SSD Optimization - Pagefile Or No?

[nomdeplume]

I ran through a good number of tweaks after installing the SSD but wondered what the current thinking is on turning off the pagefile. Beyond that if I keep it enabled should I could consider bumping it up the recommended amount or higher? Not sure I understand the downside to leaving it on other than slightly increased disk writes.

I purposely bought this computer because there is so little it lets you change I couldn't royally eff things up screwing around. I mention this to eliminate any advice based on more advanced feature set mb's.

Hp 8200 Elite SFF
Intel Q67
i5 2400
850 Evo 250GB
Windows 7 Pro

 

[alucasa]

Personally, I leave it at auto and forget about it.

 

[nomdeplume]

Good enough. Figured I was getting a bit anal. Never hurts to ask though.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I ran through a good number of tweaks after installing the SSD but wondered what the current thinking is on turning off the pagefile.

There isn't any thinking. That's the problem. There is no technical white paper, study, or article anywhere that says turning off the page file, regardless how much RAM you have or if using a SSD, is "better". None. Period. Yet you will still see over and over again people who think they are masters at memory management who think they know more than the PhDs and computer scientists at Microsoft and claim "because they didn't see a difference" or "because they have lots of RAM" that its okay to disable the Page File. That is simply twisted and unsound logic. That's like saying because I didn't break my hand when I punched the wall, it must be okay to punch the wall.

The ONLY time it makes sense to not let Windows manage your page file is if you are critically low on disk space. But the proper fix to that is to free up or buy more disk space - not disable the PF, or manually set a small PF.

Contrary to what some may want you to believe, Microsoft has not been sitting on their thumbs the last 20 plus years since page files have been around. They have it figured out and do it right because it is in their best interest to ensure your system runs optimally. Unless you really are a true expert at memory management, leave it alone!

On top of all that, SSDs are ideally suited for Page Files. See Support and Q&A for Solid-State Drives and scroll down to, "Frequently Asked Questions, Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?" While the article is getting old, it still applies - in fact, even more so today since wear problems of early generation SSDs are no longer a problem.

 

[Jetster]

Here we go again. Leave it alone

As far as SSD Optimization? I turn Defrag schedule off. That's it. (oddly enough in windows 10 its called disk Optimization) Don't use that at all on an SSD

 

[newtekie1]

Here we go again. Leave it alone

As far as SSD Optimization? I turn Defrag schedule off. That's it. (oddly enough in windows 10 its called disk Optimization) Don't use that at all on an SSD

Thats because on 8 and 10, they are natively SSD aware, and instead of doing a Defrag on the SSD it just runs a full Trim command on the drive.

 

[Vulcansheart]

The only time I disable the pf is prior to doing a backup disk image. It will save several GB on the final image size. Otherwise, leave it on auto.

 

[biffzinker]

I turn Defrag schedule off. That's it. (oddly enough in windows 10 its called disk Optimization) Don't use that at all on an SSD

All it is on a SSD is TRIM plus Meta Data files being fragmented.

 

[nomdeplume]

I said GOOD ENOUGH! Bill, you were doing good until the part where you steadfastly asserted Windows has it in their best interest to make your system run optimally. LOL

To be clear I updated 7 year old old version of BIOS, all settings, nearly all drivers. Rebooted with SSD as secondary drive and ran Magician to update firmware. Installed W7 on SSD, installed suite of stable drivers from first step, turned on TRIM, turned off hibernation/defrag/indexing, and then finally questioned if the pagefile was redundant. The only real decision left is whether I want to chance slowing Windows down by updating through WU or WSUS.

 

[Jetster]

Thats because on 8 and 10, they are natively SSD aware,

I though they switched that back? They were aware now they are not, was my understanding. Could be wrong though

Okay well I learned something

http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-tip-defrag-secrets-for-hard-disks-and-ssds/

Okay OP: don't do shit

 

[Bill_Bright]

As far as SSD Optimization? I turn Defrag schedule off. That's it. (oddly enough in windows 10 its called disk Optimization) Don't use that at all on an SSD

It's been called "Optimize Drives" since Windows 8 and it is not odd because that is what it does, regardless the drive type. And there is no need to disable it because Windows already knows if a drive is a HD or SSD and if it detects it is a SSD, it will not even attempt to defrag it because Microsoft knows it makes no sense to defrag a SSD.

Bill, you were doing good until the part where you steadfastly asserted Windows has it in their best interest to make your system run optimally.

Of course they do. To think otherwise is being silly. Why would Microsoft, Intel, Gigabyte, Linux, NVIDIA, AMD, Ford, or any product maker NOT want their product to run optimally?

turned on TRIM, turned off hibernation/defrag/indexing, and then finally questioned if the pagefile was redundant.

None of that makes sense either. TRIM is enabled by default. You want your HDs to be defragged regularly. Indexing works (W10 is not XP, after all). And hibernation is for notebook and not disabled by default either.

In other words. W10 works just fine with its default settings.

I though they switched that back? They were aware now they are not, was my understanding. Could be wrong though

Switched back? Why would they do that? SSD use has done nothing but increase since SSDs first came out. In fact, more and more computers, especially notebooks are coming from the factory with only SSDs.

 

[Jetster]

Switched back? Why would they do that? SSD use has done nothing but increase since

I read it in an article somewhere. But anyway. I'm glad I know now

cool its says trimmed

 

[Bill_Bright]

cool its says trimmed

Agreed. And actually, that is why I don't use 3rd party applications like Samsung Magician - Windows already knows how to properly utilize and maintain SSDs.

 

[nomdeplume]

I was just making light of my dumb question getting serious responses. It's Windows 7 and there was no harm in double checking TRIM was on or updating the firmware using Magician

Thanks for that link. I use Perfectdisk which has SSD optimize, if I ever want to run it, and my spinning disk set to automatically defrag. Until I got around to installing that I just clicked Windows defrag off.

 

[alucasa]

Well, I figure my SSDs will outlive its lifespan anyway, so I don't care.

Truth to be told, my oldest SSD (Cheapest SSD I could find at that time, 64gb Kingston SSDnow!) is 7+ years old running Fedora. Never bothered with trim or whatever and it still runs fine.

 

[RejZoR]

I disable pagefile only because I have 32GB of RAM which means it'll also eat nearly equal amount of drive space. And if you have hibernation enabled, I'd lose around 60GB for things I'll never need because I have bloody 32GB of RAM. I have it set to 16MB so I still get the benefits of error recording from BSOD's and that's about it.

 

[Jetster]

If you have it set to 16Mb then its not disabled

Wait, you have a 2 Tb SSD and your concerned about a couple of Gb? You set it to 16 Mb? Makes no sense

 

[biffzinker]

I disable pagefile only

You don't need to disable the page file on Windows 10. The next time Windows 10 runs scheduled maintenance the page file shrinks then is dynamically allocated based on demand.

 

[RejZoR]

If you have it set to 16Mb then its not disabled

Wait, you have a 2 Tb SSD and your concerned about a couple of Gb? You set it to 16 Mb? Makes no sense

16MB is the same as being disabled. And while I do have a 2TB SSD, why would I waste space on pointless feature? I had it configured the same on 2TB HDD I had before it...

 

[P4-630]

It eats only 2432MB on my system on auto, while I have 16GB ram.
Just let the system handle this.

 

[Enterprise24]

I turn off pagefile cause no game come close to use 16GB RAM.

 

[biffzinker]

I turn off pagefile cause no game come close to use 16GB RAM.

Leave the page file alone.

Here's the Scheduled task ran during Scheduled Maintenance pertaining to the Page File.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Leave the page file alone.

Just because someone told me to leave it alone, I cant and I wont. And I know I wont go blind playing with it.

 

[n-ster]

I've gotten the habit of putting a manual size for the pagefile, usually 1-2GB

 

[P4-630]

I turn off pagefile cause no game come close to use 16GB RAM.

The pagefile isn't there just for games....