbage collection routines and various other down-time tasks to keep their performance in good shape (they're run by the drive's controller itself - no need to configure or schedule at a software level). Again, I think the concerns there are really legacy concerns from the early days of SSDs that keep getting perpetuated.

In terms of performance over time, the only software-level setting that is worth checking is TRIM. If you did a fresh build with Windows 7 or newer and AHCI turned on in the BIOS, it should be. But Google "how to check if TRIM in working" and your OS if you want to look into that.
 
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rhysiam

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For what it's worth, I spent over $300 on a 64GB SSD back in 2009, I use the computer most days for at least a couple of hours. I've since upgraded to a 120GB SSD, but the 64GB is still running in another system and working fine. Feels as fast as ever to me.
 
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damian5000

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I'm curious. The driver on my drive and my SATA controller is 2006. . will this affect thethe hardware garbage collection and routines you speak of? Or these drivers have nothing to do with that?

 
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rhysiam

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It may affect whether or not you can run AHCI in the BIOS, which you should if you can (but if you've already installed you operating system don't just change the BIOS, Windows won't boot).

Otherwise, nope, SSD controllers do a bunch of maintenance on their drives without requiring software/motherboard support.
 
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damian5000

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Okay. Thanks for your answer. You've been very clear. Fairly sure I'm in AHCI mode already. Will check in BIOS again.

Scoring 250/250 in Crystalmark (SATA 2). Will check it after a few months and see if she's still up to speed. Thanks again for your clear answers. Regards.
 
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