How much ssd capacity is needed for Windows. Optimizing the operation of an SSD disk under Windows SSD disk 10

It's no secret that installing an operating system from scratch is fraught with many pitfalls that can seriously spoil your nerves. This is especially true for installing an OS from a flash drive onto an SSD. Both media must be properly prepared and formatted, and the computer's BIOS must be configured accordingly. Otherwise, annoying errors may occur: the installation program will not see the disk or will not start at all.

Installing Windows 10 on an SSD - sleight of hand and no fraud

From the point of view of the operating system and computer hardware, a solid-state drive (SSD) is no different from a classic hard drive with magnetic platters. Accordingly, installing an operating system on an SSD will be no different from installing it on a regular hard drive.

The only nuances will be in setting up the disk subsystem for maximum performance and in creating partitions on the disk before installing the system. Since the disk is new, a clean copy of the OS will be installed.

Installing an OS on a blank disk will always be more difficult than updating, which will download itself from the Internet and carry out all the manipulations in the background, requiring literally a few mouse clicks from the user.

Installing a clean copy consists of several sequential steps that should go smoothly and without errors. Let's get started?

Preparing bootable media (flash drive)

As practice shows, when installing Windows 10 on an SSD using a bootable DVD, errors often occur that prevent normal installation of the OS. This happens especially often on laptops in which both the optical drive and the hard drive are connected to the same SATA controller: accessing the optical drive causes the computer to not optimally configure the controller, and the SSD may not work correctly.

Therefore, to install the system, you need to prepare a bootable USB flash drive, installation from which will allow you to carry out the process quickly and without errors.

To prepare bootable media with the OS distribution, you need to download the Windows 10 distribution image, format the flash drive and unpack the image onto it. And if there are no problems with downloading, then further preparation of the flash drive can be carried out by a dozen different programs, similar in function, but different in settings and interface.

We will focus on the official image deployment tool from Microsoft - Microsoft USB/DVD download tool. The program is so simple that it is impossible to make mistakes when using it.

  1. Find the Microsoft USB/DVD download tool on the Internet and download it.
  2. Connect a USB flash drive to a free USB port to which the system image will be deployed. Insert the USB flash drive onto which you want to burn the Windows 10 boot image into the USB port.
  3. Open File Explorer and note the logical drive letter of the flash drive. In our case this is the letter L.
    The connected flash drive was mounted in the file explorer as drive L:
  4. Launch the Microsoft USB/DVD download tool.
  5. Using the Browse button, select the ISO image with the operating system distribution and click Next.
    Step 1: select the image that you will burn to the flash drive
  6. Select the media type - USB Device (flash drive).
    Select the type of media that you will make bootable via the USB/DVD download tool
  7. Select the disk (flash drive) to deploy the media from the drop-down list and click the Begin copying button.
    Select your flash drive from the available devices and click the Begin copying button
  8. When asked about erasing media, answer yes. The program will format the flash drive and start copying files to it.
  9. When the progress bar reaches 100% and a message about successful media creation appears, you can close the program.

The bootable USB flash drive has been successfully created, and the Windows 10 distribution files have been transferred to it.

The bootable USB flash drive has been created, and you can begin installing the operating system using it.

The occurrence of any errors while the program is running indicates a faulty flash drive. Change the media to a known good one and repeat the process of creating a bootable disk.

In addition to its simplicity, this method is good because using an official Microsoft tool instead of one of the “free” programs guarantees a secure installation. Using it, you will not infect your computer with keyloggers or annoying adware.

Video: creating a bootable USB flash drive with Rufus

Activating AHCI mode

In order not to find yourself in a situation where the OS installer does not see the disk on which Windows 10 should be installed (this applies not only to SSDs, but in general to all hard drives with a SATA interface), using BIOS settings, you need to switch the SATA controller to AHCI mode .


Preparing an SSD disk for OS installation

To avoid problems when installing the Windows 10 operating system, the disk on which the installation will be carried out must be completely cleared of partitions. If you do not do this, the system installation program may display a message stating that this disk cannot be used to install the OS. The reason will be the lack of space to create service partitions, invisible to the user, but vital for the operating system.

To prevent this from happening, remove all partitions from the SSD disk. You can do this using the console command diskpart:


All partitions from the SSD have been removed, and it is ready to install the Windows 10 operating system.

This method requires care and a lot of keystrokes, but it gives complete control over the process. If you are a fan of beauty and mouse clicks, you can find hard drive management programs with a graphical interface.

Video: how to manage disks using Minitool PartitionWizard

Installing Windows 10 OS - step by step instructions

The bootable USB flash drive has been created, the computer's BIOS has been configured, and the SSD drive is pristine. We start the operating system installation process:

  1. Boot your computer from the previously created USB flash drive with the Windows 10 distribution.
  2. Select your default interface language and input keyboard, then click Next.
    Selecting the default system language and keyboard when installing Windows 10
  3. Click the Install button to start the Windows installation.
    Start installing Windows 10 using the “Install” button
  4. “Read” and accept the terms of the license agreement. Without this, further installation will be impossible.
    Accept the license agreement to continue installation
  5. Select the installation type "Custom: Windows installation only". A clean copy of the system can only be installed in this way.
    Installation of a “clean system” is only possible in custom installation mode
  6. Since we have previously cleared the target disk (SSD) of partitions, in the dialog for selecting a partition for installation, you will need to click the “Create” button, and then set the maximum possible partition size (it will be this by default). Together with it, the system will also create service partitions for its needs. They will not be visible in File Explorer:
    • Section #1: Recovery Environment. Contains a recovery environment necessary for “rolling back” the system after critical errors or damage by malware;
    • partition #2: system partition (EFI). Contains the boot configuration store (BCD) and files needed to boot the operating system;
    • section #3: MSR (system reserved). Required for service operations of built-in and third-party software (for example, to convert a simple disk to a dynamic one);
    • section No. 4: operating system. The installed system will be located on this partition. The space not occupied by the operating system will be available for installing applications and storing files.
  7. After selecting the disk, OS installation will begin. During the installation process, the screen may flicker and go dark, and the computer will automatically restart several times. This is required to complete some installation steps.
    Copying files and installing updates is the longest stage of OS installation
  8. Now you need to select basic settings for personalization and location, as well as connection and error reporting. The option “Use standard settings (default)” will be most preferable for an inexperienced user. At this stage, it is advisable to have a working Internet connection.
    In this window, it is better to use the “Use standard settings” button
  9. After entering the user password, the operating system is ready for use.
    The system waits for user actions on the lock screen

Video: Installing Windows 10

Proper preparation of two solid-state media: a bootable flash drive and an SSD disk is the key to a trouble-free and quick installation of Windows 10. In conclusion, I would like to dwell on the choice of system distribution. We strongly do not recommend using homemade OS builds, which are stored in large numbers on torrent trackers. Their authors promise mountains of gold and extraordinary features, but in reality everything can result in viruses built into the system, pop-up ads and hardware failures. Use only original images from Microsoft, even if you install a “pirated” version of the OS.

To increase computer performance and make the most of the system's capabilities, Windows 10 developers recommend installing an SSD drive instead of an HDD drive. It has a good data reading speed, fails less often and fits perfectly with the needs of the new operating system.

When installing an OS on an SSD, many services and settings are enabled by default. Therefore, no special settings are required. However, if you take into account some secrets, the efficiency of Windows 10 on an SSD can be significantly increased.

What needs to be done before setting up an SSD under Windows 10?

Before you fine-tune your SSD under Windows 10, you need to check some parameters, namely:

  • Controller operating mode;
  • TRIM function.

To check controller mode in Windows 10, you need to do the following:

  • Booting into BIOS. How to do this in Windows 10.
  • Go to the SATA settings section (the path to these settings is different for each motherboard." In most cases, this section is called SATA Configuration.
  • Set the ASHI mode. Save the results and restart the computer.

If there is no ASHI mode in the controller settings, then your BIOS version does not support it. To do this, you need to go to the motherboard developer’s website and find out if there is a new BIOS version for your model.

The TRIM function is responsible for uniform wear of memory cells. This is a very important indicator for SSD drives, since they have a certain number of writes and reads of information.

To check whether this feature is enabled in Windows 10, you should launch a command prompt with Administrator rights and enter the command “fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify”.

If the value is “0,” the function is enabled, if “1,” the function is disabled. To enable TRIM, you need to enter “fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0” at the command line.

After checking the important parameters, you can begin optimizing or fine-tuning the system for the SSD.

Fine-tuning Windows 10 for an SSD drive

Optimizing the operation of an SSD drive in Windows 10 comes down to disabling and activating some options.

The first feature that needs to be disabled in Windows 10 is file indexing. It is designed for quick access to files on HDDs. In SSD, the speed of reading information is already quite fast. If indexing is enabled, frequent rewrites can quickly damage the disk.

To disable indexing in Windows 10, you should do the following:

  • Open Explorer and find the SSD drive. Right-click on it and select “Properties”.
  • In the new window, in the “General” tab, uncheck “Allow file indexing...”.

Ordinary users rarely use the search service. To speed up the operation of the SSD drive, you should disable this function:

  • Click “Start”, “Control Panel”, select “System and Security”.

  • Select the “Administration” section. Here we click “Services”. Find “Windows Search” and double-click to open the service settings.

  • Set the value to “Disabled”.

If you decide to install an SSD drive on a desktop PC, you should disable hibernation mode. For laptops, it is not recommended to disable this mode. How to disable hibernation.

You can also quickly disable hibernation mode from the command line. To do this, launch the console as Administrator and enter “powercfg -h off”.

If you are using an SSD drive for Windows 10, the defragmentation function must be disabled. Defragmentation does not have any benefit for this type of drive. The access speed to such cells is the same, which means that no matter where the file fragments are located, the speed of reading them will be the same. To disable defragmentation, right-click on the disk and select “Properties”. A new window will open. Go to the “Service” tab and click “Optimize”.

A utility window will open. Click “Change settings”.

Disable disk defragmentation. To do this, uncheck the items that relate to regular scanning and notification of the need for defragmentation.

Setting up an SSD drive under Windows 10 is impossible without disabling services such as Prefetch and SuperFetch. The first is responsible for launching frequently used programs, and the second analyzes possible programs that you choose and loads them for further quick start.

Thanks to the SSD drive, programs already launch and work quickly, so these functions must be disabled to extend the life of the hard drive.

  • Press “Win+R” and enter “regedit”.

  • Go to the branch “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters”.

  • Here we need to edit parameters such as “EnablePrefetcher” and “EnableSuoerfetch”. Their value should be "0".
  • After making changes to the registry, you should restart your computer.

It is also worth making sure that user folders are located on the HDD. If you have the opportunity to install Windows 10 on an SSD, and files that will often be written and erased on an HDD, this action will significantly simplify the operation of the system and extend the service life of the media.

A software method for optimizing an SSD drive

There are many programs on the Internet that will help optimize Windows 10 on an SSD correctly and without harming the drive.

Free SSD Mini Tweaker program. It works quite simply. After downloading and launching the application, a small window appears. Place check boxes next to the features you want to remove or enable.

When using this program, setting up the above functions is not necessary. The program itself will disable the paging file and hibernation.

Let's start right away with the fact that there is no need to fully optimize the system for a solid-state drive and change many settings. According to Microsoft technical support, changing the settings will not only not bring any noticeable effect, but may even reduce operating speed SSD or even harm the drive.

Many optimization instructions for Windows 10 repeat all the general recommendations that were intended for more earlier OS versions. But in the Ten, these manipulations are most often not required.

Nevertheless, we will analyze all the settings in detail and consider what kind of performance increase this or that setting will give, and whether there will be any point in doing this at all.

Automatic optimization

As mentioned above, the tenth version of Windows is already configured by default to ensuring maximum speed work with SSD, and usually nothing needs to be changed. There is no need to carry out any initialization; the operating system itself determines the type of disk and changes the necessary parameters accordingly.

Let's take a closer look at what exactly Windows 10 configures for solid-state drives:

  1. Automatically turns on functionTRIM.
  2. We change power supply diagram, optimizing for SSDs.
  3. Launches servicesSuperfetch and Prefetch. Their function has changed slightly, unlike previous versions, and there is no longer any need to disable them.
  4. Function ReadyBoot turns off.
  5. Well defragmentation, is also disabled for SSDs.

These are not all the features, there are a few more that cause some controversy, such as restore points and system protection, indexing, cache clearing, and caching. We will discuss these features and the necessary settings for SSDs in more detail below.

Defragmentation and optimization

In the tenth version of Windows automatically turned on SSD optimization function. In older versions it is called defragmentation. Therefore, many users immediately disable this setting, as they are sure that defragmentation harms the drive. But not everything is so simple and bad.

Windows 10 does not defragment SSDs in the traditional sense. It is the optimization process that starts, which does not move information around the drive, but performs teamretreat, clearing blocks. This is not only not harmful, but even to some extent useful for such storage media.

Many works have been written discussing the need for such a procedure. We will not go into details, but will highlight a few points that will be useful for users to know:

  1. Optimization Procedure takes place once a month, only if shadow copying is enabled, system protection, since media fragmentation greatly affects performance. It is believed that fragmentation is not a problem for SSDs, but this is fundamentally wrong. Severe fragmentation can cause errors when working with information and loss of productivity.
  2. The optimization process marks blocks that are not used and were not marked with commandTRIM. This is quite possible at times of peak load, when requests for TRIM do not get into the queue and blocks are simply skipped.
  3. When defragmenting solid-state drives, Windows uses different operating algorithms than HDDs, and can be not only useful, but also necessary.

What functions should be disabled for stable operation of the SSD

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, many tips for setting up an SSD for Windows 10 are not relevant. They did bring performance gains and longer lifespans to earlier OSes.

As you know, the number of sector overwrite cycles on solid-state drives is limited, so following many recommendations will actually increase the life of the device, but at the same time the speed will drop significantly. And in this case, the point of installing an SSD is lost.

It is worth noting that despite the limitation, device resource very big. If you install the system and use the necessary programs and games, then the device should last for several years, at least until the time comes to upgrade the computer and replace the disk with a more modern one.

For example, the screenshot shows the volume of recording to disk when active use throughout the year. And the volume guaranteed by the manufacturer is 300 TB. It’s not difficult to calculate that even if you record 2-3 times more information per year, the drive will last for at least ten years!

Using the swap file

In the first case, disabling it may be useful if more than 8 GB of RAM is used. However, some programs may be unstable, if there is no page file included.

In the second case, one can expect a significant productivity loss, since a regular HDD (if you transfer the swap file to it) will provide a fairly slow operating speed.

Note that SSD manufacturers do not recommend disabling virtual memory. Additionally, Microsoft reports that the average read/write ratio to virtual memory is 40:1, so don't expect that turning off this feature will extend the life of the device by several years.

Hibernation Mode

In Windows 10, hibernation mode is used for quick startup. The hiberfil.sys file is stored on disk and information from RAM is written there when the computer is turned off. The size of the file is also comparable to the amount of RAM.

Disabling this mode on a PC can really help reduce the amount of data written to the SSD if the ability to quickly turn on is not needed.

On laptops things are a little different. Disabling hibernation can cause a number of inconveniences, as well as reduce battery life due to constant switching on and off of the device.

This feature automatically creates restore points so that if you have problems with Windows, you can roll back to an earlier state. Some manufacturers recommend disabling protection system when using a solid state drive.

For example, Samsung in its official guide recommends disabling automatic creation of restore points. At the same time, developers from Microsoft it is not recommended to do this. Intel shares the same point of view.

Transferring user files and folders

Another recommendation is to transfer the user’s files and folders (these folders are stored in the user profile) to the HDD. In principle, this is true will reduce the number of entries, and if the user stores a lot of information on the desktop or in documents, it will also significantly increase the amount of free space on the system partition.

In addition to the desktop and documents, the user profile stores a lot of information, cache and temporary files from running applications. For example, Chrome writes quite a lot of temporary files when actively used. In this case, it would actually be better to move the profile to another drive.

Other Windows 10 features

We'll mention a few OS features where opinions differ.

Microsoft writes that services Superfetch and Prefetch in Windows 8 and 10 they work differently if there is an installed SSD. Therefore, disabling them is not recommended.

By caching procedure the information is quite contradictory. Generally it is recommended not to turn it off caching, but about clear cache there is no consensus. The same Samsung in its Magician utility recommends disabling the cache buffer, but at the same time on the official website they adhere to the opposite opinion - that the buffer should be enabled.

About indexing It's quite difficult to say anything definitely. In principle, speeding up searches in the system is a useful feature. But in practice, few people use this opportunity. However, disabling it will not provide any significant performance gains - most of it is read operations.

General principles of SSD configuration


SSDs are much faster than their older counterparts and are becoming increasingly popular. The operating system installed on such a disk starts up and runs faster, increasing the performance of the entire computer. If you want to get the most out of your SSD, you'll need to spend a little time setting it up.

Should I optimize my SSD?

According to manufacturers, in modern operating systems, solid-state memory drives do not require additional configuration or optimization. Any manual settings, according to Microsoft, can only slow down your disk or lead to system problems.

However, quite often a situation may arise when an SSD with Windows 10 installed does not produce the performance result that the user wants to expect. The reasons for this can be completely different. In such a case, users have to intervene and optimize the disk themselves.

There are several tips that will help improve the performance of your SSD and extend its life:

  • always leave about a sixth of the disk free: free space is required for stable operation of the disk without a drop in performance;
  • if you have several disks, install your operating system and heavy programs that you often work with on the SSD;
  • try not to change the standard SSD settings: disk optimization and other system functions were developed together with solid-state drive manufacturers and are the most optimal;
  • do not defragment the SSD: it is not only useless for them, but also shortens the service life of the drive;
  • Update your drive's firmware periodically, but don't do it too often: new firmware comes out all the time, and it doesn't make much sense to install each of them.

SSDs have a limited number of data rewrite cycles, and therefore defragmentation shortens their service life

Automatic SSD setup

When you connect the SSD to your computer, Windows 10 configures the disk itself. This setting includes:

  • disabling disk defragmentation;
  • SSD power optimization;
  • enabling TRIM and Superfetch functions;
  • disabling the ReadyBoot function.

Some users may find that the SSD is automatically defragmented from time to time.

The reason for this is that Windows 10 does defragmentation and disk optimization using the same tool. What you might think of as defragmentation is another process that benefits your SSD.

Manual SSD setup

As with hard drives, there are several ways to speed up an SSD. However, these methods involve refusing certain functions of the system, which may not suit some users.

  1. It is worth disabling the paging file only if your computer has a large amount of RAM installed. But even then it is a controversial decision. Disabling the paging file can increase the life of your disk: there will be much fewer calls to it from the system to constantly overwrite files.

    Open Control Panel. It can be found through search.

  2. Open Control Panel
  3. Open the System and Security category. Open the System and Security category

    Go to the "System" section.

  4. Go to the "System" section

  5. Click on "Advanced system settings"

    Next to the “Performance” inscription, click on the “Options” button.

  6. Click on the "Options" button

    Open the “Advanced” tab and click on the “Change...” button.

  7. Click on the "Change..." button

    Uncheck the box “Automatically select paging file size”, check “Without paging file” and confirm the changes made.

Disable the page file

Disabling hibernation

  1. Open Control Panel and go to the Hardware and Sound category.
  2. Go to the "Power Options" section.

    Go to the "Power Options" section

  3. First, you should remove hibernation from the computer shutdown buttons. Click on “Power button actions”.

    Click on “Power button actions”

  4. Click on the inscription “Changes to settings that are currently unavailable”, uncheck the hibernation mode and confirm the changes made.

    Remove hibernation from power buttons

  5. Now let's disable auto-hibernation mode. Return to the “Power Options” section and click on the inscription “Setting the power plan” next to the mode you are using.

    Click on the inscription “Setting the power plan” next to the mode you are using

  6. Click on "Change advanced power settings."

    Click on "Change advanced power settings"

  7. Go to Sleep, then Hibernate After, and change both to Never.

    Disable auto hibernation

Indexing files for search

Indexing puts a fairly large load on the performance of the system and SSD. It is necessary to quickly search for files on disk. Indexing means that an additional record is created in the system for each file on your disk. Disabling file indexing will increase the speed of your drive, but will significantly reduce the speed of searching for files.


Disabling system protection

The System Protection feature is used to create restore points. Every time you install something, the current state of your computer and the status of installed programs are saved in the computer's memory. Disabling the system protection feature will increase the life of the SSD, but it will become more difficult to troubleshoot any problems with the system.

  1. Right-click on the “This PC” icon and select “Properties.”

    Go to computer properties

  2. Click on "Advanced system settings".

    Open Advanced System Settings

  3. Open the “System Protection” tab and click on the “Configure…” button.

    Click on the “Configure…” button

  4. Select "Disable protection" and confirm your changes.

    Disable system protection

Switching the drive to ANCI mode

ANCI mode, intended for hard drives, can also be useful for SSDs. It should improve computer performance and reduce energy consumption.

When you start enabling ANCI mode for your SSD, be aware that you are going beyond the system settings and risk damaging your SSD.

You can make sure that ANCI mode is not enabled in Device Manager.


Enabling ANCI mode is done in your computer's BIOS. Since the BIOS and the ways to get into it are different on all computers, each case must be considered individually. In the BIOS you will need to find the disk settings and change its operating mode. It is better to find out how to correctly enable ANCI mode on the manufacturer’s website.

Even if your SSD's ANCI mode is already activated, the system will not use it. To fix this, you need to change several settings in the system registry.

  1. Find regedit through the Start menu search and open Registry Editor.

    Go to Registry Editor

  2. Copy the path “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV” (without quotes) into the address bar and press Enter.

    Reset the parameter value to zero and click OK

  3. In the same way, reset the following parameters:
    • start parameter at “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci”;
    • parameter 0 at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorAV\StartOverride";
    • parameter 0 at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\StartOverride".

Firmware update for SSD

The SSD drive has its own firmware (a set of system programs that are similar in principle to drivers).

If there are any problems with the firmware or it is very outdated, you may notice a slowdown in the disk. The appearance of any errors or conflicts with the system may also be due to outdated firmware of the solid-state drive. Specific methods for flashing a disk depend on its manufacturer. Most often, a special program is offered for this. In other cases, it is enough to simply save the firmware to disk and restart the computer. And sometimes the user will have to do everything manually via the command line.

You will find detailed instructions for flashing the disk on the manufacturer's official website.

  • Here are some general tips before flashing a disk that you should follow in any case:
  • save the most important information to another drive;
  • do not install every new firmware update: if everything works stably for you and there are no problems, you can hold off on updating the firmware;
  • check the operation of the SSD drive after installing the firmware to make sure that the firmware did not introduce new errors. A good solution would be to use special programs to check the disk.

Video: SSD setup

Special programs for SSD optimization

Most of the actions that are done by special programs to optimize SSDs are the same as what we described above, but in automatic mode. All such programs are extremely simple and identical, so we will consider only two of the most popular.

SSD Mini Tweaker is a very small and easy-to-use program that allows you to fully prepare your system for working with solid-state drives in a few minutes. It does not require installation.

All you need to do in the program itself is to tick the boxes you need and click “Apply changes”. When the process is complete, restart your computer.

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Generally, SSDs do not require any deep tuning or optimization for the latest version of Windows. In addition, Microsoft support specialists say that self-configuration can negatively affect the operation of the operating system and the drive.

One way or another, when optimizing SSDs, you need to take into account some nuances and know how solid-state drives work in the “top ten”. With the advent of the new operating system, a lot of recommendations for setting up SSDs were posted on the Internet, most of which are copies of instructions for similar manipulations to previous versions of Windows, without taking into account the changes. For example, there are recommendations about the need to activate WinSAT for the system to detect the SSD. They also write that it is necessary to disable automatic defragmentation, which is launched by default for such drives in Windows 10.

Windows 10 default settings for SSD drives

The tenth version of Windows was initially designed for maximum performance for SSDs. In addition, the system is automatically able to detect solid-state drives and set appropriate settings for them, without needing to do anything.

When such a drive is detected, the “ten” immediately performs certain settings to optimize its operation. This disables defragmentation and the ReadyBoot function. The Superfetch/Prefetch function is also used, which does not require turning off the SSD, as was the case in Windows 7. In addition, the drive's power is optimized.
In addition, TRIM is enabled by default for SSDs.

However, the default settings remain unchanged, which causes some disagreement about the need to optimize the performance of solid-state drives. This includes file indexing, operating system protection, clearing the record cache buffer, and defragmentation.

Defragmentation and optimization of SSD in Windows 10

Most users may have noticed that automatic optimization is activated in the Top Ten. This fact has led some to decide to disable it and others to learn how to do so.

It is worth noting that the tenth version of the OS does not defragment SSDs, but does optimization using TRIM to clean up blocks. This does not cause any harm to the drive, and even vice versa. Defragmentation can only be performed if system protection is disabled. Drive optimization is used to mark unusable blocks on SSDs that were not marked when TRIM was running.

SSD defragmentation is necessary and can be applied automatically. However, for such a drive plan, this process follows a slightly different principle.

What functions to disable for SSD and is it necessary?

Many users who set out to set up an SSD for Windows may have come across recommendations online that suggested disabling SuperFetch and Prefetch, removing the page file, or moving it to another partition. It was also suggested to deactivate OS protection, hibernation and disk indexing. There are tips to transfer folders, temporary files, etc. to other drives, etc.

Some tips apply to Windows 7, but cannot be used for the eighth and tenth versions of the OS, as well as new SSDs. Most recommendations can help reduce the amount of information that is written to the disk, which can extend its lifespan. But at the same time, you can lose performance, ease of use with the operating system, and failures may also occur.

Many people know that SSDs have a shorter lifespan than regular hard drives, but the average SSD will likely last longer than the user needs in normal use and with spare capacity to help reduce performance loss and extend lifespan. It is necessary to leave 10-15% of the volume unoccupied on such drives in order to work longer with the SSD.

There are several ways to optimize the performance of your SSD in Windows 10, however, not all of them are worth using. In addition, it is worth considering that such methods may slightly extend the life of the drive, however, performance will suffer.

It is worth noting that there is no point in installing programs on a regular hard drive if you have an SSD, since it makes no sense to purchase it. Its purpose is to quickly launch utilities.

Disabling the page file

Very often on the Internet it is advised to disable the page file or move it to another drive. If you do the second, then the drive will seriously lose performance, since the SSD will not be used, and all operations will take place on the slow HDD.

The use of the first option raises some doubts. In truth, computers that have more than 8 GB of RAM can in most cases work without this file, which will extend the life of the SSD. However, some programs without a page file may refuse to start or will crash.

But, it is worth taking into account the fact that the paging file in Windows is used so that there are fewer calls to it. This is affected by the size of the RAM. Microsoft developers claim that during standard computer use the read-to-write ratio for this file is 40:1. This means that not a lot of writing is done.

However, it is worth noting that the developers of solid-state drives from renowned companies advise you not to disable the page file. On the other hand, judging by some tests that examined low-performance SSDs, disabling the page file can lead to improved performance.

Disabling hibernation

You can also try disabling hibernation. This function is used to quickly launch the operating system. In this case, the hiberfil.sys file is written to disk when the computer is turned on and is used for quick startup in the future. As a rule, it takes up several gigabytes of disk space. As a rule, its size is almost the same as the amount of RAM.

In the case of laptops, disabling hibernation is not a good solution, especially if you use this feature, which turns off everything on the device after closing the lid. In addition, this can lead to inconvenience and reduced battery life of the laptop, since you have to turn it on all the time, and it takes longer to fully start, which drains the battery.

For computers, disabling hibernation is more appropriate when it is necessary to reduce the amount of information that is stored on the solid-state drive. If it is not needed, hibernation can be disabled. In addition, fast boot can be left on the computer with hibernation disabled. To do this, you need to reduce the size of the hiberfil.sys file by half.

System protection

When you enable a certain function, the tenth version of the operating system automatically writes recovery points and file history to disk. Some users recommend disabling system protection when using an SSD.

In addition, some developers advise performing this procedure. Among them is Samsung, which recommends disabling system protection in its products.
Here the developers state that creating backup copies leads to the execution of many background processes and reduces performance. However, this function starts only when changes are made to the operating system, and only when the PC is idle.

In turn, Intel does not recommend doing this with its SSDs. Microsoft does the same. In addition, experienced computer users also do not recommend disabling operating system protection, as this may prolong the troubleshooting of computer problems.

Transferring files and folders to other HDDs

In addition, you can find another option for optimizing the operation of an SSD. It consists of transferring the user’s folders and files, temporary files, and other things to a regular hard drive. This can indeed reduce the amount of information written, but it also reduces performance if you move temporary files and cache to another location. You can also suffer from ease of use, since you will constantly have to access a regular hard drive.

If your computer has a fairly large separate hard drive, then you can transfer quite large files such as movies, music collections, and other things to it that do not require constant access. This will help free up space on your SSD and extend its performance.
Superfetch and Prefetch, disk content indexing, record caching and record cache buffer flushing

There may be ambiguities with all these elements, since each manufacturer gives its own recommendations, which you need to read on official resources. According to Microsoft experts, Superfetch and Prefetch are excellent for SSDs. In the tenth version of Windows, these functions are slightly changed and work differently when used on an SSD. Samsung claims that this function is not used by such drives.

As for the write cache buffer, most users consider it advisable to leave it, but opinions are divided on clearing it. Samsung remains unclear in this regard; in its Samsung Magician program, it advises disabling the write cache buffer, but the official website contains the opposite information.

It is worth noting that search in Windows is quite a useful and effective function in operation. But despite the fact that in the “ten” this button is located in a prominent place, it is practically not used. Many users use the Start and folder structure the old fashioned way to find the items they need. Therefore, disabling indexing of disk contents will not be a very effective option for optimizing the SSD. It is more necessary for reading than for writing.

General principles for optimizing SSD operation in Windows

All of the above described the relative uselessness of manual settings of solid-state drives in the tenth version. But there are nuances that can be applied to almost all brands of SSDs and operating system editions.

To improve the performance and life of a solid-state drive, you must always keep 10-15% free on the disk. This is influenced by the features of data storage on such media. All programs for configuring solid-state drives have the Over Provisioning function for allocating such space. Using this function, an empty hidden compartment is created on the drive, which is designed to provide free space in the required amount.

In addition, it is worth checking whether the drive operates in AHCI mode. If you are using an IDE, some features that affect performance and service life may not function. You can see this mode through the device manager.

When connecting an SSD to a computer, you must use SANA 3 6 GB/s ports, which do not work with third-party chips. Most motherboards have SATA chipset ports and additional ports on third-party controllers. It is recommended to connect to the first ones. You can find out the native ports using the motherboard documents, by the numbers that are located first and have a different color.

To sum it up, there's almost nothing you can do with an SSD unless it's absolutely necessary. Therefore, after purchasing the media, you should simply install it into your computer and use it.