ssd discussion

Benny Boy

Benny Boy

Active Member
Along with the popularity of SSD's there's a plithera of tweaks, guides and programs to enhance longevity and performance of the drive. If you have any tips for the installation/setup an of SSD drive, Windows or any other os, or any program a person may install to an SSD, this is the place!

Here's a handy freeware SSD Tweak tool for Windows 2K/XP/Vista & 7 including x64 for the most common settings for any Brand SSD. It only applies to the os and does not make changes to the actual drive.

A review and DL link.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/SSD-Performance-Utility-Tweak-Windows,9655.html

This DL link has a video preview of the program along with the author's name.
http://www.softoxi.com/ssd-tweaker.html

Windows teak guide for ssd or hdd:
http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm

Moving Profile to HDD:
http://www.overclock.net/ssd/664738-how-setup-ssd-boot-drive-secondary.html

Using a ramdisc
http://www.ghacks.net/2010/06/10/use-a-ram-disk-to-reduce-writes-on-solid-state-drives/
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk

Tips:
Have a plan.
Refrain from installing and unistalling to ssd as this, benching, and erases, affects performance.
Investigate optional storage locations for programs installed, before installing them.
Load the unsure to an alternate location untill you decide.

I'm currently compiling a Windows SSD install guide from various articles and such that I've looked into. If anyone's interested or has input, let me know.
Check back here for added info.
 
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Great thread and thanks for the link! I'm actually in the process of deciding whether or not to invest in an ssd myself. I'll start another thread to ask for advice on that so as not to hijack this thread, but I am curious about what you've mentioned here regarding refraining from installing and uninstalling on the ssd. Does this apply exclusively to ssds or does this apply also to regular HDDs? Also, would the performance degradation be permanent or could reformatting the drive or some other method make it "like new" again?
 
Let's say that install/uninstall and due to being able to be defragmented, is about the only place that HDD's beat the SSD.

When I said "Refrain....pefromance", I meant a long period of time.

SSD's will fragment and can't be formatted due to flash memory. The equivelent is 'secure erase' for them.

Fragmentation doesn't affect ssd's like it does hdd's. Where hdd's may need defragged to increase perf., ssd's can still access that frag'd data quickly.

Due to erasures causing perfornace degradation a little each time, doing whatever possible to minimize the install/uninstall and writes, which would include alternate storage for any os or program in any of their areas feasable,(<and conserves space)will minimize erases.

Since the reads aren't much of a concern, it's the writes that eventually wears them out. But the newer ones supposedly handle it well. With normal use they should last several years. But but how it's used will determine it's speed performance.
 
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New SSD then new installation. Yes. Start with clean install and get er done.
If ya backed up or copied the primary you would have to uninstall everything to get on the other drive and reinstall on the other anyway. do it right. then its done.

One problem i forgot about. Moving the other drive. Now they are both primary drives. that will be a problem. (i think). the one your moving has to be converted into a extended drive. Others are more qualified in this area with the laptops. leave the 2nd drive unplugged and install the new drive by itself. get that working and install the updates and check back. dont remember what operating system you were using.

Should have gone back to the same post you started though.
 
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Kent said:
so i just move my hdd to slot 2 and put ssd in slot1? no need to restall window?
Click to expand...
Not sure on laptops,,,if the slot makes a diff. put the ssd in the 1st boot slot. But im thinking any slot, then go into the bios and make the ssd the 1st boot priority. But first, before that^:
If it's 7,
back up data from hdd.
install ssd and make 1st boot device in bios.
clean install windows from disc. 7 will align(along with some tweaks)on it's own. There are other tweaks that i would personally/manually do.
Be sure and change the storage location of your folders to the hdd.
If your ssd does not support TRIM you should investigate what tweaks you can manually manage,, (so hopfully it does.)
 
This is a great post! There's some really great data here. As you pointed out Benny, SSD's don't necessarily suffer fragmentation in the same way that HDD's do. There is one thing of note on the topic of fragmentation and SSD volumes though.

I work pretty directly with this field as a Support Tech for Diskeeper Corporation and occasionally discuss the topic of fragmentation specifically as it bears upon SSD's. Essentially, it's worth noting that although SSD's suffer fragmentation in a similar fashion to HDD's, the speed degredation due to fragmentation isn't usually of a similar magnitude. Plus, regular defragmentation for SSD drives can only exhaust the drives faster since they have a finite life cycle, where there can only be so many erase/write cycles performed. Fragmentation however can promote larger numbers of erase/write cycles which produces a catch-22. For that reason, the occasional defrag may be okay but it's certainly a touchy problem. Some of this data can be found at our Knowledge Center: http://downloads.diskeeper.com/pdf/Optimizing-Solid-State-Storage-with-HyperFast-Technology.pdf

-JBuck
 
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