Hey! Decide to prepare an article in which to talk about how to properly install Windows 7 on an SSD drive, and how, after installation, configure Windows 7 on an SSD drive so that it works for a long time and without problems. I recently bought a laptop, took an Asus K56CM and immediately bought an OCZ Vertex 4 128 GB SSD for it, I really wanted to feel all the speed that an SSD gives.
In our case, the model of the laptop / computer and SSD drive does not matter, my instructions can be said to be universal. I will write what needs to be done immediately after installing the SSD drive in the computer and how to set it up operating system After installing on an SSD, if this is your first time with an SSD, then you're probably wondering why there is so much emphasis on configuring the operating system for these drives compared to conventional hard drives. Now I will explain everything in simple words.
SSDs have limited uptime compared to hard drives. Simply put, they have a certain number of rewrites. Now I will not say what this number is, it is different and what is true and what is not is difficult to understand. For example, to my OCZ Vertex 4 in the characteristics it was written that the operating time for failure is 2 million hours. And the operating system writes a lot during operation, deletes and overwrites various temporary files, etc. Services such as defragmentation, indexing, etc. serve to speed up the system on ordinary hard disks. And they only harm SSD drives and reduce their service lines.
In fact, installing Windows 7 on an SSD almost no different from installing on HDD... But after installation, you will need to make some settings in Windows work 7, but there is nothing complicated there, we will do everything with the help of the utility SSD Mini Tweaker 2.1.
What should you do before installing Windows 7 on an SSD drive?
Well, first you need to install an SSD drive in a laptop or on a computer, no difference. I will not describe this process. There is nothing difficult in this, and this is a topic for another article. Let's say you've already installed an SSD, or it has already been installed.
If you are using a regular hard drive next to an SSD drive in your computer, then I advise you to turn it off during the installation of Windows 7, so that you do not get confused when choosing a partition for installing the OS, but this is not necessary.
All you need to do before installation is to check if our solid state drive is working in the AHCI... To do this, go to BIOS, if you do not know how, read the article. Next, go to the tab "Advanced" and select the item "SATA Configuration".
We select an item, a window will open in which we select AHCI(if you had another mode enabled). Push F10 to save the settings.
Now you can start Windows installation 7. The process for installing to a solid state drive is the same as installing to a hard drive. I just want to give you one piece of advice:
Try to install the original image of the operating system Windows 7, or Windows 8. I advise you to install only one of these operating systems, because only seven and eight can work with SSD drives. Do not use different assemblies, and if you install an assembly of Windows 7, or Windows 8 downloaded from the Internet, then try to choose an image close to the original.
Installing the operating system. You may find the following articles useful:
After the operating system is installed, you can go to setting up Windows for SSD.
Configuring Windows 7 to Work with an SSD
More precisely, Windows 7 will work anyway, our task is to make sure that our solid-state drive lasts as long as possible and without various errors.
As I wrote at the beginning of the article, to optimize Windows for a solid-state drive, we will use the SSD Mini Tweaker utility. You can disable all unnecessary options manually, but in the SSD Mini Tweaker you can do it all in a few clicks. You will need to manually disable only the indexing of files on local drives.
We need to download the SSD Mini Tweaker first. Download version 2.1 from the link below:
You don't need to install the program, just extract it from the archive and run it.
Launch the SSD Mini Tweaker utility.
You can mark all the items with checkmarks, or rather not possible, but necessary. I marked all the points, except that you can leave only SuperFetch, disabling this service can increase the startup time of programs. We mark the necessary services with checkmarks, and press the button "Apply Changes"... Almost everything, in the same utility there is a "Manual" item, which means that you need to manually disable services. There are two of them, defragmenting the disk on a schedule and indexing the contents of files on the disk.
If scheduled defragmentation is disabled automatically after the changes we have made, then indexing files on the disk must be disabled manually on each local partition.
Disable indexing of the contents of files on the disk
Go to "My computer", and right-click on one of the local drives. We select "Properties".
A window will open in which you need to uncheck the box "Allow indexing of the contents of files on this disk in addition to the properties of the files"... Click “Apply”. 
We are waiting for the completion of the process.
When you do this procedure on the C drive, then most likely, a message will appear stating that you do not have permission to change system files. I just pressed "Skip all", I think that if you skip a few files, then nothing bad will happen.
That's all, Windows setup under the solid state drive is finished. You know, many people say that these are different myths, nothing needs to be turned off, etc. Maybe so, but if they came up with it, then it is necessary and I think that in any case it will not hurt.
It seems that I wrote everything I wanted, if you have additions, comments, or something is not clear, then write in the comments, we will figure it out. Good luck!
Now solid-state drives, or SSD-drives, are actively taking over the market and replacing the good old HDD-media. They are gradually falling in price, and their volume is constantly increasing. But not everything is so simple. These drives have their drawbacks. The fact is that the lifespan of memory cells is limited, and it is strongly influenced by the number of rewrites. That is why the correct setting of an SSD drive under Windows 7 directly affects the lifespan of this device. Let's take a closer look at all this.
Service life of solid state drives
This disk is a conventional flash memory, i.e. microcircuits. There are no mechanical, moving parts. This flash memory consists of cells, and they tend to wear out. The more you write information to disk, the more they wear out. Therefore, setting up an SSD drive is very important. If you are reading from the disk, then this does not affect its wear.
There are various utilities with which you can get information about the operation and status of the drive. One of them is CrystalDiskInfo. With its help, you can find out many characteristics and indicators of disk performance. For example, firmware, serial number, the total number of hours of work, the number of starts, the rotation speed (if we are talking about the HDD), etc. We will be interested in the field showing the number of host records. The disk controller counts the total amount of data written to memory for the entire time of its operation. This is due to the peculiarity of the flash memory. Therefore, the number shown here in gigabytes will exceed the size of your disk.
Configuring SSD for Windows 7
Modern flash memory (MLC) is designed for a sufficiently large number of rewriting cycles, for example, 1000, 2000, etc. This means that you can completely rewrite a disc, for example, a thousand times. If you have 128 GB, then you multiply this value by a thousand and you get the final result - the total amount of data that you can write to the drive during its entire service life. This indicator appears in the "Total Host Records" column. It indicates the amount of data written to the disc since the beginning of its work. For comparison, it must be said that 128 GB SSD-drives are designed to record 40-70 TB of information. With very active use of the disk, about 10 TB of information accumulates on average per year. Thus, its service life will be about 4-7 years.
With moderate use of an SSD, the amount of data written to the disk will be two, or even three times less, and its lifespan, accordingly, will be longer. That is why they are recommended under But first you need to achieve correct settings SSD. Installing and configuring an SSD under Windows 7 doesn't take long. But that's not all. In order to achieve the best results, another process is performed. This is a Windows 7 setting to work optimally with your SSD.
How the system is configured
Above, we learned how flash memory works and what kind of resource it has. Now let's look at how the setup is done and Windows optimization 7 for the SSD to work properly. It does not require deep knowledge of computer science or deep knowledge of the system to complete it. Even a novice user can do this. There are eight steps to follow to optimize Windows to use the SSD. Myths and reality are closely related to each other, and someone can get a little confused. We will tell you step by step where to click and what commands to set.
Disabling System Restore
We need to disable it. We need further - "System and Security", then - "System". Then you need to open "Advanced system settings". In the "System Protection" tab, click on "Configure". There are several items here: "Enable protection" and "Disable protection". We can also adjust the number of gigabytes that we give under the protection of the system.
This refers to the automatic creation of a copy of the system, the so-called restore point, and how much disk space is allocated for this. The default is 2.5 GB to 10 GB. Accordingly, if we disable system restore, then the specified number of gigabytes will be freed up on the disk. This setting makes sense to increase the free space of the SSD while reducing the amount of data being written to the SSD at the same time. However, system protection is a very useful feature, and it is up to you to disable it or not. If your SSD is large enough, you can leave it as it is. If not, or you do not use protection, you can turn it off.
Turn off data indexing
This point has a more practical meaning, which directly affects the speed of your SSD drive and its longevity. In the "My Computer" tab, find "System Disk" and go to "Properties".
At the bottom, by default, the option to enable indexing of files on the disk is enabled. This feature has been designed to optimize the performance of HDD media. This was due to the specifics of the operation of their magnetic plates and heads. For SSD drives, there is no such need, so uncheck this function. This will eliminate unnecessary writes to the SSD. If an error occurs, it will be associated with the paging file. It will be necessary to disable it, reboot the system and repeat the disabling of the above option again.
Disabling the paging file
By Windows default creates a special file on the system disk - this is a paging file. It is used to record some information from random access memory to an area on the system drive. This is used in resource-intensive applications such as Photoshop. Part of the information is unloaded from the RAM to the hard disk, and when necessary, it is loaded back. If you have enough RAM (8 GB or more), then this paging file can be safely disabled. This will reduce the number of writes to the system disk. If your RAM is small, and the applications you are using are quite powerful, then disabling this file may cause system instability. Here you need to look individually.
To disable the file, go along the following path: "Control Panel", then "System and Security", then "System", then "Advanced Settings", then "Advanced", then "System Performance", "Settings", then "Advanced" , "Change". By default, it is enabled, you must uncheck the box, and then click "No swap file".
Turn off hibernation
Hibernation is a special sleep mode supplemented by new function... It was developed for Windows Vista... In this mode, data from RAM is written to the system partition, and we can turn off the computer from the network. After switching on, all information is restored, automatically reading from the system media into RAM. So all open programs end up on the desktop again. In normal hibernation, data will not be recovered. If you are not using hibernation, you can turn it off. This will reduce the number of writes to the SSD media and free up additional space.
We go to the command line: the "Start" menu, enter "cmd" in the search, run it as administrator. We enter the following phrase there: "powercfg-hoff", and then press Enter. After that, we restart the computer. If in the future you want to return everything back, then in command line you will need to enter "powercfg-hon" and then restart your computer.
Disabling Prefetch (Files in RAM)
This function loads some data into RAM if you access it frequently. The operating system itself keeps track of these files and anticipates this possibility. For example, you often use text editor Word. Some of the files are already loaded into RAM, and this program starts faster.
For an SSD drive, you will not get any tangible increase in speed, since it works faster than an ordinary HDD, so you can turn off this function. Most often, the operating system itself disables this feature when installing Windows on an SSD drive.
How do you check if this option is enabled and how do you disable it? This is done using the system registry. You must open the registry editor. We go: the "Start" menu, enter "Run" in the search bar and open the "Run" window in the results. We enter the word regedit there and click OK. The system registry editor window opens. Here we go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE directory, then to the SYSTEM tab, then CurrentControlSet, then Control, then SessionManager, MemoryManagement and PrefetchParameters. Click the EnablePrefetcher mouse, select "Change" and instead of the number 3, put 0. Click OK, reboot, and the function will be disabled.
Disable SuperFetch (disabled by default) and Windows Search
This function can be disabled more easily, without the system registry. We go: "Control Panel", then "System and Security", then "Administrative Tools", then "Services" and look for Superfetch in them. Click the mouse and select "Properties". Then click "Startup Type" and then "Disabled". Then click "Apply", OK. After a reboot, the changes will take effect.
If desired, you can turn off windows service Search. It helps you find files on your computer. Accordingly, disabling it will be at your discretion. If you nevertheless decide to do this, then in the above "Services" you need to find Windows Search, then "Properties", then "Startup type", then "Disabled", OK. In principle, this is optional.
Turn off Windows cache cleaning
Not all drives will benefit from this step. For example, Intel does not recommend disabling this option on Intel SSDs.
Select: "My Computer", "System Disk", "Properties", "Hardware", the required SSD, "Properties", "General", "Change Settings", "Policy". Check the "Disable cache buffer clearing ..." option. If after these actions the performance of your disk has dropped, then it is recommended to uncheck this checkbox.
Disable ClearPageFileAtShutdown and LargeSystemCache (disabled by default)
The ClearPageFileAtShutdown option allows you to clear the paging file when the computer boots, and the LargeSystemCache option is the size of the cache memory file system... By default, when installing the operating system on an SSD, these options should be disabled. Windows 7 disables them by itself. In order to check this, you need to go to the system registry.
We also go to the system registry editor (see how to do this above). In the branch, go to the following folder: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / SessionManager / MemoryManagement". In the right field we find the file LargeSystemCache. Click on "Change". If the field is 0, then it is disabled. We immediately find and also check the ClearPageFileAtShutdown. If the field contains 3, then you need to change it to 0, then click OK and restart the computer. You will learn more about how to set up a Windows SSD drive below.
conclusions
That's basically it. The basic settings were touched upon here. It is definitely necessary to disable the option ClearPageFileAtShutdown and LargeSystemCache, SuperFetch and Prefetch, data indexing. Optionally, if the RAM allows, you can turn off the paging file. System Restore and Windows Search are also disabled at will. To clear the cache, you need to look at the performance of your drive.
Setting up an SSD drive for Windows 7
Now let's talk about how you need to configure an SSD drive so that it makes optimal use of the resource embedded in it. What steps and points need to be followed in order for the disk to work as quickly as possible and its memory cells retain their operability for a sufficient amount of time? Setting up an SSD for Windows 7 does not take a lot of time and is quite simple.
There are two modes of operation for the SATA controller. The first is IDE and is usually enabled by default in the BIOS. The second mode is AHCI. It is he who will allow us to use NCQ and TRIM technologies, which will increase the speed of random writing and reading from an SSD drive. The TRIM command is sent by the system and allows the cells of the disk to be freed from physically deleted data, thus increasing its performance.
Enabling AHCI Controller Mode
If you have not installed Windows yet, you can easily change the mode from IDE to AHCI in the BIOS. After that, Windows 7 is installed and configured on the SSD drive and everything works. If you have already installed the system, then the procedure will be described below.
We need to go to the registry editor, finding the file regedit.exe. How to do this was discussed above. In the registry editor, you need to open the branch as follows. Setting up SSD for Windows 7 occurs in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ services \ msahci directory. This is where we need to find the ErrorControl parameter. Click and select "Change". The default value will be 3. You need to replace it with 0, then OK. Below we find the Start parameter. Also change the value from 3 to 0 and click OK. Next, we restart the computer and go to the BIOS. Now we change the controller mode from SATA to AHCI, save the BIOS and load the operating system.
Now we need to check if there have been changes in the system. To do this, go to "My Computer", then "Properties", then "Device Manager" and find the IDEATA item here. You need to open it, and if you have the line "Standard PCIIDE controller", then nothing has changed. If you have AHCI in this place, then everything is in order, the SSD setup for Windows 7 was successful. These actions can be performed before starting changes in the registry and BIOS. Perhaps you already have AHCI enabled.
Now we have the TRIM command, which will allow the disk to function faster when littered with data, and NCQ technology is available, which allows to increase the speed of random reading and writing of information.
Thus, the optimization of the SSD under Windows 7 has been successful. The tips given above should also help you in setting up the system for SSD. All this will make your computer work as efficiently as possible.
An SSD is a device that has the same purpose as a hard drive, but in terms of structure and principle of its operation, it is very different from its counterpart. In particular, if the case concerned the operation of Windows installed on an SSD, it should be properly optimized this device to significantly extend its service life.
Optimizing SSD for Windows
Suppose you already have an operating system installed. Windows system, starting with the seventh version, on a brand new SSD. If not already, follow the link below to learn a little instruction that will allow you to perform this procedure correctly.
The main feature of a solid state drive is that it has a limited number of rewriting cycles. This means that as little data as possible on the disc should be erased and re-written. First of all, it is this moment that we will take into account when optimizing the SSD for the operating system of the Windows family.
Stage 1: checking if TRIM is active
TRIM is a special feature introduced in Windows 7 that finds unused areas and allows you to clear them for later writing. If the activity of this function is undesirable for the HDD, then in the case of SSD it will extend the life of the drive.
Stage 2: disable automatic defragmentation
The next point that can seriously affect the lifespan of a solid state drive is automatic defragmentation. The point is that defragmentation is useful tool for hard drives... It optimizes the recordings on the disk, which allows you to speed up the work with the HDD. In the case of SSDs, the less data is rewritten, the better.
As a rule, if an SSD is installed on the computer, Windows automatically disables this procedure, however, you should still check if this is so.
To do this, press the key combination Win + R to open the "Run" window and write the following command in it, followed by the Enter key:
The screen will display the disk optimization menu, in which, by highlighting the item "Solid State Drive", in the lower area of the window you should display the value "Off"... If you see item "On", to the right click on the button "Change parameters".
Uncheck the "Run on schedule (recommended)" checkbox and then save the settings.
Stage 3: deactivate the paging file
The paging file is system file, which allows you to make up for the lack of RAM when it is fully loaded.
The bottom line is that the paging file takes over unused data from RAM to a hard drive (solid state drive). It becomes clear that when this file is active, information on the solid-state drive is regularly overwritten, which must be minimized.
Alternatively, you can completely deactivate the paging file, which will reduce the number of rewriting cycles on the solid-state drive, however, if several resource-intensive games or programs are running on the computer, the RAM may completely run out, which means that a message will appear on your screen following plan:
Stage 4: turn off Windows hibernation
Hibernation is a popular computer start-up mode, in which, after shutting down, the computer completely turns off, but after turning it on, it continues where you left off. Thus, the user does not have to restart all programs, open files, etc.
To disable hibernation, run a command prompt as administrator (as described above), and then run the following command in it:
Powercfg -h off
From now on, hibernation will be disabled, and the file responsible for it will be removed from the system.
Stage 5: turn off file indexing
The file indexing process allows you to find files on your computer faster, but due to continuous overwriting, it negatively affects the lifespan of the SSD.
Stage 6: Activating Record Caching
Enabling the write caching function will be a plus for both the solid-state drive and the hard drive.
Stage 7: disabling Prefetch
Prefetch is a special technology to speed up system boot, which is aimed at working with slow media. As you can imagine, this function is useless for SSDs.
- Start the "Run" window with the Win + R keys and run the command in it:
HKLM SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Session Manager Memory Management PrefetchParameters
Double click on the parameter "EnablePrefetcher" and put in it the value «0» ... Save your changes.
These tips will help you reduce the number of SSD rewrite cycles without affecting system performance. But even if you do not resort to the tips listed in the article, the solid state drive will still be for a long time please you with our excellent work. If you know what other SSD optimization techniques exist, share them in the comments.
» How to tune an SSD to improve the performance of Windows 7?
How to tune an SSD to improve the performance of Windows 7?
Configuring SSD for Windows 7
Introduction
Solid state drives, according to manufacturers, are significantly faster than mechanically based hard drives. Of course, their cost is much more expensive. Although SSD performance figures are high, many users claim that they can be improved. All that is required is the appropriate optimization and adjustment of the SSD for Windows 7. Most effective ways this article will cover:
- Enabling AHCI and TRIM
- Disabling system protection
- Disable paging file
- Disable hibernation
- Disable caching Windows entries 7
- Disabling Super fetch and Windows 7 search
- Power Options Settings
Enabling AHCI and TRIM
Before starting the optimization, you need to make sure that the SATA controller can work in AHCI mode and the TRIM function in Windows 7 is activated.
During system startup, press the DELETE key and see that the BIOS is in AHCI mode for your SATA controller. This mode is required to support TRIMa on SSDs. You can also verify this by performing the following actions in the system:
- In the start menu "Start" select the item "Control Panel"
- Select "System" and switch to classic view (small and large icons mode)
- Go to "Device Manager"
- Look for an item with a list of ATA / ATAPI and IDE controllers
- If there is such an item, your system is already loaded with the AHCI mode enabled
If the operating system was installed with IDE mode, then you need to switch to AHCI mode in the BIOS, provided that the motherboard supports this functionality.
- Check that TRIM support is activated
- Check TRIM so that mode commands are guaranteed to be sent by the Windows 7 operating system to the SSD drive.
- In the start menu, type [cmd] on the keyboard to search for the command line built into the system
- Click on it with the right mouse button, choosing "Run as administrator"
- On the command line, write [fsutil behavior query Disable Delete Notify]
If the Disable Delete Notify parameter is 0, the TRIM function is activated. If the value is 1, it is disabled.
Do not use parentheses when entering a command.
The SATA - TRIM protocol command will tell the OS which blocks of the data previously written to the SSD will never be required in the future due to deleting files or formatting the disk.
Disabling system protection
The "System Protection" function should be disabled to limit the number of write operations on SSD disk x, as well as to return the freed, by disconnecting, space back to the solid-state drive.
Disable disk indexing
Description of the deactivation process:
It is possible that a pop-up window will appear informing you of an error in applying attributes to files, which is normal. By choosing the "Ignore all" option, continue with your actions.
The meaning of disabling disk indexing boils down to the following:
- Disk indexing was designed for mechanical devices to provide quick access to information. Considering that the response time of an SSD drive is approximately 0.1ms, there is no need to enable this technology.
- By eliminating unnecessary read-write operations on the SSD, we get minimal effect. But keep in mind that actions to limit the number of write cycles to an SSD will help extend the lifespan of your SSD.
Disable paging file
- Right-click on the "My Computer" icon
- Select the item "Properties"
- Select the "Advanced" tab
- In the "Performance" item, click on the "Parameters" button
- Select the "Advanced" tab and click on the "Change for virtual memory" button
- Remove the "Automatically select paging file size" checkbox
- Agree to accept the changes, confirming the system reboot, and the next step is to disable swapping for your SSD disk.
The swap file is a Windows functionality that is intended to help physical memory computer in case of insufficient capacity, allowing the transfer of some information from the "RAM" to the hard disk to free up the available amount of RAM. Turning off the PageFile function will free up paging space on your hard drive.
Disable hibernation
Disabling hibernation will free up 2 Gb (possibly more, depending on the amount of RAM installed) of the SSD disk space. This functionality will not provide significant benefits due to fast loading.
Description of the deactivation process:
- Type [cmd] in the Start search menu to search for the Windows 7 utility
- Click on the cmd program with the right mouse button and run it as administrator
- At the command line, type [powercfg -h off]
Hibernation helps the system recover quickly from inactivity. When it is applied, the information contained in the random access memory device is written to disk, and then read upon waking up.
Disable Windows Write Caching
Description of the deactivation process:
- Press the right mouse button on the "My Computer" icon, choosing "Properties"
- Select "Device Manager"
- Select "Disk drives"
- Press the right mouse button on the SSD by selecting Properties
- On the "Policy" tab, remove the "checkbox" from the item "Allow to cache records on this device"
The write caching functionality in Windows 7 can access high-speed RAM and accumulate commands that then need to be executed on the SSD drive. SSD drives are faster than mechanical hard drives, so there is no gain in speed when using the cache.
Disable Superfetch and Windows Search
Description of the deactivation process:
- Press Windows Key + R to enter the application launcher dialog.
- Type in and press the Enter button.
- Scrolling down the "scrollbar" to the item "Superfetch", right-click on it, choosing "Properties"
- From the Startup Type dropdown menu, choosing Disabled, click OK.
- Scrolling the "scrollbar" to the item "Windows Search", right-click on it, selecting "Properties"
- Click on the "Stop" button, then on "Startup type" and select "Disabled".
Windows Search creates an index of some of the folders, files, and additional items on your devices. It is located in the Program Data Microsoft Search folder on the TRIMa: / drive and takes up approximately 10% of the indexed content. When searching for a file, parts of the indexes are loaded into memory. This will provide a reasonably fast search. This functionality will not matter much, and it can also negatively affect the performance of the SSD drive.
Disabling Clear Page File At Shutdown and Large System Cache
Description of the deactivation process:
- Type in the "Start" menu
- Select the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM Current Control Set Control Session Manager Memory Management
- Click the right mouse button on "Clear Page File At Shutdown" and "Large System Cache"
- By choosing Change, change the value from 1 to 0 and then restart the system.
This OS functionality is designed to clear the paging file. This leads to an increase in the number of read-write operations. Since the paging file was previously disabled, there is no longer any reason to use cleanup as there is nothing left to clean up.
The Large System Cache parameter indicates whether the operating system supports a standard cache size or an increased one, and is also responsible for the frequency of processing cached data. Enabling Large System Cache mode will reduce the amount of physical memory available to applications and services.
Setting energy options:
- Open your "Control Panel"
- Select "System and Security" in it
- Select Power Settings
- Select the "High performance" checkbox and apply it with the OK key
- Select "Power plan settings" for your "High performance" plan
- Click on the item to change additional power settings
- In the item "Hard disk" set in the drop-down menu to disable hard disk"Never" mode
- Click OK to save the setting.
Conclusion
Setting up an SSD for Windows 7 can affect system performance, both positively and negatively. Suppose there is no need to enable write caching when using Intel X25M / G2, since performance gains in this case, as usual, cannot be achieved. So is it worth it at all to perform the actions discussed in the article?
One important factor in SSD optimization is the increase in storage capacity.
This will give an undeniable advantage if the operating system Windows 7 is installed on the SSD. It becomes possible to install more software, games and other software. Disabling System Protection, Disk Indexing, Paging File, and Hibernation will slightly improve performance, but the free capacity of the SSD will increase significantly.
The most discussed issue among SSD users is disconnecting, moving or saving the paging file. There is no single opinion and there are many supporters of various options. If you plan to disable the paging file, then you need to check the amount of memory used by Windows 7. Make sure that the amount of memory installed is half the maximum used. In this case, the paging file can be disabled without losing PC performance. Alternatively, its size can be reduced or moved altogether.
Disabling unnecessary operations when reading and writing data to an SSD disk effectively affects the life of the device. Considering the cost of SSDs, this is an important advantage.
As a result, the user decides for himself whether he needs to configure the SSD under Windows 7 or not. This OS from Microsoft already works very well with SSDs, but with the additional optimization steps taken, there is the possibility of a small gain in performance compared to working with the "default" settings.
Today we will talk about setting up new hard drives, the so-called SSD drives. After reading the entire article, you will be able to configure your SSD drive under Windows 7.
Before we start configuring the system, let's figure out what is the difference between HDD and SSD. An SSD is a solid-state drive that uses memory chips to store information, while an HDD is a hard disk drive that rotates inside a hard drive at a tremendous speed.
The main advantage of SSDs is the absence of mechanical moving parts, which increases the reliability of this device. There is also a difference in the speed of operation, in the heating of the device parts, in the absence of extraneous noise. However, not everything is so good, because SSD storage has its drawbacks. The main disadvantage of this device is the limitation of write / rewrite cycles. Standard MLC SSDs are capable of writing data about 10 thousand times. SLC memory drives are more expensive and write data about 100,000 times. In order to reduce the number of calls to the ssd drive, it is necessary to correctly configure the operating system, thereby extending its life.
So, let's take a look at what needs to be done to configure a microcircuit drive under Windows 7.
1st item... Here we will move the paging file to another hard drive. Go to the computer properties again: My Computer - Properties - Advanced system settings - Performance category - Settings. We also do as shown in the screenshot below, or you can set a larger volume.
2nd item... You need to disable hibernation. Why is this done? Each time the system switches to this mode, a huge amount of information is written to your screw (hard disk). Personally, I always recommend turning this feature off. Plus, by disabling hibernation, we will free up space on the system local disk, which is equal to the volume of your RAM. By default, hibernation is necessary to quickly boot the system, but if an SSD drive is installed, then Windows will start and so it will be in 5-10 seconds. Therefore, we disable hibernation. To do this, we need to get into the command line. Open Start and at the very bottom in the search window, type in cmd.
now, in the command line, write powercfg.exe / hibernate off and press Enter. When you restart your computer, you will see that there is more space on the C: \ drive.
3rd item... In this step, we will move the folder where the temporary files are stored to a simple hard drive. To do this, right-click on the Computer icon - Properties - Additional system settings - Additional.
Here we find the Environment Settings button and change the TEMP and TMP path to another folder on the hard HDD... Personally, I created it on my D: \ drive.
4th item... You also need to disable "System Protection". Again, open the computer properties - System Protection - System Protection tab - Configure - Disable System Protection.
However, we will not be able to recover from backup, in case a failure occurs in the system. However, we do not need this, because the operating system is installed in 10-15 minutes.
5th item... Disable file indexing. Indexing is needed for quick search across the disk of various files. However, the average user does not often search for something, especially since the search on an SSD is fast. So this function can be turned off without hesitation. To disable indexing, go to My Computer, right-click on the C: \ drive, and select "Properties" at the very bottom. Now, in the "General" tab, you need to uncheck the box "Allow indexing of the contents of files on this disk in addition to file properties".
6th item... Disable Preftch and RedyBoot.
Prefetch allows your system to boot quickly by proactively reading data into your hard drive. This technology is useless for an SSD drive, because it delivers an already tremendous read speed.
In order to disable Prefetch, go to the registry editor (Start Menu - Run - register regedit and press Enter). The registry editor will open: here you should find the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters
here we need to change the value of the Enable Prefetcher key to "0".
RedyBoot is an add-on to the Prefetch technology. To disable it, follow the path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ WMI \ Autologger \ ReadyBoot
We go into the Start parameter and change the value to "0".
So we have configured our operating system for the SSD-drive, thereby extending its life! Of course, it will last a long time without any settings, but if you want to extend the life of the drive as much as possible, then do all these points. That's all, good luck!