Solid state hard drives SSD (Solid State Drive) have long moved from the category of expensive and not very reliable exotics to the niche of the standard drive of a modern laptop or desktop PC. SSDs are produced not only by “major league players” (Sandisk, Transcend, Samsung), but also by many third-tier companies. In the range of capacities of 80–240 GB, you can find any drive to suit your tasks and wallet - the prices can no longer bite. At the same time, laptop manufacturers are in no hurry to equip mid-priced models with solid-state hard drives, installing traditional hard drives there - slow, sensitive to shock and vibration. How to replace a traditional hard drive with an SSD and install Windows 10? Does the system need to be optimized taking into account the specific features of solid-state technology? You have questions, and we have answers!
Installing Windows 10 on SSD
Installing Windows 10 on an SSD requires a number of preliminary settings. Of course, the easiest way would be to place the SSD in a USB pocket and use one of the disk partitioning programs to clone the operating system from the old disk. This would save installed applications and settings. But at the same time, the solid-state drive will operate in a suboptimal mode at a reduced speed, and the wear of memory cells will accelerate.
Using a pocket to deploy a system image on disk is a simple way, but this method has more disadvantages than advantagesAlso, you should not mount an SSD instead of a laptop's optical drive. Interface converters in the converter bays reduce speed and prevent the operating system from recognizing the drive as a solid-state drive. If you need to keep both drives, an SSD drive is installed instead of the standard one, and the old hard drive is installed instead of the optical drive.
If you need to retain access to the old hard drive on your laptop, place it in this “pocket” and install it instead of the optical drive The optimal scenario would be to mount the SSD directly into the computer and install the operating system from a previously created bootable media (flash drive).
Pre-configuring computer settings
Despite the fact that the outdated hard drive interface (PATA) is becoming less and less common on motherboards, almost all modern SATA controllers can work in compatibility mode with it. This mode is enabled by default in the BIOS settings of the computer or laptop motherboard. Operating a solid-state drive in this compatibility mode is fraught with a loss of performance and a reduction in drive life due to suboptimal read/write operations. Therefore, before installing an SSD, you need to switch the disk controller to SATA (AHCI) mode. This can be done using the BIOS settings menu:
- When you turn on your computer, press the DEL or F1 key to enter the BIOS settings.
Press DEL key to enter BIOS settings - Enter the Integrated peripherals section.
Enter the controllers and integrated peripherals section - Find the SATA configuration item, which can take 2-3 values (IDE/AHCI/RAID). Set to AHCI.
Select AHCI operating mode for the SATA controller - Press F10 and confirm your changes.
- Restart your computer.
Change the operating mode of the SATA controller before installing the operating system. The OS kernel settings during the installation process are tied to the operating mode of the disk controller. If you first install the operating system and then change the disk controller operating mode in the BIOS, the computer will not be able to boot and you will have to reinstall the OS or change the disk controller drivers through the disaster recovery console.
Preparing bootable media
Since the volume of the Windows 10 distribution kit has long exceeded the size of standard optical media (DVD), the only alternative is to burn an iso image of the disk to a flash drive. A good dozen utilities have been created for this: Rufus, WinsetupFromUsb, Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, Win32DiskImager. But the most correct option would be to use the system update utility, which will independently download the image you need from the server and write it to a flash drive, making it bootable. To do this, follow these steps:
- Download the Windows 10 Installation Media Creation Tool from the official Microsoft website.
Windows 10 Installation Media Creation Tool will allow you to create bootable media with Windows 10 - Run the utility, read the license agreement and agree to it.
- On the start screen, select “Create installation media...”.
Select Create bootable media from the list of actions - Select the system installation language, its edition (home, professional or educational) and bit depth (32 or 64 bits).
Select the system bit depth, installation language and distribution type - Select Record to USB Drive on the next screen.
Confirm creation of bootable USB drive - From the list of disks, select the one to record to. Make sure that the desired media does not contain important data, as the disc will be completely erased during recording.
At this step, do not connect any other external media to the PC to avoid damaging their data. - The program will download installation files from the Internet and write them to a USB flash drive. This is a lengthy process: depending on the speed of the channel, it can take 1 hour or more. Recording progress will be displayed as a percentage.
When the progress bar reaches 100%, you will have a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10 - When the burning process is complete, you will have bootable media from which you can install Windows 10 on the SSD.
Video: creating bootable media using the RUFUS program
Windows 10 installation process on SSD
Installing Windows 10 on a solid-state drive is no different from installing the system on a regular hard drive, except that it is several times faster thanks to the high speed of the SSD. The Windows 10 installer will automatically recognize your solid-state drive and enable exactly those options and modes that are needed for its smooth operation.
The installation wizard will guide you from beginning to end of system installation Simply connect the bootable drive to the USB port, select boot from a flash drive in the settings and follow the instructions of the operating system installation wizard.
Video: how to install Windows 10 from a flash drive
Preparing for SSD Optimization
After installing Windows 10 on an SSD, you should make sure that the drive and its controller are optimally configured at the level of drivers and ATA interface functions. If these basic functions are not configured correctly, further optimization will not improve the performance of the SSD and may even cause harm.
Activating SATA ACHI mode
If the Windows 10 operating system was not installed from scratch, but was transferred from an old hard drive by cloning the system partition, you should make sure that the disk controller to which your SSD is connected to one of the channels operates in native AHCI mode and is not in compatibility mode. old disks, reducing reliability and performance. To do this, follow these steps:
- Use the WIN+Pause key combination to open the system information window, and from there - “Device Manager”.
Open the Device Manager option which is located on the left side of the screen - Find the “IDE/ATA Controllers” branch and expand it.
Expand the disk controllers section - If an AHCI controller is present in the list of controllers, then the mode of the same name is activated. If such a controller is not there, your system operates in compatibility mode with older disk devices.
The presence of an AHCI controller indicates that the mode of the same name is enabled
Enabling AHCI mode using the operating system is fraught with a complete loss of its functionality: after a reboot, the OS will no longer be able to start.
Enabling the TRIM command
The recording mechanism in solid-state hard drives (SSDs) differs from that in classic hard drives: a memory cell is written to only after an erase operation. And when the SSD tries to write information to a cell that stores data from previously deleted files, it must first perform an erase operation and then a write operation. This halves the speed of writing files and reduces the resource of the disk itself, because the number of write cycles of an SSD is limited.
To prevent this from happening, the ATA command set (low-level disk device management commands) includes the TRIM command, which clears unused cells. In the Windows 10 operating system, the TRIM command is enabled in the Task Scheduler and is executed regularly without user interaction.
But if the system partition was cloned to an SSD from an old hard drive, TRIM may be disabled.
You can check the status of the command and activate it through the command line:
Each SSD manufacturer releases software for their drives that automatically activates TRIM mode, switches the SATA controller to ACHI mode, and displays the actual wear of the drive and its predicted service life. Installing such a program immediately after installing the OS on the SSD will be very useful. Several years ago, the author of the article bought a practically new SanDisk SSD, cloned the system from an old hard drive and began to work in normal mode, without making any optimizations or settings. TRIM was disabled. Having installed a service utility a little over a month later, the author was surprised to discover that during this time the disk had lost almost 4% of its resource. This is the price of operation without the TRIM function activated. After activation, the disk loses a percentage of its resource after about 2 months of operation (quite hard). Therefore, do not neglect the SSD optimization settings.
Setting up Windows 10 for SSD
The capabilities of Windows 10 OS initially include working with solid-state drives. No third party software is needed to make the necessary settings. Some settings actually increase SSD performance, others only have a placebo effect, strengthening the user's faith in them.
Default SSD Settings
During a clean install, the Windows 10 operating system automatically recognizes the solid-state drive and activates the following settings:
- activation of the TRIM function;
- disabling automatic disk defragmentation;
- disabling hibernation.
Defragmentation and optimization of SSD
Traditional hard drives were characterized by fairly high linear read/write speeds, which decreased significantly if the data was fragmented and physically located on different tracks (and even surfaces of the hard drive). Therefore, Windows 95 already included a defragmenter program that overwrote data on the disk so that the files were not broken into parts and the free space was not fragmented. Since after each file deletion/change, “holes” appeared in this defragmented array, reducing speed, the defragmenter program was launched automatically once a week using the system task scheduler.
Starting with Windos 8, the defragmenter program was replaced by a new utility - disk optimizer, which automatically recognizes the media type.
So, for an SSD, the TRIM command is performed as an optimization, and for a regular hard drive, space is defragmented. This allows you to maintain maximum performance of both the SSD and the hard drive if two drives are installed in the system. Defragmenting data on an SSD is useless and even harmful. A solid-state drive provides equally fast access to any cell of its space, and a defragmentation program with numerous write cycles will only reduce the resource of the cells and the disk itself as a whole. Because of this, SSD defragmentation was disabled by default in Windows 7.
Deactivating the paging file
A swap file is a special place on the disk where the operating system stores data from programs running in the background (minimized) from RAM.
This mechanism allows you to organize multitasking mode on computers even with a small amount of RAM.
On the one hand, repeatedly writing data to the same SSD cells (the paging file is created during OS installation and is physically located in the same place on the disk without moving) significantly reduces the service life of the solid-state drive. On the other hand, disabling the page file may make it impossible to run applications at all on systems with insufficient RAM. On a computer with 3–4 GB of RAM and a disabled paging file, the free RAM will run out after opening 15–20 bookmarks with sites in the browser.
- Therefore, it makes sense to disable paging only in configurations with 8 GB of RAM and higher. It's easy to do:
Open the system information window using the WIN+Pause key combination and go to “Advanced system settings”. - Open Advanced System Settings for further settings
Open system performance settings. - Open system performance settings by clicking on the corresponding button
Go to the "Advanced" tab and click "Edit" in the virtual memory control block. - Open the window for changing paging file settings
Uncheck the "Automatically select paging file" option, then select the "No paging file" size option and click "Set." - Restart your computer.
Don't forget to restart your computer after disabling the page file
Disabling hibernation During this process, the entire contents of the RAM are written to a file on the disk, and the computer is completely de-energized. When you turn it on again, the contents of RAM are restored from the hibernation file, as if the computer was in sleep mode. The disk space occupied by the hibernation file is approximately equal in size to the amount of RAM. Like the paging file, the hibernation file is created when the function of the same name is activated and is subsequently only overwritten, which exposes the SSD memory cells to rapid wear.
There is no need to use hibernation on a laptop - electricity consumption in sleep mode is so low that the laptop battery can power it for months. And the system will still wake up from sleep mode faster than from hibernation, even with such a fast drive as an SSD.
For a desktop computer, hibernation is preferable to sleep, because it does not have an autonomous power source. If you disconnect the power cord from your PC in sleep mode, after a while it will turn off and all unsaved data will be lost, and open documents may be damaged.
However, if you still want to disable hibernation mode, the easiest way to do this is using the command line:
System protection (restore checkpoints)
The restore point system is a security mechanism introduced into the Windows OS since its 7th version. When it is enabled, the system monitors the installation of drivers and software, writing change logs to a special folder on the disk. If you installed a faulty hardware driver, a malfunctioning program, or caught a virus, you can “roll back” to the nearest checkpoint, and the OS and set of installed programs will correspond to the state at which the restore point was created.
Naturally, over time, the checkpoints folder begins to take up a significant amount of disk space. Disabling a service will help free up disk space and extend its lifespan. Booting using a rescue disk allows you to return the OS state to the desired checkpoint
The smartest thing to do would be to configure the protection system and allocate a minimum amount of disk space for its needs. This will allow you to save 2-3 checkpoints, which are usually enough to restore the OS in case of serious problems. To configure the protection system, follow the instructions:
- Open the system information window and go to the “System Protection” tab.
Open the System Protection option under System - Select the system drive from the list and click “Configure”.
Select a drive to configure system restore points - Move the disk space reservation slider so that 5–6% of the disk space is allocated for checkpoints. Then click OK.
Set the required amount of disk space for recovery points
Transferring files and folders to other HDDs
Each computer user has many files, access to which does not require super speed, but they take up a lot of space. These are films, music, work documents and photographs. At the same time, the price of high-capacity SSDs (from 256 GB and above) continues to remain quite high. Therefore, an excellent solution when upgrading would be not to get rid of the old hard drive, but to install it as a second drive and transfer user information to it, leaving the SSD for the operating system and programs.
A highly expandable desktop PC allows you to install multiple drives in the case. In case of upgrading a laptop, you can use an adapter pocket that will allow you to install a hard drive instead of an optical drive or install a packageless SSD in M2 or miniPCI format. The standard hard drive remains in its place.
The M2 form factor solid-state drive will allow you not to get rid of the standard laptop hard drive Superfetch and Prefetch services and disk content indexing
Superfetch and Prefetch services significantly speed up the launch of applications in Windows 10 when using any type of disk. Therefore, you shouldn’t disable them, especially since there are no standard tools for this, and editing the system registry can break the device.
But you can safely disable the disk indexing service, since the speed of the SSD during search operations is an order of magnitude higher than the speed of the hard drive. This can be done by disabling the corresponding service using the service manager:
- Launch the “Service Manager”: using the WIN+R key combination, open the command line and enter the command Services.msc.
Launch Service Manager via Command Prompt - In the window that opens, find the Windows search service in the list.
Open indexing service properties - Open the service properties window by right-clicking on it and selecting the “Properties” option. In the window that appears, click “Stop,” and then restart your computer.
Stop the indexing service and restart your computer
Automatic optimization using SSD Mini Tweaker utility
SSD Mini Tweaker is a simple and completely free tool that allows you to turn SSD optimization settings on or off in two clicks. A clear Russian interface and a pop-up hint system make it an indispensable tool for an inexperienced user.
In the SSD Mini Tweaker program, just tick the required functions and click the “Apply changes” button for the settings to take effect Windows 10 is the best operating system to install on a solid-state drive, because it was developed at a time when SSDs went from being an expensive curiosity to the mainstream. A clean installation of this OS will work perfectly on an SSD, even without additional optimization. And if you use the tips described in the article, it will work even better and the disk will last longer.
SSDs are drives with higher operating speeds. We wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of this type of disk in.
No complicated configuration of SSD drives is required. But it is important to know a number of nuances that affect their work. Particular attention must be paid to the Windows 10 operating system, in which a number of changes have been made and many tips for optimizing SSDs are no longer relevant.
Default settings
Let's figure out how Windows 10 optimizes solid-state drives automatically. Let us note right away that the “top ten” no longer uses WinSAT. No additional disk initialization is required. Here's what happens when an SSD is detected:
- defragmentation is turned on;
- the ReadyBoot function is turned off;
- the “ten” uses the Superfetch/Prefetch function, which was disabled in earlier versions of the OS;
- disk optimization occurs;
- TRIM is enabled by default.
We need to understand what aspects of SSD disk configuration are still controversial. Experts focus on file indexing, system protection, record cache, etc. But first, a few words about disabling defragmentation.
SSD defragmentationon Windows 10
The “ten” introduces the principle of not defragmentation, but disk optimization - it cleans disk blocks using the Retrim function.
Many users find this feature completely unnecessary. In earlier versions of the OS it was disabled. But many experts consider it important in order to improve the performance of the SSD.
Here are the key points of automatic SSD optimization:
- defragmentation is possible only when system protection is enabled (connected recovery points, VSS file history);
- the TRIM function does not mark unused disk blocks, but the Retrim command allows you to mark them;
- To optimize SSDs, a different algorithm is used compared to defragmenting HDD hard drives.
In general, you can leave automatic defragmentation. But it’s easy to turn it off: in the optimization parameters (shown in the previous screenshot), select the desired drive and click “Change parameters”. We remove the marker from automatic scheduled optimization.
SSD featuresand their settings
Let's move on to the functionality of solid-state drives. Let's figure out which features can be disabled and which should be left to improve performance.
Many tips for improving the performance of SSDs found on the Internet are copied from manuals relevant for earlier versions of Windows. This is especially true for record caching and the SuperFetch function.
Recommendations are tailored to increase the service life of the SSD. After all, solid-state drives have a limited amount of data written over the entire life of the disk. Disabling some functions allows you to get rid of unnecessary information being recorded. But by increasing the service life, we sacrifice performance, speed, and ease of use. And sometimes serious mistakes happen.
Configuring an SSD under Windows 10 to increase service life is not always advisable. The period of use is measured:
- in the maximum amount of information that can be written to the disk;
- in the number of rewrite cycles.
In the first case, manufacturers provide a guarantee of several hundred terabytes. Over a year of use, the disk records several terabytes of data. Even if we take a hypothetical example with an annual write of 5 TB and a guarantee of 300 TB, we get several decades.
A more plausible picture is provided by the guarantee calculated based on drive rewrite cycles. The value is measured in several thousand cycles - 3, 5, etc. With an average daily write of 12 GB (one cycle) and a resource of, say, 3000 cycles, we will receive a guarantee for eight years of SSD use. Naturally, everything depends on the manufacturer and other characteristics.
Note that it is not worth using the characteristic “Meanwhile between failures” as an indicator of service life. It is usually measured in 1.5 million hours, which is an unrealistic reserve. The fact is that manufacturers write such values for all used disks of the same population and use them for the warranty period.
For example, we bought one disk that lasted 5 years. It was serviceable, but outdated its usefulness and was replaced with a new one. We bought a second, third, fourth disc. And somewhere around the 40th disk, after a million hours of using one SSD population, we can expect it to break during the warranty period.
In general, the specification does not provide any information at all about the service life of a specific drive that we just purchased and installed.
What are we leading to? Moreover, the SSD resources are quite sufficient for many years of work. Tuning a disk while sacrificing performance is often not practical. All the same, sooner or later you will have to buy a new, more modern and high-speed drive.
Swap file
There are two options:
- transferring the paging file to the HDD;
- complete disabling of the function.
In the first case, we will significantly lose in performance. HDDs are slower, and information stored in the swap file will be processed more slowly.
Disabling a file is controversial. For computers with a small amount of RAM, this is not recommended at all. But even owners of more powerful PCs with 8 GB of RAM or higher may encounter problems. Some programs work with errors when the page file is disabled.
In principle, Windows accesses the paging file quite rarely. Especially if the computer does not use a lot of RAM resources. We discussed this issue in detail.
Hibernation
Hibernation mode is used to save battery power and quickly start the system while saving the last actions performed. Hibernation starts after standby mode.
The hiberfil.sys file weighs several gigabytes. Disabling it is only advisable if there is not enough free space on the drive.
It is possible to reduce its volume. In this case, the Quick Start function remains, but information is not saved when the computer is turned on from hibernation mode. If it is not relevant for the user to save data from previous work, the file can be shortened.
More information about hibernation mode, disabling it or reducing the file size is in .
System protection
When system protection is turned on, Windows writes restore points to disk. Some experts and drive manufacturers recommend disabling this feature for SSDs. It is noted that the creation of recovery points is accompanied by the launch of a large number of background processes. Productivity decreases.
Although in most cases, system protective functions are performed when the computer is idle or specific system changes are made. We wrote more about restore points in.
Microsoft and the SSD manufacturer Intel do not recommend disabling the protection system. Indeed, many computer problems and errors that arise are much easier to fix if there are restore points.
Transferring folders and files to HDD
Using an HDD drive to store cache and temporary files will reduce the load on the SSD, but at the same time reduce performance. HDD drives process files much slower.
Again, the question is what to give preference to: the service life of the SSD drive or the speed of operation. Many people choose a neutral option: temporary files are stored on SSD for higher processing speed, and large files are stored on HDD drives. The latter include music, films, photographs, etc.
Superfetch and Prefetch functions
Caching program entries and automatically clearing the cache buffer speeds up frequently used programs. But opinions on these functions when using an SSD are different. Moreover, the information is often contradictory even within the same manufacturer.
Microsoft claims that in Windows 10 the function has undergone changes and is actively used with SSDs. The Samsung manufacturer is confident that Superfetch caching is not relevant for solid-state drives.
You can disable the service as follows. Press Win+R and enter the command services.msc in the line. In the window that opens, look for the function we need and double-click with the left mouse button. In the launch settings, select “Disabled” and click “OK”.
The next question is the cache buffer. It is generally recommended to leave the buffer enabled. Controversy arises over automatic cleanup. In principle, all the information is explained by the operating system itself in the appropriate settings. Decide for yourself whether it is important for you to increase performance (with cache enabled) and data retention (with cleaning disabled).
Go to the properties of the SSD disk and go to the “Policies” tab.
And the last thing is file indexing. There is no point in disabling this feature. First, you will lose the convenient function of searching through the contents of the file system. Secondly, the operation is a read rather than a disk write operation.
Indexing settings are located in the disk properties.
General aspects of using SSD
We talked about private settings for SSD drives, which in most cases are impractical. Next, we note some nuances that are really important for increasing performance and service life.
- Free space.
We have already said this. It is important to allocate about 10-15 percent of free space on the SSD drive.
- AHCI or IDE.
Previously we wrote about. For SSDs, you should definitely choose AHCI. A number of functions that increase the speed and life of the drive are not available when using the IDE.
- SATA port.
The use of ACHI mode is directly related to connecting the SSD to the SATA port. It will not be critical if the user uses a different port, but it is still better to connect the drive to a faster SATA.
- Firmware.
Let's sum it up
Most manual SSD drive settings for Windows 10 are not relevant. Disabling the paging file, hibernation mode, system protection, Superfetch function, moving folders and files does not significantly increase the longevity of the disk. Moreover, such operations can lead to loss of productivity.
It is more important to pay attention to creating free disk space, using ACHI mode and SATA ports, and also try not to miss new firmware updates.
When you purchase and install an SSD drive in order to transfer a copy of the operating system from a standard hard drive, you need to make certain system settings (optimize it). In cases where Windows 10 is installed from scratch, many components are configured automatically.
Therefore, most experts advise installing a “clean” version of the operating system. 
The process of optimizing the OS for a specific SSD makes it possible to extend the life of the device, and even speeds up the operation of the system itself. The recommendations that the reader will learn about below are suitable not only for Windows 10, but also for some earlier versions (7 and 8).
Preparing for optimization
There is no need to rush right away; you must first prepare and check whether all the necessary services are included.
ACHI SATA mode
You can check this indicator through the BIOS settings network. When the hard drive is in ATA mode, it needs to be changed to ACHI.
By the way, there are two nuances here:
- The operating system will not turn on due to a lack of drivers. In this situation, you need to either install them first, or completely reinstall Windows 10.
- On some computers (very old) there is simply no setting of operating modes in the BIOS. If this happens, you will need to update the BIOS (at a minimum, you will have to read the information on the company’s official website and find out if this is possible).
You also need to go to the device manager (this menu opens through the control panel) and open the item with IDE ATA/ATEPI modes. If the user sees a controller named SATA ACHI in the menu, then everything is fine. 
This mode must be enabled in order for the SSD drive to work normally, without interruptions. The special TRIM function in ATA mode is needed so that the operating system is able to transmit information to the drive about blocks and the need to work with them. Such features must be taken into account, because in this case, deleting and formatting data occurs on a different principle than in HDD drives. Using the TRIM command will make the hard drive work more efficiently, and it will also contribute to uniform wear of the cells. Only the newest OS versions (7,8,10) work with this function. If you use the good old XP, you will have to update or buy a disk with this command.
Enabling the TRIM command
To verify that this feature is enabled, you must open a command prompt. After that, enter the command fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify and press “Enter”. If the value next to the command name is set to 0, then it is enabled. If the value is set to 1, then we change the situation using the fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0 command. 
Operating system optimization
This task occurs in 5 stages:
Optimization using the utility
As you can see, all settings for how the operating system works with the disk can be done manually. But there is another way out of this situation - the use of special software (such programs are called tweakers). Experts recommend using the SSD Mini Tweaker utility.
The program allows you to configure the “ten” to work with this type of hard drive. Configuring the device using this utility significantly increases its service life. And thanks to some points, it is even possible to increase the performance of the operating system. 
The benefits of the utility include:
- The entire interface is in clear, Russian (including even hints for all items).
- Performs functions on all new versions of Windows OS.
- There is no need to install the program.
- The utility is completely free.
If the user does not have experience with such things as the registry editor or BIOS, then it is better not to waste time and nerves and use the utility right away.
Optimizing an SSD drive is very important, because despite its high speed and reliability, it has a limited number of rewrite cycles. There are several ways to extend the life of a disk under Windows 10.
To ensure your SSD lasts as long as possible, there are several ways to optimize it. These tips are relevant for the system drive. If you use an SSD to store files, then you won't need most of the optimization options.
Method 1: Disable hibernation
During hibernation (deep sleep mode), the information contained in RAM is converted into a special file on the computer, and then the power is turned off. This mode is useful because the user can return after a while and continue working with the same files and programs. Frequent use of hibernation mode negatively affects the SSD drive, because the use of deep sleep leads to frequent overwriting, which in turn wastes disk rewriting cycles. There is also no need for hibernation because the system on an SSD starts up quite quickly.
Method 2: Setting up temporary storage
The Windows operating system always saves service information in a special folder. This function is necessary, but it also affects the rewrite cycle. If you have a hard drive, then you need to move the directory "Temp" on him.
It is important to understand that due to the transfer of this directory, the system speed may drop slightly.
Method 3: Setting up a swap file
When the computer does not have enough RAM, the system creates a paging file on the disk, which stores all the necessary information, and then gets into RAM. One of the best solutions is to install additional RAM sticks, if possible, because regular rewriting wears out the SSD.
Method 4: Disable defragmentation
Defragmentation is necessary for HDD drives, because it increases their speed by writing the main parts of files next to each other. This way the recording head will not have to spend a long time searching for the right part. But for solid-state drives, defragmentation is useless and even harmful, as it reduces their service life. Windows 10 automatically disables this feature for SSDs.
To make the Windows 10 operating system run faster, it is recommended to install an SSD drive on your computer. They have fairly high read and write speeds, but limited rewrite cycles. Therefore, it is very important to properly configure the Windows 10 SSD so that the drive lasts as long as possible.
Setting up an SSD on Windows 10
Before starting the SSD setup procedure, you must check whether the TRIM option is activated and whether your BIOS supports AHCI SATA mode. For this:
- Restart your computer and enter the BIOS.
- Among the settings, try to find the section called “SATA Operation” and switch it to AHCI operating mode.
Important! Some difficulties may arise. If the BIOS version is old, it may not support AHCI; if this is the case, visit your motherboard manufacturer's website, download the latest BIOS version and update it (instructions on how to do this are often on the manufacturer's website). The second problem is that Windows does not have the necessary drivers and after switching the mode it refuses to boot, in this case, check in advance that you have AHCI drivers installed.
Now you need to activate the TRIM option, which can significantly increase the speed of the SSD drive:
- Right-click on the Windows icon in the bottom panel and select “Command Prompt (Admin).”
- In the console that opens, you need to enter fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify and see:
- If the number 0 is displayed, the option is active
- If 1 - disabled.
- To activate TRIM, write fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0 on the command line.
Disabling unnecessary features
Correctly setting up an SSD under Windows 10 is to activate the necessary options and deactivate unnecessary ones. Now we will tell you which system functions it is advisable to disable when installing an SDD disk.
File indexing
It is needed to make the system work faster, but the point is that the SSD has a sufficient speed of information exchange, and if frequent data rewrites occur, it will quickly fail, therefore:
- Open the This PC panel.
- Right-click on the SSD drive and open “Properties”.
- Remove the checkbox from “Allow files on this drive to be indexed in addition to file properties.”
Search
We are talking about a file search service, because it creates an index of files, it is better to deactivate it:
- Open Control Panel.
- There, go to “System and Security” and “Administration”.
- Open “Services” and find “Windows Search” among them.
- Right-click on it, select “Properties”, find the “Startup type” field, select “Disable”.
Hibernation Mode
If you have an SSD disk, this service makes no sense; it is better to disable it:
- Right click on the Windows icon in the bottom panel and select “Command Prompt (Administrator)”.
- A window will appear where you need to enter the command powercfg -h off and press Enter.
Swap file
Optimizing an SSD drive in Windows 10 involves disabling this function:
- Go to "Control Panel" there select "System and Security" then "System" and "Advanced system settings".
- Go to “Performance” and click “Options”.
- Switch to the “Advanced” tab and click “Change” there.
- Uncheck the topmost box and check the “Without paging file” checkbox.
All that remains is to apply the settings and restart the computer to optimize the operation of the drive.
Defragmentation
Since the SSD is a solid-state drive, it does not need defragmentation:
- Open This PC and go to the properties of the SSD drive.
- There, switch to the “Service” tab and click on the “Optimize” button.
- A window will appear where you should click “Change settings”.
- A new window will open, there you should click the “Select” button and remove the checkbox from the SSD drive.
Transfer your files to HDD
There is no need to store your documents, photos, videos, temporary files, etc. on SSD drives. Transfer them to your hard drive, this will slightly reduce the number of writes to the SSD drive.
SSD Mini Tweaker
In order not to perform a bunch of settings manually, you can use a special utility, thanks to which you can optimize Windows 10 for SSD in a few clicks:
- Download and run SSD Mini Tweaker.
- In the program window, check all the boxes and click “Apply changes”.
Conclusion
Now you know how to set up an SSD for Windows 10. All of the above tips should help your SSD last as long as possible.
