Installing an SSD? tips/tricks/benchmarks

[Michael 1315]

First,

The Results

WEI score, left side is SSD :)





Crystal Disk Mark





ATTO Disk Benchmark





Boot time (sorry forgot to screenshot the before, it was 82 seconds) :









And now, i'll list the operations i've done to optimize my new SSD's performance.



I won't go into the reasoning for those steps, they've been discussed time and time again, this post is just to organize the steps to execute them.



So here we go:



1. Reinstall windows from scratch.

2. Installing all the drivers, chipset first and then the rest with restarts in between.

3. move c:users directory from my SSD to the data drive using symbolic link

1. Booted with windows 7 Media, chose repair windows

2. choose command prompt

3. copy users to hdd (when booting like that my C drive became E and D remained) robocopy "E:Users" "D:Users" /mir /xj /e

4. rmdir e:users /Q /S (you might want to just rename it in case there are porblems)

5. mklink /J e:users d:users (when booting like that my C drive became E and D remained)

restart and you should see your users directory on the data drive

Then run services.msc to disable the following services:

1. Disk Defragmenter

2. Superfetch

3. Windows Search

Alternatively you can start an elevated command prompt and run the following three commands

sc config defragsvc start= disabled



sc config SysMain start= disabled



sc config WSearch start= disabled



OUTPUT FOR EACH SHOULD BE : [SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS

Next, Open my computer, right click on the SSD drive choose properties and remove the checkbox from "Allow files from this drive to have contents indexed..." press Ok, and then choose the recursive option, OK and wait for it to finish.





Next i enabled write caching on the SSD drive, for that, we need to go to device manager. (Right click on my computer, Manage and choose device manager). There we need to expand the "Disk Drives" section and select the Intel SSD... device, and right click properties on it, in a window that opens choose policies tab and check the second checkbox that says "Turn on windows write cache buffer..."





Disable superfetch and prefetch:

run regedit go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetContro lSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters

Set 0 on

EnablePrefetcher

EnableSuperfetch



Disable Hibernate :

start an elevated command prompt (start, in the search box write cmd, right click the result and select run as administrator)

C:Windowssystem32>powercfg -h off

Finally disable system restore:

Right click on Computer, Properties, Advanced System Settings, select system protection tab, choose the SSD drive (usually C),press Configure and select Turn Off System Protection. Thanks TheSSDReview)





Since i have 8 gigs of memory i've also disabled the pagefile.

This step is not usually recommended for people with 4 gigs but Les here says he runs fine - test at your own risk :)



Comments welcome :)



EDIT:



Some more tips :



LargeSystemCache

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management, I change LargeSystemCache from 0 to 1

Memory Usage of the NTFS file system - Looks like it's oboslete, decide yourself

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE System CurrentControlSet Control FileSystem NtfsMemoryUsage = 2 (Normal = 1, Increased = 2; Default = 1)

Disable the 8.3 Name Creation on NTFS Partitions

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlFileSystem NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation On the Edit menu, click DWORD. By default, the value for this entry is set to 0. Type a value of 1 in the Data field.

Disable the NTFS Last Access Time Stamp

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlFileSystem NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate = 1 (0 = disable, 1 = enable)



(Thanks StamatisX) Edited May 15, 2011 by Michael

[Guest psyloid]

Awesome , Thank for that !!!

[freedomofthedarkendheart 25]

Finally the return of this article!

[GetFound 114]

Wait a minute, how did you get scores like that out of the HDD on the right?? What drive is that? I'd be super happy with those speeds, let alone the mack daddy speeds on the SSD. Congrats.

Maybe you can start a "How to increase your HDD performance" thread?

Edited March 3, 2011 by GetFound

[mw86 1362]

Great this was a great guide before it was taken down i'm thank you for posting it again.

[Michael 1315]

Finally the return of this article!

Awesome , Thank for that !!!

Great this was a great guide before it was taken down i'm thank you for posting it again.

Appreciate your support guys!

Wait a minute, how did you get scores like that out of the HDD on the right?? What drive is that? I'd be super happy with those speeds, let alone the mack daddy speeds on the SSD. Congrats.

Maybe you can start a How to increase your HDD performance thread?

That was a RAID 0 setup with 2x500GB 7200RPM drives.. nothing fancy was done on them..

Is it really that good ?

Edited March 3, 2011 by Michael

[StamatisX 1066]

Also, by simply disabling prefetch from the services doesn't prevent it from continue running, what you need to do is to disable readyboot from the startup events under the performance section of Computer Management like shown in the screenshot below

Once done, go to C:\Windows\Prefetch and delete all its contents

[Michael 1315]

Thanks, Stam, i'll update the article.

[mw86 1362]

If you are looking to improve drive performance further this article here does a good job explaining the benefit of upgrading your disk controller or upgrading to SATA3...

How do you make an SSD even faster? | ZDNet

[Michael 1315]

Also, by simply disabling prefetch from the services doesn't prevent it from continue running, what you need to do is to disable readyboot from the startup events under the performance section of Computer Management like shown in the screenshot below

[ATTACH=CONFIG]151[/ATTACH]

Once done, go to C:\Windows\Prefetch and delete all its contents

Stam, i found that simply setting

Disable superfetch and prefetch:

run regedit go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Set 0 on

EnablePrefetcher

EnableSuperfetch

As in my guide is enough, there's no need for the step you provided.

I also added some shorter versions of some commands to the guide.

[StamatisX 1066]

Can you check by deleting the contents of Prefetch folder, after a reboot if the folder remains empty? I have deleted the readyboot and I can't check myself

[mw86 1362]

I don't have a system right now, and I know someone will check for you. I know the way you suggested Stam, worked for me and the prefetch folder stayed empty for me after subsequent boots and restarts. So I gather the new way Michael added to the guide will do the same now?

[StamatisX 1066]

No I had performed those changes to the registry but if I remember correctly they weren't enough, that's why I had to do that extra step, but it's been a long time since I did those tweaks and I wanted to double check cause I don't remember

[svl7 5681]

When I delete all the files in the Prefetch folder it is empty directly after the the reboot, but Windows creates new files after some short moments.

I thought I disabled Prefetch.... hmm, can't remember properly, will have to take a further look at this.

Edit: I just checked and I have actually the keys you mentioned disabled... so this will indeed need more to completely turn it off it seems.

Edited May 15, 2011 by svl7

[Michael 1315]

I'll check it out man. it's just that when I opened the window you refer to the check box on the prefetch was already unchecked and I assumed it's because I changed the registry values.

[StamatisX 1066]

Yeah I know, the thing is that even if you disable prefetch and superfetch as a service they will still run unless you edit the registry and for those files I think I had to do that extra step in order to stop them from repopulating. Besides, what's the point of having readyboot running when you don't use it?

[mw86 1362]

The only fix that stopped it for me was going into the Management Console and following the steps you suggested Stam... I know atleast for me that did work for me because I remember that I was trying to save space and re-checking all over my system because I wanted to save every gig of ssd I could and I know after that setting was changed you posted Stam, and I emptied the prefetch folder it stayed empty even days after.

[StamatisX 1066]

Good! thanks for verifying man

[mw86 1362]

Elpamsoft.com Home of the SSD Tweaker for Windows hey guys this software has a free version and helps you do most of the SSD tweaks with a quick touch of a button and a restart! its called SSD Tweak

if using the software and get the following please do the following:

When I Run the SSD Tweaker it gives me an Error something like "0x0000135"

This just means that you dont have the .Net Framework installed. You can download it from here for 32 bit<!-- or here for 64 bit (most likely)-->.

some more GENERAL system necessities here: http://forum.techinferno.com/pc-gaming/323-you-need-these-trouble-free-gaming.html

Edited May 14, 2012 by mw86

[Michael 1315]

Elpamsoft.com Home of the SSD Tweaker for Windows hey guys this software has a free version and helps you do most of the SSD tweaks with a quick touch of a button and a restart! its called SSD Tweaker

Nice find man. Will give it a go

Sent from my CM9 powered Galaxy Note

[Don Frank 10]

hi TS, may i know what is the difference between enhanced and maximized mode of caching?

[135 10]

Thanks for the tips/tricks.

I would like to know if it's advised to have more than 1 partition on a 128GB ssd. (1 for windoze and 1 for Linux)

[Michael 1315]

Up to you really, performance-wise there is no difference I can think of

[nizar_848 10]

I want to buy an ssd. Could you give me an advice. What's the best ssd? i've heard that the samsung 840 pro are the bests? is it true?

[thunderman 10]

Does this guide apply to Win8 and/or 8.1 ? it seems that some changes were introduced in win8 for ssd's management by the OS