Vista SSD Tweaks

[yngndrw]

I know there are already guides, so I'm starting this discussion based upon what is already said in the guides.

The guides in question are:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_to_set_up_Windows_on_a_VERTEX
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47212

In general they suggest to:
1) Align your drive
2) Disable defragger
3) Disable indexing
4) Disable superfetch
5) Disable prefetcher
6) Disable page file
7) Clear page file on shutdown
8) Enable write-back caching
9) Turn off hibernation

In the interest of SSD life mostly, I have these comments:
1) Agreed, but is done automatically on Vista AFAIK
2) Agreed
3) Not needed on an SSD, but there's no point in disabling the whole service if you have normal drives too
4&5) Why is this ? As far as I have seen the reason is:

I've read that part of superfetch's (and prefetch's) function is to optimise boot times, it attempts to do this by arranging files used at bootup into a defragmented sequential read (fastest for HDD) which conflicts with the random scattering used on SSD's.
However, why not just disable prefetcher and superfetch's boot options, I.e. set both:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet \Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnableSuperfetch
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet \Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher
To 1 ?

0 ‐ Disable
1 ‐ Application launch
2 ‐ Boot
3 ‐ Both application and boot
6) I disagree, Microsoft have stated that the page file is ideal for SSDs as it uses small random reads and large sequential writes
7) Why would this be of any use ?
8) As far as I've seen, the Vertex G2 drives have a backup capacitor to keep the drives powered while they flush the cache. I've not seen this in any other drives so I don't think this should be done unless you're using a new Vertex drive
9) Why would this affect a SSD ? AFAIK hibernation files are large sequential files.

Comments and ideas ? Also any other things which I missed ?

In summary, from the above comments I'd suggest:
1) Align your drive
2) Disable defragger !
3) Disable indexing on the drive
4) Set superfetch to '1'
5) Set prefetcher to '1'
6) Enable write-back caching only on Vertex's




Edit:
TL;DR / Thread Summary - No real need to do these tweaks bar turning off the defragger.

[TV Addict#2]

disabling the hibernation file may be of interest for free space reclaiming,it will equal the amount of installed ram,a pretty good chunk with 12G rams

[yngndrw]

Well that's a fair point, but it did confuse me as to why they were suggesting that everyone should do it. It sounded like it was for performance / life reasons they way they had it.

[Gilhooley]

4&5) Why is this ? As far as I have seen the reason is:

Crap controllers, they apperantly dosent manage to "scatter" the data internally. The nand chips handle about 30MB/s so the SSD have an internal "Raid 0" so a defrag overrides the "scatter" and gives less performance. What the OS does shouldnt matter but the cheap controllers are more "connectors" then controllers.. So you get to fiddle with alignment and so on.

6) Disable page file
6) I disagree, Microsoft have stated that the page file is ideal for SSDs as it uses small random reads and large sequential writes

Yep, with more then 2GB ram just turn it off. 2 Reads are faster then read-write-read on a SSD. Windows will still page to a "page file" but its in your RAM and only a crap application will need a real file. (then it takes 5sec and a reboot to turn it on)

9) Why would this affect a SSD ? AFAIK hibernation files are large sequential files.

The garbage collection only triggered after a few hours of idling, so sleep or hibernation would never give you an auto cleanup.

[Buckeye]

In general they suggest to:
1) Align your drive
2) Disable defragger
3) Disable indexing
4) Disable superfetch
5) Disable prefetcher
6) Disable page file
7) Clear page file on shutdown
8) Enable write-back caching
9) Turn off hibernation


1) Not needed with Vista or Win 7 ?
2) No need to defrag, I turn that off anyway even with regular HDD's
3) Yes leave it on for regular HDD's, just dont use it on the SSD's, wont hurt anything tho
4,5) Just leave it all on
6) Some programs I have will not run unless its turned on, mostly games.
I have yet to find the propper setting for a 6gig or 12gig RAM setup
7) Never bothered with that, why should we set that ?
8) Allways a risk with Raids, but I turn it on anyway for better speed
9) If Hibernation actually worked why turn it off, its a nice feature

I believe this about SSD's
Use them just like you would a normal system, don't baby them. Turn off auto defrag because its not needed.

Unless used for benching that is...

[eternal_fantasy]

Microsoft siggested that the page file is ideal for the SSD, and I believe so too. However people use this as proof that Microsoft recommends using page file. What it actually means is exactly what they said, SSDs are great for page files. IF PAGE FILES ARE ENABLED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Microsoft most likely assumed that the user will have reasonable amount of ram (2-4GB), and therefore has page file enabled. In that case "page file IS ideal for SSDs". It does not say enabling page file is ideal. Period. Its like saying now that page file is ideal for SSDs that it should be turned off for HDDs? And now hey! I've got an SSD let's turn on page file! as MS said its ideal for it! :shrug:

No offence BTW, just seen this *"page file is ideal for SSD" - by MS!* used as a defence for keeping page files turned on too often. :up:

[yngndrw]

Gilhooley:
4&5) So you're saying that those suggestions are more specific to their drives than general suggestions / reasons ?
I can't find any decent resource stating that the boot-up process defiantly includes defragging of the boot components so I'm not sure about the ware on the drives.

6) See below for my reasoning behind leaving it on, with that link in mind would you still be inclined to turn it off ? I'm thinking that it won't harm anything to leave it on, but it will cause some incompatibility if it's turned off.

9) That's something I hadn't considered and explains why they included that. Of course that's specific to their drives though so defiantly could be left out.


Buckeye:
Do you not worry about the life of your drives ? I'm not sure what to think because there are many conflicting reports. I'm leaning towards not babying them too much and to rely on the warranty and backups if everything goes wrong.


eternal_fantasy:
I think I need to explain my logic behind the whole page file thing.
While I stated that Microsoft said the page file is ideal for a SSD, I did not state that Microsoft said you mustn't disable it with a SSD. What I am implying is that it shouldn't be disabled as it is used for other things.

I cannot find the link which I wanted to, but I believe this reply explains the page file in more detail:
http://serverfault.com/questions/23621/any-benefit-or-detriment-from-removing-a-pagefile-on-an-8gb-ram-machine/23684#23684
Specifically its used for storing code pages.


Thanks guys, some ideas are getting cleared up for for me and I hope for others looking for this kind of information.

[Gilhooley]

Gilhooley:
4&5) So you're saying that those suggestions are more specific to their drives than general suggestions / reasons ?

Yes, all a defrag "should" effect is tear by having to read/rewrite. Coherent files is also faster to read/write on an SSD then fragmented. Remember this is on the OS / filesystem level. The SSD controls the internal structure / layout.


Gilhooley:
6) See below for my reasoning behind leaving it on, with that link in mind would you still be inclined to turn it off ? I'm thinking that it won't harm anything to leave it on, but it will cause some incompatibility if it's turned off.


As Eternal_fantasy, if you USE a pagefile it will ALSO work well on a SSD. The point is that with +2GB ram Windows never needs it. If you have 6GB on a x64 system and use 8 GB in an application - then ofcuz you need to page. But its not like your computer explodes when you run out of ram, you get a warning and if you get that alot - its better to buy more ram..

[eternal_fantasy]

I never said to use or not to use page file, thats for another thread. What I'm saying is that quoting MS' "page file is ideal for SSD" is not a defence for leaving it turned on.

[Ao1]

These "performance" tweaks all come out as a cure for stuttering problems on the OCZ Core. They helped but did not fix the stuttering problem. G2 drives don't really need any performance tweaks. I've played with them all and could not see any benefit.

Wear tweaks for G2 drives aren't really necessary either. I still turn off defrag......but this will soon be auto when native TRIM support comes out.

Space saving tweaks are useful if you need the space.

Some people swear that go faster stripes actually make their car go faster and maybe some people think these tweaks make a G2 drive faster. Maybe they are right, but it didn’t work for me.

[yngndrw]

Well I didn't really expect this answer to come out of this but in general they should just be left alone, bar defrag.

Thank you for your help and advice guys.

[Buckeye]

Buckeye:
Do you not worry about the life of your drives ? I'm not sure what to think because there are many conflicting reports. I'm leaning towards not babying them too much and to rely on the warranty and backups if everything goes wrong.

I did not used to worry about it, tho as time goes on I think it is becoming a problem and who knows how well all these other manufactures drives will hold out in the long run.

See my SSD Graveyard thread.

I dont really think that the problems I have had are anything to do with how I set them up. I believe its more of a problem with the Raid I am running. More drives in a Raid 0 = that much more of a chance something will go wrong. 7x SSD's in a Raid 0 24/7 work/game rig is masive speed, but also asking for trouble LOL.

I do use Arconis and do a incremental backup everyday so the most I would lose is 1 day. Plus the MTRON PROS have excellent warranties so why not use it.

Its really far to early to decided what is bad or not for these drives, the only way to tell is to just use them like you would anything else. If enough people report what problems they are having in places like my thread then we can get a better idea of what is really going on with life span of these SSD's.

[yngndrw]

Well that sounds like reasonable thinking. I'll be sure to remember to report if I have any problems with mine.

I believe the Intel drives have a 3 year warranty so its all good.

Cheers.