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koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

1 recommendation

koitsu to Gem

MVM

to Gem

Re: [WIN8] SSDs - using Intel Toolbox or W8's drive Optimizer?

To be honest, I really don't have the interest in writing some gigantic FAQ on how to "properly" treat an SSD. Such things tend to induce a lot of arguing and random Internet jhonkas coming out of the woodwork to fight (you should see how many people dig up my Email address just to engage me over things I've said on my blog).

This is all pretty easy though:

All OSes -- do not use a disk defragmenter of any kind. Ever.

Windows XP -- need to make sure your partition is 4KB-aligned (or better yet, 1 or 2MByte-aligned to match the NAND erase block size, but I'm not going to discuss that -- just align it to 1MByte and don't sweat it). Vista onward defaults to 1MByte partition alignment.

Windows XP -- OS lacks TRIM support in the I/O abstraction layer so you need to use an SSD vendors' utility (e.g. Intel Toolbox, Samsung Magician, etc.) periodically (I recommend once a week).

Windows Vista -- lacks TRIM support; advice from Windows XP applies here.

Windows 7 -- has TRIM support; no need to use SSD vendors' utilities periodically.

Windows 8 -- same as Windows 7.

General "optimisation tweaks" -- almost all of these you'll read online are purely matters of opinion. If you want to cite specific sites or items that you'd like me to weight in on, I can do so, but I'm not going to go analyse all the crap "tech sites" post item by item. I don't have the desire or time for that. This includes disabling search indexing features.

Page files -- you can offload these on to an MHDD if you want, but it doesn't matter (really, it doesn't. I repeat: it doesn't). Do not disable the page file. I have talked about that in other threads (including with people who argued with me about it, then when I pointed them to the issues/problems with it, changed their opinion.)

Overprovisioning -- I have no comment on this at this time.

Formatting -- do not format your SSDs (as in write zeros to all the LBAs). A "Quick Format" is completely OK, but a full format should never be done, as it'll fill the FTL up for no justified reason and impact performance badly. To accomplish the equivalent of a full format on an SSD, use the ATA-level Secure Erase operation (Google this for details).

Controller type -- completely and entirely irrelevant. The only thing that matters (purely for performance, not for usability or reliability reasons) is use of AHCI. If your motherboard/controller supports it, use it. Period.

SSD vendor differential -- not really worth discussing either, because there are too many variables based on what a users' needs are. For example: I won't buy OCZ products because I run Windows XP and OCZ doesn't provide a TRIM utility, while Intel and Samsung do -- but John Doe who uses Windows 7 obviously isn't impacted by that. YMMV.
Gem
Premium Member
join:2005-09-10

Gem

Premium Member

Thank you once more, koitsu.

That's the information needed to properly run my SSDs. It corrects prior mis-information I'd read elsewhere.