Like any object, where there are quality, there are also defects! So it's better to optimize your SSD on Windows 10. The SSD or Solid State Drive, in search of becoming the future replacement for our expensive rotary tray hard drives, are fast, light, shock-resistant, quiet and less energy-intensive, but a little shorter lifespan.
First of all, let's get to know them a little better:
The defects of SSDs
The two main defects of SSDs are:
- their price (at the moment, because their price tends to decrease)
- their lifespan
Prices are gradually falling, but certainly. A
s for lifespan, the urban legend says that an SSD has a very short lifespan. This may have been the case with first-generation SSDs.
Alas, a certain well-known brand of SSD manufacturing has for a period produced defective SSDs that gave way very quickly… which has caused the urban legend to spread more and more, and anyone who knows what sSD is, thinks or thinks that SSD has a short lifespan.
Their lifespan is certainly shorter than a conventional hard drive with tray, but not to the point of dropping this technology! If I remember correctly, according to some tests done in the laboratory, if an SSD writes 10 gigas/day, it has 20 years before it has problems … 20 years ago, current hard drives didn't exceed 10 gigas if I'm not mistaken, so who knows what will happen in 20 years?!
Technology is only getting better and the lifespan is also improving.
The qualities of SSDs
The SSDs are:
- ultra-light,
- much faster,
- insensitive to shocks,
- Silent
- and less energy-intensive
Why optimize your SSD on Windows 10?
So why optimize your SSD on Windows 10? Simply as a precaution and avoid using the SSD for nothing!
There is no question of speed in this case.
The tips described below aim to minimize the number of writings.
Optimize SSD on Windows 10
Turn off file indexing
One of the optimizations for Windows SSD with conventional hard drives was and still is, to enable file indexing for faster search. To optimize its SSD on Windows 10, this indexing is no longer at all useful given the speed of playback of these.
To disable indexing, go to your Windows Explorer, click right on your hard drive, click Properties, uncheck the box "Allow the indexing of file content from that drive in addition to properties. Click OK, then select the 2nd option if you haven't already, i.e. apply the changes to sub-files and files.
Then go into
- your menu start,
- in the search bar,
- type services.msc,
- Press the Entry button.
Once the service window is opened,
- Look for The Windows Search service.
- Double-click on it,
- Start type, select Turn off.
- Click the Stop button.
- And finally, validate by OK.
Turn off hibernation
This one was very useful for a quick "start" of the computer with a classic hard drive. But with an SSD, hibernation is no longer useful at all given the low start time! Plus, by turning it off, the more you earn more than a few gigas on your SSD!
To disable hibernation,
- go to your Start menu
- All programs
- Accessories
- Click the right button at Order Invite,
- Click Run as an administrator.
- At the window that appears, type powercfg -h off
- and press the Entry button.
- Close the order prompt window.
Turn off the last access date
This tells Windows the last time the file was searched/read/posted (without even opening it). Anyway, something useless in my humble opinion.
To disable this feature:
- go to your Start menu
- All programs
- Accessories
- Click the right button at Prompt Command,
- Click Run as an administrator.
- At the window that appears, type fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1
- and tap the Entry button.
- Close the window.
After restarting your computer, it will replace the date of the last access with the date of the last change, which is much more useful.
Turn off the Superfetch
The Superfetch is an algorithm that keeps in mind the programs you often launch in order to increase the speed of their launch. This one writes constantly on your hard drive and moreover is useless in the case of an SSD because the speed is already there! Its non-deactivation will not increase the speed at which your programs are launched.
To disable the Superfetch:
- go into your menu to start,
- in the search bar, type services.msc,
- Press the Entry button.
- Once the service window is open, go look for the Superfetch service.
- Double-click on it,
- Start type, select Turn off.
- Click the Stop button.
- And finally, validate by OK.
Using another hard drive
If, like me, you test a lot of programs and therefore you download a lot of installation programs, I advise you to download them directly on a medium other than your SSD because these only serve you once, that for the duration of the installation.
Personally, thanks to my SSD, I finally have the usefulness of my card reader built into my laptop! Previously, I hardly used it, and now I inserted an 8 gigasa micro-sd card (with SD adapter) that I no longer had the use of, and now I use it as temporary storage for my installation programs! In addition, it almost does not exceed the chassis of my pc, and therefore, I can leave it inside without worries!
Make Trimer Windows 10
Under older versions of Windows, one of the optimization of SSD with Windows was to check whether the TRIM function was enabled or not.
For more information about TRIM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_
Basically, apparently, an SSD has trouble detecting unused data blocks, and in the long run, this can tarnish its performance. So on Windows 7, it was enough to check that the TRIM function was activated, but there was no control over it.
Since Windows 10, it is now possible to ask Windows to run the TRIM manually or even automatically.
To do this:
- Go to Windows Explorer
- Right click on your SSD
- Properties
- Tools tab
- Optimize
- And there, Windows automatically detects whether your SSD needs to be optimized or not.
- Optimize if necessary
You can also schedule a regular optimization: every day, every week or every month. Every week seems to me a good compromise, this one is defined by default.
And here!
Optimize your SSD on Windows 10 even more… Or not…
On some sites, you are given the trick of putting temporary Windows folders and files and programs on another hard drive. As much as I must say that it is not stupid and that we had to think about it, as much I think it is a bad idea and do not advise to do these manipulations!
Displacement
The goal of moving temporary folders and files is to reduce the number of writing on your SSD, and that's well thought out. But moving them means that the program is going to have to search for its files on 2 different hard drives… and so the program is slowed down! Because as in any multi-component system, if one component is slower than the others, the whole system is slowed down by the latter! But the main reason for buying an SSD is mainly for its speed! If you move temporary files to a conventional hard drive, you slow down programs, and therefore you lose the main advantage of an SSD but you extend its lifespan…
Lifespan
Personally, I agree to optimize its SSD on Windows 10 to increase its lifespan, but not at that point! For me, optimizing is to avoid anything that is useless! Now in this case, these are useful entries, which programs need to work and more than temporary files are created on purpose to speed up a program! By moving these files, you are simply going against the purpose of these files, especially in the case of an SSD! Ok to minimize the number of writing, especially if these are useless, but an SSD remains a hard drive, made to store files, create new ones, delete some, move, etc…
In short, to be used! If you want to reduce the number of writing to the point of moving files created to speed up one program, you might as well move the entire program to the other hard drive! And while you're at it, why did you buy an SSD if not to take advantage of its speed?!
These optimization tips given above are for versions of Windows superior to Vista. Lower versions like XP are not optimized to run an SSD These older operating systems can do so, but not effectively.
Note: Some SSD manufacturers provide software that is partly about optimizing your Windows. But they are not complete and require you to intervene manually as well.