SSD Tweak Utilities and tweaks.

TheMailMan78 · Nov 21, 2010

Well since I am a new adopter of SSD tech I figured I would post a few facts, sites and utilities to help noobs like me answer the hard questions. If anyone sees a mistake in the info I am going to post please speak up! Also if a mod sees something really wrong then please feel free to edit the info. I don't want anyone to trash their drive.

Question: Should I ever format my SSD?

Answer: Yes and No. When you do a clean install you should use a utility like this one. Why? Because unlike standard HDs that just write over old data, SSDs leave the data in and mark it as "invalid" and will be cleaned up by TRIM later on. However if you are doing a clean install why not do it right? Once you run this and you are sure the SSD is clean then do a normal format. This will allow TRIM and alignment to work correctly. (Thanks W1zz).

Just don't make a habit of it as this does cause wear on your SSD. Also unless you are running XP do not mess with the allocation size. Windows 7 will identify your drive and allocate accordingly. If you mess with it you run the risk of improperly aligning it. Also be sure to set your bios to AHCI. IDE is so 90's. :laugh:

Plus you get a huge performance jump if you do this. Also make sure you use the lower SATA ports like "0" and "1".

Question: My SSD seems slower then when I first bought it?

Answer: Yeah that happens. Its normal. However its nothing you cannot fix. If you want to go the long route just do a proper clean install as I stated before. If you want to run the short route use this. Basically it speeds up TRIM from what I understand and cleans up free space.

Question: Ok I got my SSD installed and shes running great! Is there anything else I should do?

Answer: Yes. First off turn the defrag off. As a matter of fact turn off the service so you do not forget and run it one day by mistake. Second thing you need to do is download this. SSDTweaker is a cool little application that does all the tedious stuff for you in seconds. It also allows you to make sure TRIM is running. Try it.

Question: Can I run a lot of benchmarkes on my SSD to check performance?

Answer: No. According to G. Skill "Don't run Benchmark such as "CrystalDiskMark (CDM) "、"AS SSD" so frequently. Test filesize don't set too large with so many cycles. Because such behavior would create temporary uncompressible data that will "dirty" the NAND flashes. With more tests, the performance get worse."

Another thing is you do not want to do is allow the OS to put your SSD to sleep. Why? Because when your drive is idle TRIM cranks up and cleans. If your drive is sleeping it can't do TRIM.

Update: Also be sure to turn of indexing. The utility I posted should do it but just in case double check in properties. SSD have sure fast read/writes that indexing is useless.(Thanks to AsRock)

Well I hope this helps some of you and Ill be adding to this over time.
Enjoy your new SSD!

Completely Bonkers · Nov 21, 2010

Thanks MM. I'm sure this will be a useful reference thread. Do bold your questions so that people can scan your post more quickly. And do *edit* it to keep it up to date with all good stuff, so people dont have to read a long thread to find a nugget.

Question: If you are on XP do any of these utilities provide the ability to "manually trim" the SSD? People often say that a SSD will degrade in performance on XP/2K3 and because XP has no trim support, there isnt anything you can do about it. Of course this is untrue. While the OS might not have trim support, there is no logical reason that some 3rd party NTFS utility could not provide a manual trim function.

Other note. I think there is also some utility to align a SSD under XP/2K3. I think it is worth mentioning that utility and linking to it in your OP. If I find it, I will post again here.

Turning off indexing
Start / Run... / services.msc / find the Indexing service and disable

TheMailMan78 · Nov 21, 2010

Completely Bonkers said:
Thanks MM. I'm sure this will be a useful reference thread. Do bold your questions so that people can scan your post more quickly. And do *edit* it to keep it up to date with all good stuff, so people dont have to read a long thread to find a nugget.

Question: If you are on XP do any of these utilities provide the ability to "manually trim" the SSD? People often say that a SSD will degrade in performance on XP/2K3 and because XP has no trim support, there isnt anything you can do about it. Of course this is untrue. While the OS might not have trim support, there is no logical reason that some 3rd party NTFS utility could not provide a manual trim function.

Other note. I think there is also some utility to align a SSD under XP/2K3. I think it is worth mentioning that utility and linking to it in your OP. If I find it, I will post again here.

No. XP does not support TRIM. Honestly I do not even know why you would want to run a SSD with XP. Anyway if you know of a third-party utility that will allow TRIM in XP post it up and Ill update the OP. What you can do is do a proper "clean" install once a year or so to restore the drive to its speedy self. Just note that without a proper OS (Windows 7) you are headed for a headache with a SSD.

AsRock · Nov 21, 2010

TheMailMan78 said:
No. XP does not support TRIM. Honestly I do not even know why you would want to run a SSD with XP. Anyway if you know of a third-party utility that will allow TRIM in XP post it up and Ill update the OP. What you can do is do a proper "clean" install once a year or so to restore the drive to its speedy self. Just note that without a proper OS (Windows 7) you are headed for a headache with a SSD.

There is Intels garbage collection and mine have been running like they were on day one at the rated speeds. Had 0 issue's in vista to so trims not even needed.

Indexing and superfetch is worth turning off too.

Completely Bonkers · Nov 21, 2010

Disagree with your comment MM about problems running SSD on XP. That's FUD. I have been running XP and 2K3 on SSDs for over a year, no headaches. I DO AGREE that their performance might not be optimal/maximised but they are still much faster and much more drop-robust than a HDD. Essential for laptop/netbooks IMO. And they give a significant overall performance boost to limited CPU/limited memory laptops/netbooks where the use of disk-based pagefile becomes significantly improved.

Let me also recommend in your thread the use of a ramdisk for temp files... to stop SSD trashing and wear. Not only is a ramdisk faster than SSD, it will avoid worries of SSD wearing for all the internet garbage you collect every day.

TheMailMan78 · Nov 21, 2010

Completely Bonkers said:
Disagree with your comment MM about problems running SSD on XP. That's FUD. I have been running XP and 2K3 on SSDs for over a year, no headaches. I DO AGREE that their performance might not be optimal/maximised but they are still much faster and much more drop-robust than a HDD. Essential for laptop/netbooks IMO. And they give a significant overall performance boost to limited CPU/limited memory laptops/netbooks where the use of disk-based pagefile becomes significantly improved.

Let me also recommend in your thread the use of a ramdisk for temp files... to stop SSD trashing and wear. Not only is a ramdisk faster than SSD, it will avoid worries of SSD wearing for all the internet garbage you collect every day.

Its not FUD. Its just a pain in the ass is all I am saying. Also putting a SSD in a slower system to begin with is a waste of resources IMO.

As for the RAM disk Ill one up you. Just setup your internet temp file on another drive. Setting up a RAM disk takes away from freespace which could effect TRIM.

AsRock said:
There is Intels garbage collection and mine have been running like they were on day one at the rated speeds. Had 0 issue's in vista to so trims not even needed.

Indexing and superfetch is worth turning off too.

Im kinda up in the air about superfetch. Some older SSDs benifit from it. I think it should be turned off on a case by case basis. Indexing however Ill add it to the OP. I forgot about that. Thanks!

EastCoasthandle · Nov 21, 2010

Here is an article to enable ACHI after you install Win7/Vista
source

Completely Bonkers · Nov 21, 2010

TheMailMan78 said:
As for the RAM disk Ill one up you. Just setup your internet temp file on another drive. Setting up a RAM disk takes away from freespace which could effect TRIM.

Agree. On a double drive system you can do this. But very few laptops/netbooks have two drives, and for some people security is important. If your temps are on a ramdisk (without backup) then on power down it is all gone... no need for diskwiping/cleaning. I have 256MB ramdisk on a 2GB netbook. And I have 1GB ramdisks as standard on 4GB+ machines.

Note that pagefile on a SSD is used less often than temp files in the ramdisk. So, IMO, it is better to "steal" some RAM for a ramdrive and have a slightly larger pagefile on a SSD, than vice versa. Your mileage may vary depending on your usage profile. For photoshop and gaming, I agree with your scenario. For Office and Productivity software, my profile suggestion is better. :pimp:

Example
I currently have Chrome x5. Explorer x3, Acrobat x1 and Word x2 open (plus various system utils like antivirus etc). Memory footprint: 620MB. So there is plenty of space for a ramdrive on a 2GB machine. My pagefile isnt getting hit. Whereas I already have 200MB in over 3000+ files in my Z: drive (ramdisk) holding just the temps from today. That's "a million files" per year, with goodness knows how many SSD write avoids. Let's do some quick back of the envelope sums: Write amplification of 20-40x (often quoted write amplification statistic) and some of those files being more than one sector (average 100K = 25x 4K writes) means that I can assume I'm saving "a million" x (20-40x) x 25x = 500-1000 million writes per year (based on the "older" write amplification statistics). Things have improved a bit. Intel's new drives have improved write amplification by a factor of 10, so depending on your drive, it is still 50-100 millions writes per year saved. So IMO, ramdisk wins!

HammerON · Nov 22, 2010

Thanks for the thread MailMan :toast:

I like the SSD Tweaker utility!!!

MxPhenom 216 · Dec 29, 2010

how do you turn off windows defrag???

TheMailMan78 · Dec 29, 2010

nvidiaintelftw said:
how do you turn off windows defrag???

1. Type in "defrag" into the start menu
2. Click on "defrag"
3. A window will open asking you which drive you want to defrag. Above that will be a schedule button. Click that.
4. Its pretty self explanatory from then on out.

W1zzard · Dec 29, 2010

formatting a partition on ssd on windows 7 will send the proper trim commands. deleting or creating partitions does not

TheMailMan78 · Dec 29, 2010

W1zzard said:
formatting a partition on ssd on windows 7 will send the proper trim commands. deleting or creating partitions does not

Yup. I found that out the hard way. You need to so a run a cleaner so that it dumps the old invalid data. THEN do a format.

W1zzard · Dec 29, 2010

TheMailMan78 said:
Yup. I found that out the hard way. You need to so a run a cleaner so that it dumps the old invalid data. THEN do a format.

no, you just can just do the format, it will trim fine

TheMailMan78 · Dec 29, 2010

W1zzard said:
no, you just can just do the format, it will trim fine

But that will take forever for TRIM to dump the old data won't it?

W1zzard · Dec 29, 2010

it's fast enough for you to make no difference. trim does not make any guarantees. the drive can do the work any time it wants after receiving the trim

secure erase does clear the whole drive and is specified to guarantee that all data is gone when the command completes. whether all ssd controllers honor that, i dont know

MxPhenom 216 · Dec 29, 2010

So i installed windows 7 on a fresh install of this SSD. Is it formatted because i couldnt when i was starting the installation. does windows 7 do it on its own at the beginning??

W1zzard · Dec 29, 2010

nvidiaintelftw said:
So i installed windows 7 on a fresh install of this SSD. Is it formatted because i couldnt when i was starting the installation. does windows 7 do it on its own at the beginning??

yes, cant use a partition without formatting

TheMailMan78 · Dec 29, 2010

W1zzard said:
it's fast enough for you to make no difference. trim does not make any guarantees. the drive can do the work any time it wants after receiving the trim

secure erase does clear the whole drive and is specified to guarantee that all data is gone when the command completes. whether all ssd controllers honor that, i dont know

Well I fail at life once again.

VulkanBros · Aug 15, 2011

Question:
If I have a SSD drive I will build into an external HDD enclosure with USB 3.0 interface -
does the same things apply as you mentioned in this post?
I imagine that TRIM does NOT work when running it via USB interface?

TheMailMan78 · Aug 15, 2011

VulkanBros said:
Question:
If I have a SSD drive I will build into an external HDD enclosure with USB 3.0 interface -
does the same things apply as you mentioned in this post?
I imagine that TRIM does NOT work when running it via USB interface?

Is it your primary OS drive?

VulkanBros · Aug 15, 2011

No - I will use it as a portable USB drive.....maybe for backup or OS installation drive - for quick restore/install options

Hotobu · Aug 15, 2011

Is it possible to tell Windows which disks to turn off after a while? In the past I've only ever had all HDDs so I'd just set it to "turn off disks" at whatever time I selected, but since SSDs shouldn't be turned off is there a way I can select which ones are?

TheMailMan78 · Aug 16, 2011

First post updated with a benchmark question and answer.

VulkanBros said:
No - I will use it as a portable USB drive.....maybe for backup or OS installation drive - for quick restore/install options

Then I wouldn't be to concerned. You can check TRIM with the utility I posted. You can also manually run trim with the cleaner I posted. The guide above is for OS drives.

Hotobu said:
Is it possible to tell Windows which disks to turn off after a while? In the past I've only ever had all HDDs so I'd just set it to "turn off disks" at whatever time I selected, but since SSDs shouldn't be turned off is there a way I can select which ones are?

Not sure. But I would assume it would have to be in your power management settings. Most drives cycle down when not in use.

de.das.dude · Aug 16, 2011

now i want an ssd to try all these out

System Name	TheMailbox 5.0 / The Mailbox 4.5
Processor	RYZEN 1700X / Intel i7 2600k @ 4.2GHz
Motherboard	Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4 / Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH Intel LGA 1155
Cooling	MasterLiquid PRO 280 / Scythe Katana 4
Memory	ADATA RGB 16GB DDR4 2666 16-16-16-39 / G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB DDR3 1866: 9-9-9-24
Video Card(s)	MSI 1080 "Duke" with 8Gb of RAM. Boost Clock 1847 MHz / ASUS 780ti
Storage	256Gb M4 SSD / 128Gb Agelity 4 SSD , 500Gb WD (7200)
Display(s)	LG 29" Class 21:9 UltraWide® IPS LED Monitor 2560 x 1080 / Dell 27"
Case	Cooler Master MASTERBOX 5t / Cooler Master 922 HAF
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec / SupremeFX X-Fi with Bose Companion 2 speakers.
Power Supply	Seasonic FOCUS Plus Series SSR-750PX 750W Platinum / SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold
Mouse	SteelSeries Sensei (RAW) / Logitech G5
Keyboard	Razer BlackWidow / Logitech (Unknown)
Software	Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Benchmark Scores	Benching is for bitches.

Processor	Mysterious Engineering Prototype
Motherboard	Intel 865
Cooling	Custom block made in workshop
Memory	Corsair XMS 2GB
Video Card(s)	FireGL X3-256
Display(s)	1600x1200 SyncMaster x 2 = 3200x1200
Software	Windows 2003

System Name	TheMailbox 5.0 / The Mailbox 4.5
Processor	RYZEN 1700X / Intel i7 2600k @ 4.2GHz
Motherboard	Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4 / Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH Intel LGA 1155
Cooling	MasterLiquid PRO 280 / Scythe Katana 4
Memory	ADATA RGB 16GB DDR4 2666 16-16-16-39 / G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB DDR3 1866: 9-9-9-24
Video Card(s)	MSI 1080 "Duke" with 8Gb of RAM. Boost Clock 1847 MHz / ASUS 780ti
Storage	256Gb M4 SSD / 128Gb Agelity 4 SSD , 500Gb WD (7200)
Display(s)	LG 29" Class 21:9 UltraWide® IPS LED Monitor 2560 x 1080 / Dell 27"
Case	Cooler Master MASTERBOX 5t / Cooler Master 922 HAF
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec / SupremeFX X-Fi with Bose Companion 2 speakers.
Power Supply	Seasonic FOCUS Plus Series SSR-750PX 750W Platinum / SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold
Mouse	SteelSeries Sensei (RAW) / Logitech G5
Keyboard	Razer BlackWidow / Logitech (Unknown)
Software	Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Benchmark Scores	Benching is for bitches.

Processor	AMD 3900X \ AMD 7700X
Motherboard	ASRock AM4 X570 Pro 4 \ ASUS X670Xe TUF
Cooling	D15
Memory	Patriot 2x16GB PVS432G320C6K \ G.Skill Flare X5 F5-6000J3238F 2x16GB
Video Card(s)	eVga GTX1060 SSC \ XFX RX 6950XT RX-695XATBD9
Storage	Sammy 860, MX500, Sabrent Rocket 4 Sammy Evo 980 \ 1xSabrent Rocket 4+, Sammy 2x990 Pro
Display(s)	Samsung 1080P \ LG 43UN700
Case	Fractal Design Pop Air 2x140mm fans from Torrent \ Fractal Design Torrent 2 SilverStone FHP141x2
Audio Device(s)	Yamaha RX-V677 \ Yamaha CX-830+Yamaha MX-630 \Paradigm 7se MKII, Paradigm 5SE MK1 , Blue Yeti
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime TX-750 \ Corsair RM1000X Shift
Mouse	Steelseries Sensei wireless \ Steelseries Sensei wireless
Keyboard	Logitech K120 \ Wooting Two HE
Benchmark Scores	Meh benchmarks.

Processor	Mysterious Engineering Prototype
Motherboard	Intel 865
Cooling	Custom block made in workshop
Memory	Corsair XMS 2GB
Video Card(s)	FireGL X3-256
Display(s)	1600x1200 SyncMaster x 2 = 3200x1200
Software	Windows 2003

System Name	MY PC
Processor	E8400 @ 3.80Ghz > Q9650 3.60Ghz
Motherboard	Maximus Formula
Cooling	D5, 7/16" ID Tubing, Maze4 with Fuzion CPU WB
Memory	XMS 8500C5D @ 1066MHz
Video Card(s)	HD 2900 XT 858/900 to 4870 to 5870 (Keep Vreg area clean)
Storage	2
Display(s)	24"
Case	P180
Audio Device(s)	X-fi Plantinum
Power Supply	Silencer 750
Software	XP Pro SP3 to Windows 7
Benchmark Scores	This varies from one driver to another.

System Name	Aki
Processor	AMD 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-A
Cooling	MSI MAG CoreLiquid E360
Memory	Patriot Viper Elite 5 32GB 6200
Video Card(s)	PNY RTX 4090 XLR8
Storage	Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB + WD Black SN850 1TB
Display(s)	Dell 32" Curved Gaming Monitor (S3220DGF)
Case	Corsair 5000D Airflow
Audio Device(s)	On-board
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G5
Mouse	Roccat Kone Pure
Keyboard	ASUS ROG Strix Scope II Wireless
Software	Win 11 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Always changing~

System Name	Ryzen Reflection
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570S Aorus Master
Cooling	2x EK PE360 \| TechN AM4 AMD Block Black \| EK Quantum Vector Trinity GPU Nickel + Plexi
Memory	Teamgroup T-Force Xtreem 2x16GB B-Die 3600 @ 14-14-14-28-42-288-2T 1.45v
Video Card(s)	Zotac AMP HoloBlack RTX 3080Ti 12G \| 950mV 1950Mhz
Storage	WD SN850 500GB (OS) \| Samsung 980 Pro 1TB (Games_1) \| Samsung 970 Evo 1TB (Games_2)
Display(s)	Asus XG27AQM 240Hz G-Sync Fast-IPS \| Gigabyte M27Q-P 165Hz 1440P IPS \| LG 24" IPS 1440p
Case	Lian Li PC-011D XL \| Custom cables by Cablemodz
Audio Device(s)	FiiO K7 \| Sennheiser HD650 + Beyerdynamic FOX Mic
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 850
Mouse	Razer Viper v2 Pro
Keyboard	Corsair K65 Plus 75% Wireless - USB Mode
Software	Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit

Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory	48 GB
Video Card(s)	RTX 4080
Storage	2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s)	30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software	Windows 10 64-bit

System Name	Commercial towing vehicle "Nostromo"
Processor	5800X3D
Motherboard	X570 Unify
Cooling	EK-AIO 360
Memory	32 GB Fury 3666 MHz
Video Card(s)	4070 Ti Eagle
Storage	SN850 NVMe 1TB + Renegade NVMe 2TB + 870 EVO 4TB
Display(s)	25" Legion Y25g-30 360Hz
Case	Lian Li LanCool 216 v2
Audio Device(s)	Razer Blackshark v2 Hyperspeed / Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e
Power Supply	HX1500i
Mouse	Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition
Keyboard	Scope II 96 Wireless
Software	Windows 11 24H2 / Fedora w. KDE

System Name	---
Processor	Ryzen 1600
Motherboard	ASRock Taichi X370
Cooling	Noctua D15
Memory	G.Skill 3200 DDR4 2x8GB
Video Card(s)	EVGA 1080 TI SC
Storage	500GB Samsung Evo 970 NVMe + 860 Evo 2TB SSD + 5x 2TB HDDs
Display(s)	LG CX 65"
Case	Phanteks P600S (white)
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x (white)

System Name	Monke \| Work Thinkpad\| J1nnx took Old Monke
Processor	Ryzen 5600X \| Ryzen 5500U \| FX8320
Motherboard	ASRock B550 Extreme4 \| ? \| Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling	240mm Rad \| Not needed \| hyper 212 EVO
Memory	2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB \| 16 GB DDR4 3600 \| 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB \| Vega 8 \| Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage	Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) \| some samsung SSD
Display(s)	Dell 2723DS \| Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS \| Dell 2240L
Case	Ant Esports Tempered case \| Thinkpad \| Antec
Audio Device(s)	Logitech Z333 \| Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply	Corsair RM750e \| not needed \| Corsair GS 600
Mouse	Logitech G400 \| nipple
Keyboard	Logitech G213 \| stock kb is awesome \| Logitech K230
VR HMD	;_;
Software	Windows 10 Professional x3
Benchmark Scores	There are no marks on my bench

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