Technology for a sustainable future: Get the most out of your SSD: Adjust Windows 7 settings

I chose the 840 Evo 250GB for its value / capacity / price

Change your computer's hard drive for an SSD ( Solid State Drive ) is the best way to rejuvenate a few years , letting you skip loading the operating system in a minute to do it in just 15 seconds ; thanks to the speed of read / write access to the programs is almost instantaneous.

Disks SSD, being immune to shock and vibration , are especially recommended for laptops, as discussed in the previous post on the subject . The best value are the Samsung and Crucial (for less than 100 € 250GB -4/06/14).

And if you use the Samsung RAPID software, get these speeds ( Source )

But not all advantages over traditional disk drives, SSDs will degrade as they are performing write operations on them (the current economic with memories TLC are guaranteed to withstand 1000 operations minimum cell) so it is recommended conducting a series of adjustments that Windows does default to extend as far as possible their lifespan (eg Windows 7, Windows XP use these discs is malograrlos unless you make further adjustments).

Still, we can be optimistic ; according to calculations by AnandTech , and otherdedicated testers in hardware.info , for example Samsung's hard drive, memory using lower quality TLC NAND provides the estimated duration 70 years of use, recording 10 GB of data to day (quite aggressive for a personal average use), so it can be fairly quiet even downloading 30GB of data per day have a life without errors estimated in 24 years !!

These settings are detailed below (and you better read them before installing the OS to your SSD ), although, if you are lucky enough to have bought a Samsung SSD installing the "Samsung Magician" application will be able to apply these recommended changes to optimizes the operating system Windows, make it faster and further extend the life of the SSD, quickly and easily. Also this program includes a testing tool, and the option to set a part of the capacity of "spare" (this is unnecessary if we leave more than 15% of empty space).

A program that should include all SSDs

1. Enable AHCI

Controller Interface Host Advanced ( AHCI ) is needed to ensure that the OS will use all the capabilities it brings an SSD, necessary especially for Windows 7 can enable TRIM option, which allows the OS to SSD to help make your trash cleanup .

Attention: OS like Windows XP and earlier do not support TRIM function or line default data as they need the SSD, so that his life may be shortened to less than half .

To enable AHCI (that usually enabled by default), you have to access the BIOS and activate where available; if it is a team of more than 10 years is possible that the BIOS does not even have that option, which is usually on the mode of operation of ports SATA hard drives. If you do not find the option, try googling for the manual for your computer or BIOS, luck! It is best to activate it before installing the operating system, because it is possible to subsequently activate the OS can not use the unit to be short of suitable driver (you can fix it, but if you do not want to complicate activate it before.

2. Enable TRIM

As mentioned, the TRIM function helps the hard drive to "organize" and optimized , so that does not slow down with use (one of the drawbacks of this technology is that it becomes slower with use) besides him allows replacement of cells already "spent" more refreshed moving data to other free cells; this feature allows the hard drive go nearly as cool in performance as the first day. If you've installed Windows 7, Linux or other current system, it is possible that you have already activated, but activate it in case Windows opening a window commands (command prompt) in administrator mode and running :

fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0

3. Disable System Restore

Normally this feature of Windows is unnecessary, occupies space in an SSD is very valuable (for the price), so it is recommended to disable it. To do this, go to Start, click right click on "Computer" and press " properties ". Click "System Protection" above left:

And click on "Configure":

Check "Turn off system protection", accept and go.

4. Disable automatic indexing

Windows recommends finding activate the indexed files , but SSDs are so fast that improvement by turn is negligible (well you will be keeping unnecessary data), so it is advisable to leave it off. To do checks Right "Computer" from the Start button, go to "properties" and disable the "Allow files on this unit has indexed content ..." and accepted.

If you get an error that a file can not be removed from the index appears, "ignore all" and ready.

5. Turn off automatic defragmentation

An SSD is a NAND flash memory with no moving parts, so that Windows creates clutter to save files to disk is no longer a reason to slow down access to data. In addition, knowing that disk writes should avoid as far as possible, there is no need to leave the scheduled defrag Windows 7 enabled . To do this go to the start menu under "Accessories", go to "System Tools" and go to "Disk Defragmenter". We press the "Configure schedule" button, and

deactivate the "scheduled execution" and accept.

6. Remove the pagefile.

The paging file is a disk file is employing as "virtual memory" , so that in the event of non working RAM, the system downloads the data portions unused RAM on this disc, allowing Thus work with most open in theory be able equipment programs. Turning it off is just only recommended if you have more than 6 GB of RAM (or put another more correctly, if you have more RAM than you can fill) , otherwise the system may become unstable when opening multiple applications to fill the available memory. If you disable it, you're in luck; avoid frequent writes to the hard drive, further extending its life. The paging file is typically managed by the system, varying in size according to need. To change your settings , right-click on "Computer" from the Start button, go to "properties" and click "Advanced system settings" top left in the last option. Click "Settings" under the box "performance." Once there etiqueda select "Advanced" and click on "Change" virtual memory. And you can already put the configuration that suits you.

7. Disable Hibernation

Windows occupies your disk file equal to your RAM size to enable hibernation (updates the file with an image of the same every time you make use of the option).
As you can see, the system starts up and shuts down so fast . with an SSD that hibernation is not much sense
This is to tastes and needs, but if you prefer to listen to me, disable, open a command window (command prompt) in administrator mode and running :

powercfg -h off

8. Disable Prefetch and Superfetch

These "accelerators" load programs do not serve almost anything with an SSD , better turn them off.
This is much easier to do with Samsung Magician (ah !, software that had already commented, hehe, but does not come I remember wrong), for this we must access the registry (Microsoft considered it as essential that did not put option anywhere); Start, in the search window, put "regedit" and look for the following keys :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters

and we zero the following values: EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch .

9. Disable Windows Search service and Superfetch

Even though we have deactivated at check these options, we need you to disable services that control ; windows and press the "R" key, and we run the window to appear.
We write "services.msc" and press "Enter". Looking both services (they are sorted alphabetically) and disable them just in case.

10. Setting the disk cache

In many cases have write caching enabled on an SSD may result in writes are performed more slowly (SSDs usually quite RAM for this task), so disable it often accelerates the scriptures. To check this, it is best to use a speed test program like accoutrements use

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1c

If deactivate have a negative effect on disk write, activate it again. To set this option, right-click on "Computer" from the Start button, go to "Properties" and click "Device Manager "and the properties of your hard drive, go to the tab" Policies ". Try both and let the option that works best for you.

11. Disable ClearPageFileAtShutdown and LargeSystemCache

These two options may already off, but it did not cost anything to check. SSDs are very fast; is not necessary to empty the page file on shutdown. Deactivating the process will be much faster.On the other hand, the LargeSystemCache option only exists in versions of Windows Server, and tells the computer when to use a large cache pages in the storage unit. To change both options, access the registry with "regedit" ( accept if we asked whether we want to allow to modify the system) and under the branch

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management

We establish both 0 by double clicking on the keys of the same name.

12. Turn off automatic hard drive

An SSD spends so little (you'll notice that the battery will last half hour at least) is not necessary.

Access the control panel, and look for the "System and Security" -> "Power Options"
In the plan selected, select "Change plan settings"
Then click on the link Change advanced power settings (Change advanced power settings)
Open Power Options hard drive by clicking on the + sign next to Hard Disk (HDD)
Switch to 0 the time indicated on the Turn Off Hard Disk After option (Turn off hard disk after ...)
Under field options Sleep (Sleep), you must change the value to 0 also Hibernate
Click OK (OK) and close the window.

Other recommended to free up space on the SSD settings (overfilling is undesirable, for that to stop free cells available when we reach the top of scriptures in one of them) is:

Perform cleaning once installed and updated operating system with Disk Cleanup MS and accoutrements useful and CCleaner .
Save significant disk space with the option MaxPatchCacheSize to 0 , so we avoid that older versions of files are saved when the system or software is updated(you have to do it immediately after installing Windows 7).