SSD optimization

[mooncancook]

Just installed a 64GB SSD on my Sony TZ notebook and it finally made the TZ more of a joy than a pain to use. I'm concerned about performance degradation on SSD. Should I disable windows page file? I'm running Vista Business 32 bit on 2GB of ram.

 

[her209]

No.

 

[taltamir]

don't disable the page file...

 

[EarthwormJim]

No.

 

[ilkhan]

On 2GB of ram? definitely not. I did (and do) with 4GB and 8GB of RAM, however (along with hibernation. seriously, 8-12GB of SSD usage for that? uh uh.) edit: would leave hibernation and PF on with a 4GB laptop, however.

 

[Nothinman]

I did (and do) with 4GB and 8GB of RAM,

Disabling the pagefile is a bad idea no matter how much memory you have.

 

[pcslookout]

Disabling the pagefile is a bad idea no matter how much memory you have.

Yep but is it best to keep the paging file on the SSD or move it to another slower IDE 7200 rpm hard drive?

 

[latch]

Yep but is it best to keep the paging file on the SSD or move it to another slower IDE 7200 rpm hard drive?

Not for new generation SSDs. If you didn't buy a super fast hard drive to make stuff go faster, you can mail it to me.

Win7 detects SSDs and does a couple things. You can read up on it here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

it's under the "Windows 7 Optimizations and Default Behavior Summary" section.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

thanks for the link, very informative

 

[MJinZ]

I disabled my page file (or rather, limited it to 200mb), as I have 4GB of RAM. If it crashes, I'll know when I need more RAM.

Disable Defrag (it could be set to manual)

Disable Hibernation - the most worthless thing in the world.

 

[taltamir]

limiting it to 200mb and disabling are two different things... don't disable it, if you are an expert and have very specific needs and configuration than limit it to 200mb but don't disable.

for the OP and most people its better to just leave it on the default configuration.

 

[pcslookout]

I disabled my page file (or rather, limited it to 200mb), as I have 4GB of RAM. If it crashes, I'll know when I need more RAM.

Disable Defrag (it could be set to manual)

Disable Hibernation - the most worthless thing in the world.

Well with 4 GB of ram your paging file is around 6 to 8 GB so that uses a lot of space of your SSD. So that is well worth doing, if you need the extra space. I am sure most people would need every little bit more space they can get. Now with 8 GB of ram the paging file gets even more ridiculous at 8 to 12 GB.

I can easily see this becoming a huge problem for people with 12, 16, and 32 GB of ram.

 

[Elcs]

Not for new generation SSDs. If you didn't buy a super fast hard drive to make stuff go faster, you can mail it to me.

Win7 detects SSDs and does a couple things. You can read up on it here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

it's under the "Windows 7 Optimizations and Default Behavior Summary" section.

Fantastic resource!! I am ordering a 160 Gb Intel X25-M and Windows 7 is arriving together so I will be fixing all up when it comes in and this has really helped.

If I may I would like to ask for some advice on my SSD Optimisation when it arrives.

I will have 1 x 160 Gb SSD and 2 x 500 Gb Western Digital Green Power drives. The idea I have is to install Windows 7, Page ~File (6-8 Gb, I have 4 Gb RAM), Applications and Steam (100 Gb of Games) onto the SSD, my theory being it is well utilised and shouldnt be overly full (125-130 Gb used?).

The 2 x 500 Gb Green Power's would be used mainly for storage but also for any games outside of Steam. Hopefully this will invoke the auto idle features of the Green Power's and reduce my PC noise during most usage.

Please let me know that you think.

 

[ilkhan]

Disabling the pagefile is a bad idea no matter how much memory you have.

I've seen many people say its a bad idea. I've never seen anybody provide proof or evidence of it why turning it off is a bad idea. Until I have a problem Im going to leave it disabled.

FYI: I'm approaching year 2 of leaving it off (with 4GB and 9 months with 8GB). No regrets. I bumped into 4GB of usage (apparently a 700MB sidebar and a 700MB google earth usage hurts when trying to stuff 2GB of a game into RAM) a few times with only 4GB of ram, never with 8GB.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Disabling the page file will prevent Windows from performing a memory dump if the system BSOD's. Otherwise, as long as your peak memory commit charge is lower than the amount of physical memory in your PC, you'll be fine.

 

[taltamir]

various programs can try to access the page file directly to avoid "wasting" ram. If you disabled it, you will BSOD when that happens.

 

[theevilsharpie]

various programs can try to access the page file directly to avoid "wasting" ram. If you disabled it, you will BSOD when that happens.

[citation needed]

 

[jvroig]

I'll second the request for citation. That's very interesting if true, I'd like to read about it as well

 

[FreshPrince]

Hello All!

I have done some research on the internet and so far, this is what I have compiled, please take a look and let me know your thoughts.

My ssd comes with my dell lattitude, the firmware and build date appears to be faily recent.

Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit
8GB RAM

samsung 256GB mlc ssd
mmdoe56g5mxp-0vbd7
yc3270g939-sy939a5508
fde
0939
f/w vbm94d1q (what is this firmware? does it support GC? TRIMM?)
2009.9.24
PM800

My SSD Optimization Checklist for Windows 7

* turned off superprefetch service to manual (what does this do exactly? See more details below, would option 2 in registry be better?)

* turned off windows search service to manual (will library dependancies for programs break? according to windows shell programmer, this should be left on)

* verified disk defragmenter service turned off to manual

* disabled scheduled task - disk defragmenter

* disabled hibernation in cmd with this command - "powercfg -H off"

* disable write caching for hdd in device manager (does not make sense, not sure why? not doing this one right now)

* disabled system page file in system properties (debatable, should it be set to 2MB instead?)

[superprefetch alternative:
rather than disable superetch altogether, a better way would be to set it to cache boot files only.
regedit: hkey_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\contro 1\session manager\memory management\prefetchparameters
"enableprefetcher"
disable caching: 0
cache applications only: 1
cache bootfiles only: 2
cache everything (default): 3

reboot
clear out old cache files in \windows\prefetch folder - next boot will be slower when new cache files recreate]

so that's it, what do you all think?

I am a little worried about turning off superprefetch, what about option 2 in the registery? will this be better or should I turn it back on?

I'm not as worried about turning off windows search, but the caution from the windows developer does warrant some concern.

disk defrag and the scheduling of defrag is a no brainer IMO, I have no worries here. one side note is that it took Dell 10 days to build my laptop and having seen the windows task logs, it does appear windows already defragged the hdd once....grr. not sure if my drive is already compromised...

Hibernation is useful for some, but I seldom use it so I can leave it off to save some storage space. My question is, if it was initially turned on by default, was there a hibernation file? if so, where to delete?

disabling of HDD write caching worries me so I left it on. I have not found good reason to turn it off yet, just a note from another ssd optimization site indicating to do so. so, I left it on...

many people will debate the page file, however, in my previous usage of XP and vista, I have always disabled it and have never run into any problems so I turned it off in windows 7 as well. besides, I have 8GB of ram and my page file was over 8GB so that's too taxing on my SSD. I wish there was a way to initially have the page file option turned off, I know the file has already been written to disk so disabling it and deleting the file does not really help does it if you drive does not support GC or TRIMM. Regardless, I have disabled it anyways.

finally a question regarding anti-virus scanning. should weekly scan be disabled to help with ssd performance? I am using symantec endpoint 11.5 64-bit and I fear the constant scanning and usage of the drive performed by my anti-virus software may cause some performance issues for my ssd down the line. any thoughts?

I appreciate your thoughts.

 

[ilkhan]

various programs can try to access the page file directly to avoid "wasting" ram. If you disabled it, you will BSOD when that happens.

Yeah, I've seen that before.
Name one (bonus points if its one I actually use).

 

[ilkhan]

Hello All!
many people will debate the page file, however, in my previous usage of XP and vista, I have always disabled it and have never run into any problems so I turned it off in windows 7 as well. besides, I have 8GB of ram and my page file was over 8GB so that's too taxing on my SSD. I wish there was a way to initially have the page file option turned off, I know the file has already been written to disk so disabling it and deleting the file does not really help does it if you drive does not support GC or TRIMM. Regardless, I have disabled it anyways.

finally a question regarding anti-virus scanning. should weekly scan be disabled to help with ssd performance? I am using symantec endpoint 11.5 64-bit and I fear the constant scanning and usage of the drive performed by my anti-virus software may cause some performance issues for my ssd down the line. any thoughts?

I appreciate your thoughts.

One of the hibernation [off] methods deletes the file, the other doesn't. I believe your method does. The file is a system [and hidden?] file located in c:. You should be able to delete it, if its there.
Wear only occurs on SSDs during writes. Log files aren't big enough to worry about (especially if only weekly) and reads don't hurt the drive. OTOH, ditch symantec and use avast or some other lightweight scanner, symantec/norton are fucking EVIL to your system.

Samsung SSDs don't support TRIM (and especially if you got it with the laptop) suck $/performance wise. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot you can do about it after the fact.

And really, I wouldn't worry about any of those tweaks. Defrag is disabled by default on SSDs, the rest aren't a big deal.

 

[FreshPrince]

One of the hibernation [off] methods deletes the file, the other doesn't. I believe your method does. The file is a system [and hidden?] file located in c:. You should be able to delete it, if its there.
Wear only occurs on SSDs during writes. Log files aren't big enough to worry about (especially if only weekly) and reads don't hurt the drive. OTOH, ditch symantec and use avast or some other lightweight scanner, symantec/norton are fucking EVIL to your system.

Samsung SSDs don't support TRIM (and especially if you got it with the laptop) suck $/performance wise. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot you can do about it after the fact.

And really, I wouldn't worry about any of those tweaks. Defrag is disabled by default on SSDs, the rest aren't a big deal.

unfortunately, Dell's install of windows 7 did not disable defrag...I am not sure why. having read several other sources on the internet, it does appear windows 7 would automatically do this if it detects an SSD. sadly, in my case with dell, it did not and I was fortunate enough to find it and disable it in time for future defrag attempts. otho, as I've said, it had already run once by I suspect a dell tech

 

[ilkhan]

If look at the defrag tool in win7 it'll still show the disk, but it'll say never run (and if you have another disk it'll have a last run time for it). Thats what mine is showing anyway. It'll still show in scheduled, etc, but it won't "defrag" the SSD. Is that what it's showing, or does it have a time? (and edit schedule -> select disks won't show the SSD.)

 

[The Sauce]

If you read the microsoft article in the link provided, it does not make sense to turn off write caching as some of the SSDs still use it with volatile DRAM similar to mechanical HDs. This makes sense because of the write issues with NAND. If I read correctly, Windows 7 will configure appropriately based on the SSD. I would leave that one alone.

 

[FreshPrince]

If look at the defrag tool in win7 it'll still show the disk, but it'll say never run (and if you have another disk it'll have a last run time for it). Thats what mine is showing anyway. It'll still show in scheduled, etc, but it won't "defrag" the SSD. Is that what it's showing, or does it have a time? (and edit schedule -> select disks won't show the SSD.)

it definitely shows a last run for defrag in the scheduler log