# Simple 7 SSD Guide.



## LAN_deRf_HA (Aug 24, 2010)

I parted this together from a newegg review and random forum posts. Tried to stick to "simple and safe". Any suggestions are welcome. [F] for speed,  for space.

[F] 1. If your BIOS supports AHCI then enable it. Set S1 instead of S3 if you have the option, otherwise don't worry about.

2. Install Windows 7. Use the built in partition tool to avoid alignment issues.

[F] 3. In Windows Explorer; right click on the C: drive and select properties. Uncheck "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed." Click Apply and then Ignore All.

4. In that same properties box, select TOOLS -> Defragment now -> Uncheck "Run on schedule".

[F] 5. Device Manager -> Disk drives -> [drive name] -> Properties -> Policies -> [X] Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing.

6. In Services, "Stop" and then "Disable" Disk Defragmenter and Windows Search.

 7. (Optional) Disable hibernation. Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off

[F] 8. Modify Superfetch for boot caching only. Open regedit.exe and browse down to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Find the “EnablePrefetcher” key on the right-hand pane, and change the value to one of these:

Disable Caching: 0
Cache Applications Only: 1
*Cache Boot Files Only: 2*
Cache Everything (default): 3

Clear out the \Windows\Prefetch folder and reboot. The next boot will be slower as
Windows will have to re-cache everything.

 9. Shrink pagefile. Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Settings (Performance) -> Advanced Tab -> Change -> Uncheck Automatically manage -> Customize -> Set to 1024 in both boxes (click set) -> OK -> Restart your computer. While unlikely, if programs crash try doubling to 2048.

 10. (Optional) Disable System Restore. Obviously this limits you recovery options. Personally I've never had to use it. Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> System Protection Tab -> Configure -> Turn off system protection -> Delete -> OK 

Notes: When reinstalling on a SSD use HDDerase to "secure erase" the drive and then do a quick format to maintain/restore performance.

If you're also running a conventional HDD paired with your SSD you'll want to keep the defrag service on manual.

I'd recommend reading everyone's comments as well.


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## W1zzard (Aug 24, 2010)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> Notes: When reinstalling on a SSD use HDDerase to "secure erase" the drive and then do a quick format to maintain/restore performance.



normal quick format sends trim too. creating/deleting partitions does not

and notebook users may want to leave hibernation enabled so they can close the lid and resume on open


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Aug 24, 2010)

I guess technically people may want to do that on their desktops as well. I could just label that optional... though really it's all optional. With reinstall I figured that method would also cover the pre-trim drives.


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## $immond$ (Aug 24, 2010)

Does leaving hibernation on actually wear the SSD out?


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## W1zzard (Aug 24, 2010)

$immond$ said:


> Does leaving hibernation on actually wear the SSD out?



dont worry about ssd wear, otherwise you should leave it in its box sitting on your shelf 

when entering hibernation the computer will write the main memory contents to the hibernation file. just a few gigs, no big deal.

if you have a desktop and never use hibernation, turn it off to get a few gigs of disk space on your c: drive back


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## $immond$ (Aug 24, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> dont worry about ssd wear, otherwise you should leave it in its box sitting on your shelf



lol yea I am not actually, its just everyone keeps recommending to turn off hibernation for SSDs, though I like using hibernation for my laptops and desktops.


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## newtekie1 (Aug 24, 2010)

Laptop users should still be able to use Sleep without Hibernation, that should be good enough.  Though if power is totally lost(battery goes totally dead) then sleep fails.  But on my laptop, the difference between sleep and hibernate on battery life is next to none, even in sleep it is using almost no battery.

Any why disable the entire defragmenter service?  If you've got a seperate data drive you definitely want to defrag that.  So leave the service enabled, but disable automatic defrags for the SSD, and never manually defrag it, and you will be fine.


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## $immond$ (Aug 24, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> Laptop users should still be able to use Sleep without Hibernation, that should be good enough.  Though if power is totally lost(battery goes totally dead) then sleep fails.  But on my laptop, the difference between sleep and hibernate on battery life is next to none, even in sleep it is using almost no battery.
> 
> Any why disable the entire defragmenter service?  If you've got a seperate data drive you definitely want to defrag that.  So leave the service enabled, but disable automatic defrags for the SSD, and never manually defrag it, and you will be fine.



When I was testing my SSD, automatic defrag was already disabled.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Aug 24, 2010)

Any further comments on AHCI? I see some reports of it causing instability and even sluggishness.


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## erocker (Aug 24, 2010)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Any further comments on AHCI? I see some reports of it causing instability and even sluggishness.



Not for me! I doubt it's AHCI causing the instability or sluggishness.


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## $immond$ (Aug 24, 2010)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Any further comments on AHCI? I see some reports of it causing instability and even sluggishness.



Yea there have been issues with 850SB, using the generic windows drivers seem to circumvent most issues unless you have a faulty bored like me.


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## overclocking101 (Aug 24, 2010)

what exctly happens when you defrag a ssd?


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## Wrigleyvillain (Aug 24, 2010)

It's just more unnecessary wear due to moving files around. Also having defragmented data isn't such a performance hit on an SSD in the first place due to them being so good at small, random reads compared to platter HDDs.


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## $immond$ (Aug 24, 2010)

Diskkeeper 11 is suppose to have a defragger for SSDs.


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## Bot (Aug 24, 2010)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> [F] 5. Device Manager -> Disk drives -> [drive name] -> Properties -> Policies -> [X] Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing.



why is that?


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Aug 24, 2010)

Bot said:


> why is that?



There are conflicting reports about whether or not this increases speed, but no reports of it decreasing speed. So it seemed best to just disable it.

@newtekie1
I should probably add a note about that.

@$immond$
For whatever reason windows doesn't always automatically do this.


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## Octopuss (Aug 25, 2010)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> [F] 3. In Windows Explorer; right click on the C: drive and select properties. Uncheck "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed." Click Apply and then Ignore All.
> 
> 6. In Services, "Stop" and then "Disable" Disk Defragmenter and Windows Search.


Why would we stop the services? We still like to be able to search in start menu and possibly have standard disks defragmented. Besides, if you choose not to use the features on the SSD, there is no point in stopping the services.


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## W1zzard (Aug 25, 2010)

Octopuss said:


> Why would we stop the services? We still like to be able to search in start menu and possibly have standard disks defragmented. Besides, if you choose not to use the features on the SSD, there is no point in stopping the services.



less services running, less opened files and other handles, no change in memory usage (it will get swapped out anyway) - that's why you have a page file
not significant overall. but if you want to spend your time tweaking and optimizing your system rather than using it there is certainly a point


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## W1zzard (Aug 25, 2010)

Bot said:


> LAN_deRf_HA said:
> 
> 
> > [F] 5. Device Manager -> Disk drives -> [drive name] -> Properties -> Policies -> [X] Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing.
> ...



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/332023/en-us 
seems to talk about that exact thing even though it is for w2k

the basic idea is that when window flushes its write cache it will also flush the write cache in the hdd to make sure data is really written to disk. this will reduce performance slightly but not lose data in case of a power failure


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## Octopuss (Aug 29, 2010)

That article is about Windows 2000. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that it applies to modern OSes too. Why not ask directly Midrosoft though? There are still lots of registry "tweaks" floating around that don't do jack


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Aug 29, 2010)

You know if someone wants to repackage this into a more in-depth, but hopefully still simple, writeup in another thread be my guest. I think I'm too lazy to make this sticky worthy, but it'd be nice to have some sort of SSD info always available in the storage section.


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