Can You Get More Space Or Speed From Your SSD?
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Page 1:Optimizing Precious Solid-State Storage
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Page 2:Start By Enabling AHCI (With TRIM)
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Page 3:Disable System Restore And Drive Indexing
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Page 4:Disable The Page File And Hibernation
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Page 5:Disable Prefetch, SuperFetch, And Windows Write-Cache Buffer Flushing
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Page 6:Disable SuperFetch (Again), Windows Search, ClearPageFileAtShutdown, And LargeSystemCache
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Page 7:Power Settings Adjustment
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Page 8:Test Setup And Method
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Page 9:Benchmark Results: CrystalDiskMark
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Page 10:Reclaiming Storage Capacity
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Page 11:Benchmark Results: Iometer
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Page 12:Benchmark Results: Iometer Streaming
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Page 13:Benchmark Results: 4 KB Random Reads And Writes
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Page 14:Benchmark Results: PCMark Vantage Storage Test
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Page 15:What's The Deal With Write-Cache Buffer Flushing?
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Page 16:Conclusion
Disable Prefetch, SuperFetch, And Windows Write-Cache Buffer Flushing
Disable Prefetch and SuperFetch
How to disable:
- Type Regedit into the Start menu's Search box
- Select the file path "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters"
- Right-click on both EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch
- Select Modify on each of these to change the value from 1 (or 3) to 0
- Restart
SuperFetch is designed to cache files used often. Given the low access times of SSDs, this option can be disabled. If you installed Windows 7 on an SSD, it should, in fact, be disabled automatically.
Prefetch loads pieces of program files into RAM. By disabling this feature, you free up your system memory.
Disable Windows Write-Cache Buffer Flushing
This is one of those tweaks that isn't universal to all SSDs. In fact, it's not recommended if you own an Intel drive, as it purportedly has a negative impact on performance. If anything, take note of your storage subsystem's performance before and after this alteration to determine if it's something you really want to use or not.
How to disable:
- Right-click Computer in the Start menu, then select Properties
- Select Device Manager
- Select Disk drives
- Right-click your SSD and select Properties
- Under the Polices tab, check the Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device box
Per Windows Help, "Write caching in a storage device refers to the use of high-speed volatile memory to collect write commands sent to data storage devices and cache them until the slower storage media (either physical disks or low-cost flash memory) can accommodate them."
In the case of a hard drive, the operating system flushes commands to a disk's on-board cache. That doesn't mean it's safe yet, though. So, it waits for the drive to report back that cached data has been written to the magnetic media. If you're more concerned with performance than the integrity of your data, turning off write-cache buffer flushing skips that extra command to flush the internal RAM buffer.
For a more detailed explanation of flushing and the risks associated with turning it off, check out Microsoft employee Raymond Chen's personal blog post on the topic.
- Optimizing Precious Solid-State Storage
- Start By Enabling AHCI (With TRIM)
- Disable System Restore And Drive Indexing
- Disable The Page File And Hibernation
- Disable Prefetch, SuperFetch, And Windows Write-Cache Buffer Flushing
- Disable SuperFetch (Again), Windows Search, ClearPageFileAtShutdown, And LargeSystemCache
- Power Settings Adjustment
- Test Setup And Method
- Benchmark Results: CrystalDiskMark
- Reclaiming Storage Capacity
- Benchmark Results: Iometer
- Benchmark Results: Iometer Streaming
- Benchmark Results: 4 KB Random Reads And Writes
- Benchmark Results: PCMark Vantage Storage Test
- What's The Deal With Write-Cache Buffer Flushing?
- Conclusion
Hibernation: Amount of space saved by turning this off is equivalent to the amount of RAM in your system. Not limited to 2GB.
Also, hibernation has benefits over standby where hibernation will allow your system to return to a fully working state after removing power whereas standby requires power to still be supplied to your system. Laptops for example you'll want to hibernate to avoid discharging the battery while in sleep mode.
Hibernation: Amount of space saved by turning this off is equivalent to the amount of RAM in your system. Not limited to 2GB.
Also, hibernation has benefits over standby where hibernation will allow your system to return to a fully working state after removing power whereas standby requires power to still be supplied to your system. Laptops for example you'll want to hibernate to avoid discharging the battery while in sleep mode.
Thanks for another excellent article -- I'm surprised I haven't seen an article on this subject that's as comprehensive. Toms to the rescue.
Thanks for pointing both of these things out. You're absolutely correct about indexing.
I've updated the story for the author to reflect hibernation as well. I added clarification re: desktops and notebooks, though I'd suggest powering down a notebook with an SSD is comparable to putting it into hibernation. I don't think anyone would recommend putting it into standby; as you mention, that continues to drain power.
All the best!
Chris
SSD's are changing faster than any other computer technology. The current generation SSD's are already twice as fast as the SSD's tested in this article. Tom's Hardware is being left behind in the dust with reviews like this.
disabling system rstore is usually a good idea, sometimes it's better to just limit it's size form the 10% default value.
swap disabling is not a good idea, as you said. i'd rather have the swap on a secondary, mechanical drive.
indexing is very useful. you can relocate the address to where indexing data is stored. i put it on a mechanical drive.
disabling superfetch and turbo cache are really useful. ssd may be faster than hdd, but they are weak compared to ram speed. read caching really makes a difference.
hibernation file is not really useful on a desktop but it's a matter of taste. better have it on a mechanical drive if possible
another thing that really helps is putting firefox profiles on a ram drive. i develop on visual studio and there is a directory where lots of small files are written on build. having this temp folder on a ramdrive helps a lot regarding speed and writes as well.
1. save power
2. restore the previous work withou having to start everything
I use hibernation a lot on my desktop just because I can leave all the network independent applications running and just power down. after power up, I am in the previous environment state and can immediately continue whatever I was doing before. No need to start applications and reopen saved files.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/124198-user-profiles-create-move-during-windows-7-installation.html
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/
@JackNaylorPE... This another very good point on moving USER folder to another drive. It does free up additional space and keep down on writes.
@Chesteracorgi... There are many threads on tweaking, as the The SSD Optimization Guide is a very good one. The purpose of my article was not necessarily on what tweaks needed to perform but what actual benefits do you receive from performing them.
Also I have a suggestion. For example with System Restore and File Paging, you should make mention that you can simply apply them to your storage HDD instead of the SSD.
Oh and what's the point of telling us to disable Prefetch, which has no effect on the SSD and can certainly help the system stay faster by preloading onto RAM? Plenty of enthusiasts have 6, 8, or 12 gigs of RAM so it's not like space is a premium...
Windows 7 does that by default for SSD's