Optimizing the operation of an SSD drive under Windows. What size ssd is needed for Windows Setting up and optimizing windows 10 for ssd

So, you got a brand new SSD. You installed the system on it, armed yourself with an optimization guide you found on the Internet, and after a couple of hours you did everything possible to... slow down your work in the system!

Don't believe me? Think about what makes for high performance. Advantages SSD speeds you can feel in three categories:

system, for example, the speed of its loading and operation
programs, including web surfing and working with documents, images and media files
your actions, including disk navigation and copying/moving files

How myths are born

I'm pretty sure your SSD tuning measures negatively impacted at least one of these components. Later you will find out why this happened, but first about the reasons for such optimization.

If you read the inscription “buffalo” on the elephant’s cage...

There are plenty of guides and even tweakers online for optimizing SSDs. In fact, the same information is used everywhere, and:

outdated, since it is aimed at saving disk space and reducing the number of rewrite cycles, which is irrelevant for modern SSDs in home PCs
useless, because Windows itself takes care of what it offers to configure
harmful, because it leads to a decrease in the speed of work - yours, programs and system

Look critical on your guide or tweaker and think about which items fit into one of these categories!

There is another problem - unsuccessful presentation of information, including incorrectly placed accents.

If you have a HDD along with an SSD, measure the speeds of both drives and keep the picture in mind. I will return to her, and more than once!

Special Notes for Dissenters

After publishing the material, I decided to specifically clarify several points so as not to repeat them regularly in the comments when responding to opponents.

In this article:

All myths are considered solely from the point of view of speeding up the system, programs and user. If a measure is declared useless or harmful, this means that it does not contribute in any way to speeding up work.
Reducing the volume of disk writes is not considered as an optimization measure due to the irrelevance of this approach. If this is your goal, myths 3 - 11 are for you, as is storing an SSD in a sideboard.
Using a RAM disk is not considered as it is not directly related to SSD optimization. If you have excess RAM, you can use a RAM disk regardless of the type of drive installed in your PC.
All recommendations are given with a wide audience in mind, i.e. to the majority users. When analyzing advice, keep in mind that they may not correspond to your tasks, work skills and ideas about the optimal and competent use of the operating system.

Now - let's go! :)

Myths

1. Disabling SuperFetch, ReadyBoot and Prefetch

This advice: controversial, can reduce the speed of program launch, and also in Windows 10 - increase the volume of disk writes and reduce the overall performance of the OS if there is insufficient RAM

Speed of launching programs from the hard drive

When each program is launched, the prefetcher checks for the presence of a trace (.pf file). If one is found, the prefetcher uses links to the MFT file system metadata to open all the necessary files. It then calls a special memory manager function to asynchronously read from the trace data and code that is not currently in memory. When a program is launched for the first time or the startup script has changed, the prefetcher writes a new trace file (highlighted in the figure).

It is unlikely that SuperFetch is capable of speeding up the launch of programs from an SSD, but Microsoft does not disable the function, given the presence of hard drives in the system. If the SSD manufacturer's proprietary utility (such as Intel SSD Toolbox) recommends disabling SuperFetch, follow its advice. However, in this case, it is more than logical to keep all programs on the SSD, which will be discussed below.

Memory compression in Windows 10

This aspect is discussed in a separate article: The nuances of disabling the SysMain service in Windows 10. Earlier on this page there was a fragment from it published impromptu.

2. Disabling Windows Defragmenter

This tip: useless or harmful, may reduce disk performance

One of the functions of the CheckBootSpeed utility is to check the status of the scheduled defragmentation job and the Task Scheduler service. Let's see how relevant these parameters are for the latest Microsoft OS installed on an SSD.

Windows 7

Windows 7 does not defragment SSDs, which is confirmed by the words of the developers in the blog.

Windows 7 will disable defragmentation for SSD drives. Since SSDs perform superior at random reads, defragmentation will not provide the same benefits that it does on a regular drive.

If you don't trust the developers, take a look at the event log. You won't find any entries about defragmenting the SSD volume there.

So, when the SSD is the only drive, the scheduled job simply doesn't run. And when the PC also has a HDD, disabling a task or scheduler deprives the hard drive of worthy optimization by a standard defragmenter.

Windows 8 and later

In Windows 8, the defragmenter has been replaced by the disk optimizer!

Optimizing hard drives, as before, comes down to defragmentation. Windows no longer ignores solid-state drives, but helps them by sending additional a set of TRIM commands for the entire volume at once. This happens according to a schedule as part of automatic maintenance, i.e. when you are not working on your PC.

Depending on the SSD controller, garbage collection may occur immediately upon receipt of the TRIM command, or it may be delayed until a period of inactivity. By disabling the disk optimizer or task scheduler, you reduce drive performance.

3. Disable or move the swap file

This tip: useless or harmful, reduces system speed when there is insufficient memory

The hardware configuration must be balanced. If you don't have much memory installed, you should add more, since an SSD only partially compensates for the lack of RAM, making swap times faster than a hard drive.

When you have enough memory, the page file is hardly used, i.e. This will not affect the life of the disk in any way. But many people still turn off paging - they say, let the system keep everything in memory, I said! As a result, the Windows Memory Manager does not work in the most optimal mode (see #4).

As a last resort, the swap file is transferred to the hard drive. But if suddenly the memory is not enough, You will only benefit in performance by having pagefile.sys on the SSD!

IN: Do I need to place the page file on the SSD?

ABOUT: Yes. The main operations with the paging file are random writing of small volumes or sequential writing of large amounts of data. Both types of operations work fine on an SSD.

By analyzing telemetry focused on estimating writes and reads for the page file, we found that:

reading from Pagefile.sys takes precedence over writing to pagefile.sys in a 40:1 ratio,
read blocks for Pagefile.sys are usually quite small, 67% of them are less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% are less than 16 KB,
The write blocks in Pagefile.sys are quite large, 62% of them are greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% are almost exactly 1 MB

Generally speaking, the typical page file usage patterns and SSD performance characteristics fit together very well, and it is the file that is highly recommended to be placed on the SSD.

But in practice, the desire to extend the life of an SSD at any cost is ineradicable. Here is a blog reader fretting over his SSD, transferring pagefile.sys to the hard drive, although he himself can even see with the naked eye that this reduces performance. By the way, my netbook cannot install more than 2 GB of memory, and with a solid-state drive it became much more comfortable than with a standard 5400 rpm HDD.

Finally, don't forget that completely disabling the pagefile will prevent you from diagnosing critical errors. The paging file size can be flexibly adjusted, so you always have a choice between disk space and performance.

Tricky question: What was my page file size when I took the task manager screenshot?

Special Note

On the Internet (including in the comments to this post) you can often come across the statement: “A swap file is not needed if you have installed N GB RAM". Depending on your imagination, N takes the value 8, 16 or 32. This statement does not make sense, since it does not take into account the tasks that are solved on a PC with a given amount of memory.

If you installed 32GB for yourself, and 4-8GB are used, then yes, you don’t need FP (but then it’s not clear why you bought 32GB RAM :). If you have purchased such an amount of memory in order to use it as much as possible in your tasks, then the FP will be useful to you.

4. Disable hibernation

This advice: vague and harmful for mobile PCs, may reduce battery life and speed of your work

I would formulate the advice like this:

stationary PCs - shutdown is normal, because you might as well use sleep
mobile PCs - turning off is not always advisable, especially when battery consumption is high during sleep

However, people have, are, and will continue to disable system protection regardless of the type of disk, it’s already in the blood! And no, I don't want to discuss this topic in the comments for the hundredth time :)

6. Disable Windows Search and/or Disk Indexing

This tip: useless, slows down your work speed

Sometimes this is argued by the fact that SSDs are so fast that the index will not significantly speed up the search. These people simply never really used real Windows search!

I believe that it makes no sense to deprive yourself of a useful tool that speeds up everyday tasks.

If you have fallen victim to any of these myths, tell me in the comments if I managed to convince you of their uselessness or harm and in what cases. If you disagree with my assessment of "optimization", explain what the benefits of these actions are.

You can mark fragments of text that interest you, which will be available via a unique link in the address bar of your browser.

about the author

Vadim, in recent days I have bought myself 4 SSDs to install on all my computers. Let's just say... life has changed :-)

I also thought for a long time whether to buy a laptop with an SSD or a hybrid drive, the second one won, I chose 340GB + 24 SSD. What was surprising was that the standard installation of Windows 8 was on a 5400 drive, but not an SSD. After suffering for a long time, I moved Windows 8 to an SSD and was a little freaked out, because... There is about 3GB left on the SSD. Knowing that over time the W8 would swell and it would be necessary to fight for space, I returned everything back, transferred the TEMP and Page file to the SSD, plus installed frequently launched programs.

Still, you just had to buy a laptop with an SSD and not worry about it. They gave me an SSD for NG and now I’ll stuff it into an old netbook, install W8 and be happy.

Thank you for the articles about SSDs, our entire department reads them.

Alexei

You, Vadim, have done a great job of going through SSD myths; we can hope that there will be fewer fans of SSD perversions now. I have Win8 on an SSD, it works just the way I installed it, I’m happy and I don’t bother myself with all sorts of optimizations whose output is questionable.

PS: Answer to the question: 1Gb.

Alexey, thanks for your response. You can’t put your head down on everyone, but I’m not trying to :)

The answer to the question is incorrect. How did you come to him?

madgrok

Before buying an SSD, I read a mountain of forums, benchmarks, etc. And I came to the conclusion that all the tweaks are in the firebox.
Why do people buy SSDs for themselves? Of course it would be faster! :) And most optimization tweaks basically negate all the performance gains, which is what Vadim wrote about.
I use my Vertex 4 256 GB as a regular disk for the system. I bought it sometime in the fall. Excellent flight, 100% health
Excellent article, I will recommend it to all my acquaintances and friends to read so that they don’t suffer. :)
And in general, thanks to the author for an excellent blog. I really like the fact that he tries to “disassemble the topic to its bones.”

Andrey

Vadim, at the end of the article there is a survey about the presence of SSDs on our computers, I think that this topic is still relevant - there are those who do not intend, at least in the near future, to acquire a solid-state drive for a number of reasons - someone does not see the point of installing it on an old one computer - saving for a new one, or as in the survey point - satisfied with the HDD, or like Pavel Nagaev - he thinks for a long time which to prefer...
What would you recommend? Is it worth moving the OS to an SSD to “increase system performance,” so to speak?

Andre

Hello Vadim, I think a lot of people are now looking at buying an SSD, and it would be very cool if you wrote an article on choosing an SSD!

Alexey Matashkin

Vadim, thanks for the article.
In my practice, I have never encountered these myths, I only heard some advice separately, so I read it with pleasure.

I don’t quite fit into the survey :) The main PC is not a home PC, and it has an SSD. But at home, the usual is enough for now.

There is nothing to add regarding questions, because I don’t use tweaks, all installed SSDs work normally with the system.
Although, an important detail is updating the firmware on the disk. In my practice, there are 3 cases of serious failures that were resolved with firmware version updates.

Valentine

Pavel Nagaev,

Your 24 SSD was most likely designed for caching, which is why it is so small, maybe you needed to use it as a cache, in which case you will get the benefits of both media - capacity and speed. Vadim, do you have an article regarding hybrid hard drives or combining HDD and SSD operation? I think many readers might be interested in such an article. I think the topic about 12 myths is very useful, as I have many friends who consider themselves experts, but make such mistakes and impose these mistakes on ordinary users, thanks to a link to this article it will be possible to convince them to make such mistakes

Vadims Podāns

Good and useful article.

Sergey

Yes, it’s really surprising people who buy SSDs to speed up work, but then transfer everything and turn it off and again lose performance.

MythBusters are in action! We had a great run through all these myths.

Alexey G

At first I fell for disabling hibernation, but then I realized that it was inconvenient.
I remove the 8.3 marks. Because I use new versions of the program, and I don’t need it)

From life: when I assemble a PC with an SSD, I transfer user files to the HDD. If the PC for unknown reasons (playful hands, viruses) begins to not boot, then if I am nearby, I will restore the configured image of the installed system (thanks to the blog), but if a person called another “master”, then the first thing he will do is format the disk:(More Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a smart method in my city, so this is a necessary need to preserve the user’s files.

Answer to the question: 2834MB?

Dima

Thanks Vadim.
As always, intelligibly and with a light sense of humor.
As I promised, I part with the myths easily and see you off on your last journey. I'll turn everything back on.
Best regards, Dima.

PGKrok

I agree on all points, but I myself had to transfer the index files, some programs and personal photos and videos to the HDD, because... SSD - only 60 GB (I've already mastered it :))
For comparison (to the question of “keeping a picture in mind”)
Result CrystalDiskMarc (HDD)
http://pixs.ru/showimage/HDD1301020_6347406_6812031.png
Result of CrystalDiskMarc (SSD)
http://pixs.ru/showimage/OSZ3010201_4238885_6812055.png

SATA-3 SSD controller - SATA-6

Dawn

I bought a 60gb ssd and left only Windows 8, program files, appdata, program data on it. The rest is on hdd.
Reason: the system partition is growing too quickly, and just like that, the space will go to zero.
When purchasing, there was one goal: to speed up the cold boot of the system. That's what I achieved - 8 seconds.
Vadim, the article is excellent, thank you!

Ruby

About transferring TEMP and cache - I stupidly moved them to a gigabyte ramdisk - this is a real speed increase, incomparable with an SSD.

Denis Borisych

I’ve been working in IT for a long time and I still never cease to be amazed at woe to optimizers.

I've had an ssd in my home computer for about a year now and it's still going strong. 7 starts in 10 seconds, programs load quickly and easily without any optimizations. Well, except that the folder of necessary and important documents is not on the ssd (its size is 500 GB). And in the “My Documents” folder there is usually a list of documents.

As a person very close to IT, sometimes I am not enthusiastic about MS innovations (the inability to use Explorer without a mouse alone is worth it). But I must objectively admit that in terms of optimizing the operation of the OS on an ssd and stability of operation, they are undoubtedly great.

Ruby

I would also transfer the search index, but on the Windows blog they write that it is still kept in memory, so there is no point.

SuperFetch is needed in any case; it preloads files into RAM in advance, increasing speed and reducing the number of accesses to the drive.

Valery

Vadim, I read your articles quite regularly and often put the advice from them into practice.
Having bought an SSD (Intel 520 120GB), I also first read about all sorts of optimizations and even applied some, but now I left only the indexing transferred to the HDD and Intel’s recommendations for its drives, and this is where some of your advice and Intel’s recommendations diverge:
http://123foto.ru/pics/01-2013/42746566_1358157387.jpg
Who should I listen to?))

Alexei

Vadim Sterkin,

Came at random :-)
My paging file takes up 1 Gb per 16Gb of RAM (size selected by the system). Moreover, the system monitor shows almost zero % load. I decided that 8Gb should have at least 1Gb.

Oleg

Hello Vadim. I always look forward to new articles from you, this article was VERY useful for me and for my friends. To my regret, my arguments and advice do not reach some friends, for some reason they trust more forums where they do not always write useful information.
I hope this article will convince you.

I'll be waiting for an article about choosing an SSD.
Thank you.

Georgiy

Thank you for the article.
To be honest, I didn’t quite understand about Superfetch - what is the increase in performance on an SSD?

As for the size of the paging file, the answer seems to be this: the line allocated says 10.7 GB. The amount of RAM must be subtracted from this figure.

Alexander

I recently bought a Kingston Hiper X 3K 120GB SSD. I installed Seven sp1. I did not see any increase in download speed or program performance.
Previous configuration: Asus P5Q, 2 WD 500Gb Raid 0, DDR2 2 1GB each.
My conclusion: when connecting an SSD to a “slow” Sata 3Gb/s port, the increase in system performance compared to that installed on stripping is insignificant. You will have to upgrade to a motherboard with Sata 6Gb/s and at least 8GB DDR3 memory.

GlooBus

Pavel Nagaev,

SSD drives of 16-32 GB sold on laptop motherboards are of no use. The best thing in this case would be to take a laptop in a simple configuration with an HDD and do the upgrade yourself. I did just that, took an ASUS X301A with 2 GB of memory, 320 GB HDD and upgraded to 8 GB of memory and 128 GB SSD. The laptop worked completely differently! Loading the computer from pressing the button until the password entry window appears 6-7 seconds. I didn’t make any tweaks, except that I turned off indexing, because... I don't use search.

Alik

The other day I installed VERTEX 4 128Gb on it with Win 8, applied optimizers and after a week I realized that it was in vain, incl. you'll have to reinstall. And here is also a sensible article.

Michal

Vadim Sterkin,

I think this is due to the fact that most people simply have not yet had concrete practice in using SSDs like you have.
and there really are a lot of myths.
For example, I’m from the Republic of Uzbekistan, and we’ve only just got SSDs here.
I have no experience working with them yet. and very expensive too.
I read your article and realized that I had moved the swap file in vain.
Thanks for the article, I hope it’s not the last :)

An SSD solid-state drive differs in its properties and method of operation from a hard HDD drive, but the process of installing Windows 10 on it will not be much different; there is a noticeable difference only in preparing the computer.

Preparing the disk and computer for installation

Owners of SSD drives know that in previous versions of the OS, for correct, durable and full-fledged operation of the drive, it was necessary to change the system settings manually: disable defragmentation, some functions, hibernation, built-in antiviruses, the page file and change a few other parameters. But in Windows 10, the developers took these shortcomings into account; the system now performs all disk settings itself.

You especially need to focus on defragmentation: previously it greatly harmed the disk, but in the new OS it works differently, not harming the SSD, but optimizing it, so you should not disable automatic defragmentation. It's the same with other functions - in Windows 10 you don't need to configure the system's work with the disk manually, everything is already done for you.

The only thing is that when dividing a disk into partitions, it is recommended to leave 10–15% of its total volume as unallocated space. This will not increase its performance, the recording speed will remain the same, but the service life may be slightly extended. But remember, most likely, the disk will last longer than you need even without additional settings. You can free up free interest both during the installation of Windows 10 (during the process in the instructions below), and after it using system utilities or third-party programs.

Preliminary PC setup

In order to install Windows on an SSD drive, you need to switch the computer to AHCI mode and make sure that the motherboard supports the SATA 3.0 interface. Information about whether SATA 3.0 is supported or not can be found on the official website of the company that developed your motherboard, or using third-party programs such as HWINFO (http://www.hwinfo.com/download32.html).

Switching to SATA mode

Turn off your computer.
As soon as the startup process begins, press the special key on the keyboard to go to the BIOS. Typically the Delete, F2 or other hotkeys are used. Which one will be used in your case will be written in a special footnote during the inclusion process.
The BIOS interface will differ in different motherboard models, but the principle of switching to AHCI mode on each of them is almost identical. First, go to the Settings section. To move through blocks and items, use the mouse or arrow keys with the Enter button.
Go to advanced BIOS settings.
Go to the “Built-in peripherals” sub-item.
In the “SATA Configuration” block, find the port to which your SSD is connected and press Enter on the keyboard.
Select AHCI operating mode. It may already be selected by default, but we needed to make sure of this. Save the settings made in the BIOS and exit it, boot the computer to proceed to preparing the media with the installation file.

Preparing installation media

If you already have a ready-made installation disk, you can skip this step and immediately begin installing the OS. If you don’t have one, then you will need a USB flash drive with at least 4 GB of memory. Creating an installation program on it will look like this:

We insert the USB flash drive into the port and wait until the computer recognizes it. Open the explorer.
First of all, it is important to format it. This is done for two reasons: the memory of the flash drive must be completely empty and divided in the format we need. While on the main page of Explorer, right-click on the flash drive and select “Format” in the menu that opens.
We select the NTFS format mode and begin the operation, which can last up to ten minutes. Please note that all data stored on the formatted media will be permanently erased.
Go to the official Windows 10 page (https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10) and download the installation tool.
Launch the downloaded program. Read and accept the license agreement.
Select the second option “Create installation media”, since this method of installing Windows is more reliable, because you can start all over again at any time, and also use the created installation media in the future to install the OS on other computers.
Select the system language, version and bit depth. You should take the version that suits you best. If you are an ordinary user, then you should not load the system with unnecessary functions that will never be useful to you; install Windows at home. The capacity depends on how many cores your processor has: one (32) or two (64). Information about the processor can be found in the computer properties or on the official website of the company that developed the processor.
In the media selection, select the USB device option.
Select the flash drive from which the installation media will be created.
We wait until the media creation process is completed.
Reboot the computer without removing the media.
During startup, enter the BIOS.
We change the boot order of the computer: your flash drive should be in first place, not the hard drive, so that when you turn on the computer, it starts booting from it and, accordingly, starts the Windows installation process.

Windows 10 installation process on SSD

Installation begins with choosing a language; set the Russian language in all lines.
Confirm that you want to start the installation.
Read and accept the license agreement.
You may be asked to enter a license key. If you have it, then enter it, if not, then skip this step for now and activate the system after installing it.
Proceed with manual installation as this method will allow you to configure the disk partitions.
A window will open with disk partition settings, click on the “Disk Settings” button.
If you are installing the system for the first time, then all the SSD disk memory will not be allocated. Otherwise, you need to select one of the partitions to install and format it. Divide unallocated memory or existing disks as follows: allocate more than 40 GB to the main disk on which the OS will be located, so as not to encounter it being clogged in the future, leave 10–15% of the total disk memory unallocated (if all the memory has already been allocated, delete the partitions and start forming them again), we allocate all the remaining memory for an additional partition (usually drive D) or partitions (drives E, F, G...). Don't forget to format the main partition allocated for the OS.
To begin installation, select the drive and click Next.
Wait until the system installs in automatic mode. The process may take more than ten minutes, do not interrupt it under any circumstances. After the procedure is completed, the creation of an account and installation of basic system parameters will begin; follow the instructions on the screen and select the settings for yourself.

Video tutorial: how to install Windows 10 on an SSD

Installing Windows 10 on an SSD is no different from the same process with an HDD drive. Most importantly, do not forget to enable ACHI mode in the BIOS settings. After installing the system, there is no need to configure the disk; the system will do it for you.

It's no secret that installing an operating system from scratch is fraught with many pitfalls that can seriously spoil your nerves. This is especially true for installing an OS from a flash drive onto an SSD. Both media must be properly prepared and formatted, and the computer's BIOS must be configured accordingly. Otherwise, annoying errors may occur: the installation program will not see the disk or will not start at all.

Installing Windows 10 on an SSD - sleight of hand and no fraud

From the point of view of the operating system and computer hardware, a solid-state drive (SSD) is no different from a classic hard drive with magnetic platters. Accordingly, installing an operating system on an SSD will be no different from installing it on a regular hard drive.

The only nuances will be in setting up the disk subsystem for maximum performance and in creating partitions on the disk before installing the system. Since the disk is new, a clean copy of the OS will be installed.

Installing an OS on a blank disk will always be more difficult than updating, which will download itself from the Internet and carry out all the manipulations in the background, requiring literally a few mouse clicks from the user.

Installing a clean copy consists of several sequential steps that should go smoothly and without errors. Shall we get started?

Preparing bootable media (flash drive)

As practice shows, when installing Windows 10 on an SSD using a bootable DVD, errors often occur that prevent the normal installation of the OS. This happens especially often on laptops in which both the optical drive and the hard drive are connected to the same SATA controller: accessing the optical drive causes the computer to not optimally configure the controller, and the SSD may not work correctly.

Therefore, to install the system, you need to prepare a bootable USB flash drive, installation from which will allow you to carry out the process quickly and without errors.

To prepare bootable media with the OS distribution, you need to download the Windows 10 distribution image, format the flash drive and unpack the image onto it. And if there are no problems with downloading, then further preparation of the flash drive can be carried out by a dozen different programs, similar in function, but different in settings and interface.

We will focus on the official image deployment tool from Microsoft - Microsoft USB/DVD download tool. The program is so simple that it is impossible to make mistakes when using it.

Find the Microsoft USB/DVD download tool on the Internet and download it.
Connect a USB flash drive to a free USB port to which the system image will be deployed. Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port on which you want to burn the Windows 10 boot image
Open File Explorer and note the logical drive letter of the flash drive. In our case, this is the letter L.
The connected flash drive was mounted in the file explorer as drive L:
Launch the Microsoft USB/DVD download tool.
Using the Browse button, select the ISO image with the operating system distribution and click Next.
Step 1: select the image that you will burn to the flash drive
Select the media type - USB Device (flash drive).
Select the type of media that you will make bootable via the USB/DVD download tool
Select the disk (flash drive) to deploy the media from the drop-down list and click the Begin copying button.
Select your flash drive from the available devices and click the Begin copying button
When asked about erasing media, answer yes. The program will format the flash drive and start copying files to it.
When the progress bar reaches 100% and a message about successful media creation appears, you can close the program.

The bootable USB flash drive has been successfully created, and the Windows 10 distribution files have been transferred to it.

The bootable USB flash drive has been created, and you can begin installing the operating system using it.

The occurrence of any errors while the program is running indicates a faulty flash drive. Change the media to a known good one and repeat the process of creating a bootable disk.

In addition to its simplicity, this method is good because using an official Microsoft tool instead of one of the “free” programs guarantees a secure installation. Using it, you will not infect your computer with keyloggers or annoying adware.

Video: creating a bootable USB flash drive with Rufus

Activating AHCI mode

In order not to find yourself in a situation where the OS installer does not see the disk on which Windows 10 should be installed (this applies not only to SSDs, but in general to all hard drives with a SATA interface), using BIOS settings, you need to switch the SATA controller to AHCI mode .

Preparing an SSD disk for OS installation

To avoid problems when installing the Windows 10 operating system, the disk on which the installation will be carried out must be completely cleared of partitions. If you do not do this, the system installation program may display a message stating that this disk cannot be used to install the OS. The reason will be the lack of space to create service partitions, invisible to the user, but vital for the operating system.

To prevent this from happening, remove all partitions from the SSD disk. You can do this using the console command diskpart:

All partitions from the SSD have been removed, and it is ready to install the Windows 10 operating system.

This method requires care and a lot of keystrokes, but it gives complete control over the process. If you are a fan of beauty and mouse clicks, you can find hard drive management programs with a graphical interface.

Video: how to manage disks using Minitool PartitionWizard

Installing Windows 10 OS - step by step instructions

The bootable USB flash drive has been created, the computer BIOS is configured, the SSD drive is pristine. We start the operating system installation process:

Boot your computer from the previously created USB flash drive with the Windows 10 distribution.
Select your default interface language and input keyboard, then click Next.
Selecting the default system language and keyboard when installing Windows 10
Click the Install button to start the Windows installation.
Start installing Windows 10 using the “Install” button
“Read” and accept the terms of the license agreement. Without this, further installation will be impossible.
Accept the license agreement to continue installation
Select the installation type "Custom: Windows installation only". A clean copy of the system can only be installed in this way.
Installation of a “clean system” is only possible in custom installation mode
Since we have previously cleared the target disk (SSD) of partitions, in the dialog for selecting a partition for installation, you will need to click the “Create” button, and then set the maximum possible partition size (it will be this by default). Together with it, the system will also create service partitions for its needs. They will not be visible in File Explorer:
- Section #1: Recovery Environment. Contains the recovery environment necessary to “roll back” the system after critical errors or damage by malware;
- partition #2: system partition (EFI). Contains the boot configuration store (BCD) and files needed to boot the operating system;
- section #3: MSR (system reserved). Required for service operations of built-in and third-party software (for example, to convert a simple disk to a dynamic one);
- section No. 4: operating system. The installed system will be located on this partition. The space not occupied by the operating system will be available for installing applications and storing files.
After selecting the disk, OS installation will begin. During the installation process, the screen may flicker and go dark, and the computer will automatically restart several times. This is necessary to complete some installation steps.
Copying files and installing updates is the longest stage of OS installation
Now you need to select basic settings for personalization and location, as well as connection and error reporting. The option “Use standard settings (default)” will be most preferable for an inexperienced user. At this stage, it is advisable to have a working Internet connection.
In this window, it is better to use the “Use standard settings” button
After entering the user password, the operating system is ready for use.
The system waits for user actions on the lock screen

Video: Installing Windows 10

Proper preparation of two solid-state media: a bootable flash drive and an SSD disk is the key to a trouble-free and quick installation of Windows 10. In conclusion, I would like to dwell on the choice of system distribution. We strongly do not recommend using homemade OS builds, which are stored in large numbers on torrent trackers. Their authors promise mountains of gold and extraordinary features, but in reality everything can result in viruses built into the system, pop-up ads and hardware failures. Use only original images from Microsoft, even if you install a “pirated” version of the OS.

SSD drives ( Solid State Drive) managed to gain wide popularity among users. Faster Windows response, faster copying and working with files are the undeniable advantages of an SSD drive over a conventional hard drive.

As a rule, the operating system (OS) itself and the most necessary programs are installed on a solid-state drive, and the hard drive is used exclusively as storage for other files. Undoubtedly, this is a good solution and it will have a positive effect on productivity, but do not forget that this has its own nuances.

As you know, an SSD disk is limited in cycles of copying and writing information, and when this limit is exhausted, the disk will die. However, there are several Windows OS settings that can significantly extend the life of such drives. The main task of this instruction is to approach the operation of the solid-state drive as carefully and expediently as possible, and also to determine what makes sense to turn off and what does not.

General principles for proper use of SSDs

Before looking at how specific Windows features affect SSD drives, you should know the basics of working with them:

Free space reserve. At least 15% of the SSD capacity must be kept free. This is a feature of this disk. It can be long and tedious to describe the “why” and “what for”, so in short: this volume is necessary to maintain optimal operation and service life of the SSD.
Disk mode. Only in AHCI mode does the solid-state drive reveal all its functions for the highest possible performance and operating time.

Now you can move on to a more detailed overview of service optimization. As it turned out, in Windows 10, the developers met the needs of SSD owners, and the most important options are already included in the system. Further adjustments can only slightly extend the service life of the drive, but it also has its own consequences.

Let's consider the following issues that may, to one degree or another, affect the lifespan of solid-state drives in Windows 10:

Should I disable Disk Defragmentation?
Superfetch service and its impact on the drive.
Swap file – leave it or not.
Location of temporary files.
Hibernation - disable or not.
Impact of the System Protection function.
Impact of the Disk Indexing feature.

Defragmentation (optimization) of disks and SSDs

Contrary to what most people think, to extend the life of an SSD, it is not necessary to disable disk defragmentation (aka disk optimization) in Windows 10, since it works in a slightly different way in this OS. The developers explained this as a different approach to individual drives, that is, defragmentation is harmless to the SSD drive. This happens thanks to TRIM technologies, which distributes the load and access to used disk blocks evenly. Therefore, in this particular operating system, defragmentation does not harm the disk, and it is only turned on if System Protection is enabled.

SSD and the impact of Superfetch service

If the specific goal is to extend the life of the SSD, then disabling this service will help. The fact is that, on the one hand, when Superfetch is turned off, there will indeed be fewer write and copy cycles, and accordingly the disk will last longer, but the computer’s performance will also “sag” a little. You can learn how to disable Superfetch from a previously published article. for tuning Windows 10. The effect will not be particularly noticeable, but it will still be there.

Page file and SSD

Here it is already quite difficult to say whether to turn it off or not. On the one hand, if more than 8 GB of RAM is installed, the system will cope without it, thereby saving the SSD from further loads. On the other hand, some programs do not work correctly when the paging file is disabled. Experts from Microsoft say that this file is used rarely and only for particularly resource-intensive applications, which means that there will not be so many write and copy cycles. Plus, large companies like Samsung and Intel strongly recommend leaving this file enabled.

Transferring temporary file folders from SSD to hard drive

We also touched on this topic when we looked at instructions for clearing temporary files. This method will be effective, although it will reduce system performance. Thus, the choice remains with the user, what is more important - the performance of the OS or the operating time of the SSD drive.

Hibernation and SSD

Of course, this service does not bring anything good for solid-state drives. It is important only for laptop users, and then only so that they can quickly start interrupted work. If you want to disable this service, the fastest way to do this is from the command line. The Win+R combination will open the “Run” window, in which we enter cmd. In the window that opens, all that remains is to enter the command “powercfg -h off" and confirm by pressing Enter. After this, hibernation will be completely disabled, the hiberfil.sys file will be deleted, which will free up some disk space. If there is a need to return everything as it was, then you should simply enter the command “powercfg -h on” in the same way.

It's time to talk about the proper use of solid-state drives in Windows 10. According to Microsoft, using an SSD on the “ten” does not require any settings or preliminary preparation of the system for installing such a digital data carrier, and independently changing the operating system parameters can only harm the drive based on flash memory.

But, despite all the assurances of the Windows 10 developer, you should still pay attention to some points, and also study what the “ten” does to ensure maximum performance and save SSD resource.

With the release of Windows 10, guides appeared online on how to properly configure the system to optimize solid-state drives. But in fact, all of them were copies of similar instructions for the “seven” and “eight”, because in the latest OS many actions are performed automatically by the system when an SSD is connected to the PC (disabling defragmentation, paging file).

What does the “ten” do to extend the life of an SSD without compromising its performance?

Initially, Microsoft configured the "ten" in such a way that when a solid-state storage medium is detected, it is already ready for use, without the need to make any changes to the OS configuration. It is known from official sources that the list of settings when using flash memory-based drives includes:

deactivating defragmentation;
using Superfetch;
disabling ReadyBoost;
optimization of the SSD power circuit;
activating the TRIM function for the drive.

Remembering the instructions for setting up other versions of Windows, you can note that file indexing and caching are not disabled, as is system protection (restore points are created regularly, reducing the device’s working life). It’s the same with folders for temporary files - there’s not even a suggestion to move them to the hard drive. Let's look at all this in order, starting with defragmentation.

Interesting facts about defragmentation

SSD defragmentation in the “ten” is disabled, but some kind of optimization option is activated instead. Having learned about this, many users immediately disable this function, some study the mechanism of its functioning. And, as it turns out, clearing blocks using TRIM technology is a useful function for solid-state digital storage media.

SSD defragmentation in Windows 10 is carried out only when shadow copying is enabled (system protection is active) once a month, but for such drives its essence is not much different from defragmenting files on the HDD. In some cases, not defragmenting a file is useful (for example, when its size subsequently increases).

What to manually disable and what not to do

Many users who read the old article on setting up Windows 10 to work with SSD argue that SuperFetch, caching and file indexing should be disabled. These tips have their place in life; following them will lead to a loss of productivity and ease of use of the computer.

Next, we will consider all the options for optimizing the operation of a solid-state drive in the “ten”, noting that in order to obtain speed advantages when using it, at least 15% of the space on the disk must be free. And this is very important.

Deactivating the paging file

If you have insufficient RAM for comfortable work and performing some tasks, it is advisable to use a swap file.

This fact is also supported by the fact that the mechanism of its operation implies a minimum number of accesses to the pagefile.sys file for writing, regardless of the amount of installed and free RAM. The number of its read operations exceeds the number of write accesses by approximately 40 times.

When the page file is disabled, even with 8 GB or more of RAM, some “heavy” applications refuse to start (for example, Adobe Premier) or regularly crash. You may have to pay this price to increase the SSD resource.

Disabling hibernation

Another controversial feature is deactivating the ability for the computer to go into hibernation mode. It is also used to quickly start Windows 10. To do this, a hiberfil.sys file is created on the system volume. The “ten” writes the contents of RAM (in case of hibernation) or files necessary for a quick start of the system into it. The file size takes up the same amount of space as the RAM installed on the computer, and the amount of data written to it does not exceed the current size of the RAM used.

If deactivating the function of putting the system into hibernation mode is not critical for a computer, then for laptop owners this will result in accelerated battery drain and the need to wait for the device to turn on. The process can take a long time if there are a large number of programs placed in startup, especially on older devices. In the case of a PC, waiting for it to fully boot is important if you want to extend the life of an expensive SSD.

It is also possible to reduce the volume of hiberfil.sys by disabling hibernation without disabling fast boot.

System Restore

When the “File History” function is enabled and system rollback points are automatically generated before performing operations affecting the system (installing/uninstalling software), the physical resource of the SSD is reduced. In this regard, it is recommended to disable file history and the creation of restore points. But such careful treatment of the drive can result in data loss or the need to reset the system in the event of a serious failure and the impossibility of rolling back to its previous state.

When using a Korean solid-state drive from Samsung, this can be done using the proprietary Samsung Magician application. Backing up in the background can lead to reduced SSD performance when performing many other tasks when working with the media's file system. Therefore, data backup should be performed when the computer is idle.

Intel and Microsoft categorically do not recommend disabling the operating system protection function. With it, you can quickly return your computer to a working state without loss or with minimal loss of user data.

Transferring temporary and user files to your hard drive

Another option for reducing wear on a solid-state drive is to transfer temporary files and user data to partitions physically located on the hard drive. Thus, repeatedly rewriting work files and regularly changing them (for example, stored on the desktop or in My Documents) will slightly reduce the number of writes to the SSD.

Typically, solid-state drives are used as system drives, so storing a multimedia library or image catalog on them is not advisable (this does not apply to games). Indeed, during the optimization process, many of the files for which reading speed is not of great importance are affected, their blocks are moved many times.

Superfetch, file indexing for faster search, record caching and others

Using or disabling these features is more problematic than others. Various manufacturers post contradictory information regarding each other on their resources. It is up to the user to decide which of them to believe, but you should definitely read the recommendations of leading SSD developers.

According to Microsoft representatives, the Prefetch and Superfetch functions are also successfully used on SSDs, having undergone significant changes in Windows 10. Samsung claims that solid-state drives should not be used with the Superfetch function enabled.

As for clearing the cache buffer, the information here also differs radically, even within the same SSD manufacturer, without reliable information to account for one or another point of view. The cache buffer itself can be used; this will in no way affect the service life of the flash memory.

Search and indexing

In Windows 10, the Instant Search Indexing Service does more active indexing, but without it, the always-visible search icon will be useless, and you won't be able to instantly launch a system tool or open a frequently used file. Whether it is worth slightly extending the operating time of the SSD at the expense of convenience - decide for yourself.

As already mentioned, for high-performance operation of an SSD, it must have about 15% or more free space, which is due to the peculiarities of storing digital data on such media. Many SSD developers provide proprietary utilities whose task is to reserve this ~15% of space by creating a hidden volume.

The drive must operate in AHCI mode. This can be checked in the Task Manager (called via Win → X).

It is strongly recommended to connect solid-state drives, no matter who their manufacturer is, to a high-speed third-generation SATA interface that does not use controllers from third-party manufacturers. It happens that the motherboard has a chipset for an Intel or AMD processor and additional ports on controllers from third-party developers.

Naturally, you should connect the SSD to the first. You can identify them either by the markings on the motherboard or by using the instruction manual for the motherboard or laptop.

Periodically visit the website of your digital media manufacturer or device support resource and check for the latest firmware. Software updates have a positive impact on hardware performance, and this applies not only to solid-state drives.

To summarize, we can say the following: for beginners, Windows 10 is well set up in terms of minimizing unnecessary write operations. There is little point in interfering with its settings, but experienced users can transfer temporary files to the hard drive and deactivate several functions (indexing, hibernation) to extend the life of the SSD while compromising the usability of the computer.

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