SSDS and indexing

[dg27]

I installed a Samsung 840 250 GB SSD in my Dell XPS 1645 laptop. I'm running Win7 Pro.

I typically keep no data on the boot drive of any of my systems and have several external HDDs for that purpose.

I ran the optimization tool in the Samsung Magician software on the 840 and noted that shutting off indexing was recommended. Since then I've done some googling and see that this is a standard recommendation for SSDs.

Is this because indexing will decrease performance?

Or is having indexing on actually bad for the SSD?

I'd like to be able to leave indexing on, but have it not search the SSD. Also, I've read that the location of the index can actually be moved to another drive.

This is a big issue for me because I'm a photographer and often have to search for various types of photos. As an example, I can type "tree" in the Win7 search field and it'll call up the dozens of photos that have "tree" in the file name. This is crucial because I have about 50K photos in dozens of folders.

Losing Win7 search options is a huge issue. This is my first SSD and luckily it is not in my primary desktop.

Any advice would be appreciated.

dg

 

[kenrivers]

You can leave indexing turned off for your SSD and have indexing enabled on your other non-SSD drives. If you right click on a drive, under the General tab (near the bottom) you will see the option for drive indexing. This link will help with moving the index from the SSD drive: http://mintywhite.com/windows-7/7maintenance/performance-boost-move-search-index-to-another-physical-drive/

 

[bryonhowley]

With SSD drives they are so fast that you really do not need to be indexed. In truth you will not see any speed increase by indexing a SSD.

 

[dg27]

You can leave indexing turned off for your SSD and have indexing enabled on your other non-SSD drives. If you right click on a drive, under the General tab (near the bottom) you will see the option for drive indexing. This link will help with moving the index from the SSD drive: http://mintywhite.com/windows-7/7maintenance/performance-boost-move-search-index-to-another-physical-drive/

Thanks to you both for replying.

kenrivers: You've explained exactly what I needed to know. And the link is great--thanks so much.

Now I just have to figure out if I have to move anything regarding Outlook (same issue).

dg

 

[dg27]

Best answer selected by dg27.

 

[dg27]

You can leave indexing turned off for your SSD and have indexing enabled on your other non-SSD drives. If you right click on a drive, under the General tab (near the bottom) you will see the option for drive indexing. This link will help with moving the index from the SSD drive: http://mintywhite.com/windows-7/7maintenance/performance-boost-move-search-index-to-another-physical-drive/

This SSD is on my laptop. There is no other internal drive. I have indexing turned off on the boot, but turned on for the several external drives I use.

When I read the details regarding moving the index location, it was indicated that the index must be located on an NTFS-formatted drive.

For convenience, my work files (with which I use searching most often) are on a FAT32-formatted flash drive: so I can't have the index location located on that.

Is the issue of keeping the index on a SSD major? Will this hurt the drive in the long run?

dg

 

[kenrivers]

This article may help you decide: http://lifehacker.com/5586733/how-to-take-full-advantage-of-your-solid+state-drive

 

[dg27]

This article may help you decide: http://lifehacker.com/5586733/how-to-take-full-advantage-of-your-solid+state-drive

Where the index resides seems to be a bit of a non-issue. None of my data is on the SSD and indexing/searching in disabled on the SSD, but enabled on the various externals I use.

Thanks.

dg