How to install the system on a Samsung ssd drive. How to change a hard drive to an SSD. Full analysis. Superfetch and Prefetch, disk content indexing, record caching and record cache buffer flushing

Solid state drives are triumphantly marching around the world. Flash-based drives have many advantages, and now they have the added availability of large drives with capacities up to 1 TB. In addition, devices of the middle and highest categories are durable, as evidenced by the large guarantee provided by the manufacturers. And, it would seem, all that remains is to buy a module, install and transfer the OS. However, not everything is as simple as we would like. Optimal performance and long service life can only be achieved with the correct settings. In the first part of the article we talk about the parameters of the most popular types of solid-state drives.

The type of nonvolatile memory device is determined by the protocol that provides data transfer. At first glance, the difference may be almost invisible. Using the conventional AHCI mechanism, the data transfer speed reaches 550 MB / s, and the new NVMe specification - up to 4000, with faster response and improved parallel access. Drives supporting these protocols are available in various form factors. For AHCI, this is a traditional 2.5-inch form factor case with a SATA connector and an M.2 module with the so-called B key. For NVMe, the most popular form factor is M.2 with an M key.

In the second part of the article we will talk about the capabilities of solid-state drives. To do this, we created a RAID 0 array of two high-speed media. However, before you try to set records, it is worth trying to achieve optimal performance on a regular solid-state drive.

Optimal use of M.2 SSDs

M.2 format drives, being high-speed and compact (22x80 mm), are ideal for mobile computers. True, M.2 modules do not fit into all computers; in addition, NVMe and AHCI are two different protocols. If you consistently follow the recommendations, you will quickly find a drive that is optimal for your PC.

In the user manual or in the technical specifications on the website of the desktop motherboard manufacturer, you will find information about the possibility and conditions for installing an M.2 form factor drive.

The M.2 slot is provided on boards for processors of the Haswell/Broadwell generation (LGA 1150 socket) and higher, but, as a rule, data transfer on older boards is carried out only via two PCIe 2.0 lanes, which is why the speed cannot exceed one gigabytes per second. Additionally, it's common to find that UEFI doesn't support NVMe devices or doesn't have drivers for them, so you'll likely need to purchase an AHCI M.2 module or a regular SATA drive.

Starting with Skylake, the motherboard chipset supports four PCIe 3.0 lanes, which together provide speeds of up to 4 GB/s. If Windows 10 is installed on the computer, nothing prevents you from placing an M.2 module with NVMe support. The installer and Windows 7 and 8 OS do not include USB drivers for the Skylake platform or for NVMe drives, making installation doubly difficult. Before installing the module, pay attention to which interfaces the M.2 slot shares bandwidth resources with: SATA connectors may not be available when connecting an M.2 AHCI drive, and an M.2 NVMe drive may use the bandwidth of one of the PCIe slots. Check the user manual and, if necessary, connect other drives or video cards to the free slots.

For a laptop, determining compatibility with an M.2 drive and its protocol can be more difficult, since manufacturers do not publish such data. Therefore, you often have to scour the Internet, entering the computer marking and “M.2” into the search. If you find a laptop of the same line equipped with an M.2 drive, this can be considered a sign of compatibility. But still, the M.2 module is worth buying only after you disassemble the laptop and examine the M.2 slot. Using it, you can determine the length of a suitable module (42, 60, 80 or 110 mm - form factors are designated “M.2 2242”, “M.2 2260”, etc.). If in doubt, get an M.2 AHCI module for your laptop. Such memory can be identified by the fact that it is also available in a 2.5-inch form factor with SATA, for example, Samsung 850 Evo, Crucial MX300 or SanDisk X400.

OS optimization for NVMe

For new drives that run on NVMe, in any case, you need an appropriate driver. Windows 10 has it by default, so there should be no problems installing and configuring the SSD. For the best boot speed and maximum performance, you need to install Windows 10 in pure UEFI mode. From the boot menu, select installation media in UEFI mode (instead of "USB" or "SATA"). When creating logical partitions for the system drive, ensure that the installer creates a GUID partition table. So in the UEFI Boot settings, the Fast Boot or Ultra Boot options will be available, allowing you to reduce the startup time to the welcome screen to a few seconds.

NVMe drives work with Windows 10 drivers, but are only truly overclocked with drivers from their manufacturer, so it is better to choose such a drive from a large manufacturer with good software support (Samsung, Intel, Toshiba, OCZ) and install their latest drivers. For Windows 7 and 8, install drivers from the manufacturer during reinstallation.

SSDs and motherboards with SATA 3 Gb/s ports

A SATA SSD can significantly speed up a PC, even if it only has legacy SATA 3 Gb/s ports. You only need to consider the following points:

> Speeds over 300 MB/s will not reach any drive connected via SATA 3 Gb/s. Newer SATA 6Gbps drives are backwards compatible with older ports, but speeds will be limited to 3Gbps minus overhead.

> In BIOS Setup you need to activate AHCI mode. IDE mode, which is often preinstalled on older computers, takes away a lot of performance from the solid-state drive. During system startup, open BIOS Setup and look for the desired parameter, for example, in the “Peripherals...SATA Controller” section.

> Very old SSDs(e.g. Intel X25-E and earlier, Samsung before 470) do not support the TRIM command, so the drive cannot physically remove unnecessary data, which results in significant performance loss as a result of heavy use. To bring such a drive back to life, you can create a backup copy of the data, then use a Linux Live distribution to roll it back to factory settings and transfer the backup back.

Transition to NVMe storage

If you want to migrate your Windows 7 or 8 system to a new computer with an NVMe drive, first connect the old hard drive as a SATA system drive to the new computer, boot from it and install the missing drivers (for the chipset, network adapters, USB controllers, etc. .). If Windows asks you to reactivate, don't do it yet.

First, insert the NVMe drive and install drivers for it from the manufacturer's website. Then transfer your operating system to the NVMe drive using the manufacturer's specific transfer tools or imaging software. Carefully check the partition alignment relative to the block sizes (see screenshot on the left) to ensure maximum drive performance and lifespan. And only when the computer starts without problems from the NVMe drive, activate Windows.

Increasing speed

Once you move Windows to an SSD, everything should run faster unless you've been using the system for a long time or have too many programs installed. If the system performance does not increase even on a solid-state drive, it is possible that some programs have entered startup and system services and are slowing down the operation of the OS.

To clear them, open the System Configuration application in Windows. On the “Services” tab, activate the “Do not display Microsoft services” option, then uncheck the checkboxes of all services that are not related to your antivirus or devices without which you cannot work. Do the same on the “Startup” tab. In Windows 10, startup redirects to the task manager, where programs are disabled from the right-click context menu.

Owners of SATA drives, especially not new ones, are recommended to check the status of the device using the manufacturer's tools (for example, Samsung Magician, Crucial Storage Executive, Intel SSD Toolbox) or using the Tool SSD Life utility. The programs not only evaluate the condition of the disk, but also predict the time of its failure, displaying the SMART value on the screen. Particularly important is the attribute called Reallocated Sector Count (or similar), which reflects the number of reassignment operations of sectors containing an error.

The results are calculated taking into account increasing wear on a scale from a maximum value (100 or 255) to a threshold (for example, 10 or 0) at which the drive stops working. But these are only predictions and theory, since in reality even drives whose SMART values ​​were within normal limits can unexpectedly fail, and vice versa - drives with critical values ​​(more than 20-30% wear compared to the original values) can work for a very long time.

However, you should be aware of the possibility of disk failure and make regular backups. It is also useful to conduct testing (for example, using AS SSD Benchmark) and compare the results with data from the same drives by searching for reviews on the Internet: if your drive turns out to be significantly slower or the system as a whole is unstable, the drive may need to be replaced.

Chasing speed records

A RAID 0 array of two drives works faster than an NVMe SSD, when the system writes and reads information from two drives simultaneously. If you configure your hardware RAID arrays in the BIOS/UEFI and go through the Windows setup, you can get the same data transfer speeds as an entry-level NVMe drive on the two available SATA drives. We want to combine two high-speed NVMe drives in this way and break speed records.

Creating a RAID array

The first barrier in the pursuit of a RAID array of NVMe drives is hardware. The motherboard should have two NVMe slots, as well as the ability to combine them using the RAID function of the Intel chipset. In addition, the system should also boot after this procedure. In principle, top-end motherboards with Intel Z170 chipsets and the latest Z270 (for Kaby Lake processors) can cope with this task.

We installed two Samsung 960 Pro SSDs on the Gigabyte Z270X Gaming 7 motherboard. Next we needed to configure hardware RAID in UEFI. In an early version of the motherboard firmware, I also had to perform a small task along the way: I had to first activate the RAID mode of the SATA controller, and only then in the menu item “Peripheral | EZ Raid" we were able to combine both NVMe drives into a RAID 0 array, which received twice the capacity of a single drive.

The RAID array was ready in a few clicks. To install Windows 10, we copied the Intel Rapid Storage program from the disk included with the motherboard to a USB flash drive. When we needed to select a system drive during installation, we loaded the driver by clicking the appropriate button, after which the array associated with the Intel controller was identified as the destination drive.

During the UEFI installation process we launched, the system automatically boots from a RAID array, which is used even in the current operating mode as a regular drive. But because the operating system now only communicates with the Intel RAID controller and not directly with the drives, we weren't able to use Samsung's NVMe driver to allow the 960 Pro's full potential to shine, and that was a bit of a drag. speed.

RAID 0: benefits and benchmarks

With the correct UEFI settings, our test system boots in less than ten seconds. The complete installation of LibreOffice, along with writing 7000 files, took 21 seconds. The benchmarks (see above) reflect in numbers the performance of the RAID array, as well as its limit. The limit is because instead of a theoretical 100% increase in speed compared to a separate disk, we only got a 20% increase in read speed and a 32% increase in write speed.

We were able to achieve greater speed by using a method that was rather useless in practice: using an adapter, we connected a second solid-state drive to the PCIe slot for video cards, then booted from the third SATA SSD and combined both NVMe media with Samsung drivers in Windows into one software

RAID array. Such an array (however, it is not suitable for use as a disk for booting a system) outperformed a separate drive by 43% in reading and as much as 82% in writing.

The results of a simple but fairly fast ATTO Disk Benchmark test showed that the speed of even this combination will not exceed 4 GB/s. This is the maximum bandwidth of the DMI bus connecting the processor and the chipset. Intel must make urgent decisions to restructure the platform so that it can support the enormous data transfer speeds of NVMe-compatible drives.

A year ago, Samsung released the first M.2 SSDs with NVMe support to end users - the 950 Pro model. The next device - 960 Pro - has significantly increased speed compared to the first. In terms of price per gigabyte, the 960 Evo drive is interesting, as it is almost on par with the Pro model.

PHOTO: CHIP Studios; manufacturing companies

Tags RAID arrays

Samsung 850 Evo series drives are rated by experts as combining low prices with extremely impressive performance. In terms of operating speed, the corresponding devices are comparable to many premium drive models. What are the main technological advantages of these solutions? How do users rate their effectiveness?

General information about the device

Samsung 850 Evo is a series of SSD drives. These devices are characterized by large capacity and a high level of reliability. They are in demand when solving problems related to providing high-speed data transfer.

Samsung 850 Evo devices are manufactured using 3D V-VAND architecture, which is characterized by the use of cylindrical cells designed to eliminate interference that occurs when device components interact. Ensuring a large capacity of devices is achieved by placing elements in several layers. At the same time, the reliability of file storage, as well as the speed of their transfer, are not reduced.

Other notable features of the devices in this series include the ability to switch to RAPID mode, in which the drive starts operating at an even higher speed. This is achieved, in particular, due to the fact that the device begins to use the available amount of PC RAM as a cache.

The Samsung 850 Evo device operates using effective energy-saving technologies. According to experts, in a number of modes the device is capable of consuming tens of times less electricity compared to outdated storage models.

The drives in this series implement a number of high-tech solutions in the field of file security. These include AES encryption and dynamic thermal protection.

It can be noted that the introduction of Samsung 850 Evo series devices to the market was preceded by the successful work of the Korean corporation in creating and ensuring successful sales of SSD 830 and 840 Pro series devices, which were classified by experts as the best SSD devices in the upper price segment. The company did not forget about products for the mass segment: thus, the 840 and 840 EVO devices were introduced to the market.

Subsequently, Samsung continued its developments in the field of production of multilayer crystals, and one of the results of their practical implementation was the release of 32-layer drives of the 850 Evo line. This device was launched in the mass segment. On the premium side, Samsung presented the 850 Pro product, characterized by an exceptionally high combination of performance and reliability.

Storage as a product of technological modernization

What features, in turn, characterize the 850 Evo series drives?

We noted above that these devices implement Samsung’s best developments from previous products. Thus, those main components that were installed in the 840 series products - TLC memory, a branded controller, as well as the TurboWrite solution, were duplicated in the new series of devices. In addition, a number of updates were also implemented in it - in particular, instead of the proprietary MEX controller, the manufacturer installed an improved MGX hardware component.

TurboWrite technology has also received certain additions in the Samsung 850 Evo series.

3D V-VAND technology

Probably the most notable component of the new series of drives is three-dimensional memory, which is a combination of 3D NAND and TLC NAND solutions. The new technology made it possible to eliminate the shortcomings that characterize the use of the two previous ones separately.

The use of the 3D V-NAND concept allowed Samsung to implement a 40 nm process technology in the new product while maintaining the ability to use crystals with an area smaller than, in particular, when using conventional MLC NAND technology, which is produced using a 16 nm process technology. In turn, 40 nm cells are characterized by greater resistance to wear, as well as stable operation.

Another advantage of the corresponding updated technology used by the Samsung 850 Evo SSD drive is that it ensures higher speed of the device by reducing the duration of read and write operations. Thanks to recording not 2, but 3 bits of data into one separate memory cell, the capacity of the crystals used in the devices in this series can reach 128 Gbit. Moreover, these crystals have an area that is approximately 2 times smaller than the corresponding TLC NAND components in a conventional modification with a similar capacity, which are produced using a 19 nm process technology.

It may be noted that the manufacturer provides a 5-year warranty on the devices. This is one of the most competitive indicators on the market.

It will be useful to consider what the corresponding devices look like.

Appearance of drives

Regardless of the capacity of the Samsung 850 Evo - 250GB or 1 TB, all devices in the line look almost the same. On the outside, they have a compact, 7 mm thick, black aluminum body. On the reverse side there is a label, from the contents of which you can find out the exact name of the drive model, as well as its serial number.

If you open the case cover, you will find that, depending on the specific volume of the disk, the contents may vary. So, for example, in a model with a capacity of 250 GB, a printed circuit board with dimensions smaller than that of the 500 GB version is installed. But in both cases, the size of the corresponding hardware component is small, that is, we can say that the device body could be even thinner, there are unfilled spaces in it.

Installing the drive on a PC

How is the Samsung 850 Evo drive installed in a PC? Installing the device is very simple. Most cases for modern PCs have slots for installing disks of the size that the 850 Evo device has - 2.5 inches. It is necessary to position the drive accordingly, and then connect 2 cables to it - power and data transfer.

After this, you need to switch the PC controller to AHCI mode. To do this, however, you may need to update the BIOS version using firmware from the official website of the PC motherboard manufacturer. The drive is recognized in the system without problems. If necessary, you can use branded programs to configure the system and monitor disk performance.

Storage resources

Using the Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD, you can write about 82 GB of files to it per day. A disk with a capacity of 500 GB has a similar resource. The younger modifications of the devices have a slightly smaller, but nevertheless impressive resource - 120, 250 GB. They can record about 42 GB of information per day.

Thus, the series of SSD drives under consideration is designed for a long service life. Models with even the smallest capacity in the Samsung 850 Evo line - 120 GB or 250 GB - have a resource comparable to that which characterizes many premium models.

Operation speed

The speed of operation of the devices in this series also impresses experts. At the same time, the indicators characterizing the junior model of the 850 Evo line, as shown by tests conducted by experts, are not too inferior to those of the premium model, 850 Pro.

In many ways, good speed indicators are achieved through the use of TurboWrite technology, as well as the use of a fast cache. Which in the Samsung 850 Evo 250GB model is 3 GB, in the 500 GB modification it is 6 GB, and in a disk with a capacity of 1 TB the cache size is 12 GB.

The capabilities of the drives under consideration in terms of providing data writing speed again allow us to talk about their competitiveness in relation to premium products.

Drive testing: read and write speed

Let us now study the practical results of experts studying the capabilities of the drives in the series under consideration. As for the reading mode, the high technologies implemented in the corresponding devices allow us to achieve the highest performance here.

But regarding recording, test results may vary depending on the specific modification of the device. For example, a 500 GB drive has performance comparable to that of the older model. In this sense, when choosing a Samsung 850 Pro or 850 Evo, the user receives a clear advantage in price if he prefers the second model, despite the fact that in terms of speed it is practically not inferior to the older modification.

In turn, the model in the 250 GB version is significantly inferior to the more capacious version in terms of sequential write speed. This is largely due to the relatively small cache size that the corresponding drive modification has - its size is 3 GB. Which, at the same time, is sufficient to solve a large number of user problems in practice.

Drive testing: random read speed

Another interesting indicator of the performance of devices from the Samsung 850 Evo line is the random read speed test of drives. Thanks to the updated MGX controller, the devices have significantly improved performance compared to previous modifications, as experts note.

At the same time, the 500 GB drive model showed especially good results. Its indicators allow it to be characterized as actually the leading product in the segment in the context of considering performance in the corresponding mode.

Drive testing: random write speed

What is the device performance in random read speed mode?

As tests conducted by experts show, everything is in order here too. However, as the queue depth increases, the performance of devices in the 850 Evo line decreases. But, even despite this feature, the devices can be characterized as extremely competitive in the corresponding mode of use.

Testing drives: copying files

One of the most revealing criteria for assessing the performance of a drive is the file copying speed achieved when using a particular device. Here, the performance of the devices in the modification under consideration is, again, very decent. Especially if we talk about modifying a disk with a capacity of 500 GB.

In turn, the performance of the 250 GB modification is somewhat more modest. But nevertheless, this contributes to a high assessment of the competitiveness of the device when used in the appropriate mode, which generally reflects the typical user load on the drive.

In some modes of working with files, the difference between device modifications of 200 and 500 GB is completely insignificant. Therefore, in practice, the user may not notice it at all.

In general, performance tests of devices in the 850 Evo line from Samsung suggest that the Korean brand has ensured the presence on the market of a largely unique product: having, on the one hand, a relatively low price, on the other, technological advantages that make it comparable in functions and productivity with premium solutions.

According to experts, Samsung was able to implement this approach through targeted and competent work to consistently improve the developments of past years, as well as supplement them with current innovations that make the devices even more competitive.

Solid-state drives are becoming more capacious and cheaper, and the advantages of noiselessness, resistance to mechanical damage and, of course, high speed are forcing more and more people to think about switching - at least partially - to SSDs. the site tested an advanced device, Samsung SSD 850 Evo with three-dimensional V-NAND memory with a capacity of 1 TB.

Although the Evo line is not positioned as a flagship product (this role was left to the 850 Pro), it looks the most interesting for the mass consumer due to its capabilities and friendlier price.

Appearance and design

The Samsung SSD 850 Evo solid state drive is packaged in a plastic shell, which also serves as a package organizer. The latter does not offer anything unusual: a warranty card, a user manual, a disk with a digital version of the instructions for use and service applications.

The drive body is aluminum, on the top there is a company logo, and on the bottom there is a sticker with service information and model information. At the end there is a standard SATA connector (there are modifications for M.2 and mSATA).

The weight of the Samsung SSD 850 Evo was 55 g, thickness - 7 mm, that is, it can be installed in almost any device where replacement drives are provided (consoles, laptops, system units). The kit does not include mounts for installing an SSD into a larger slot, which is typical for the manufacturer.

Peculiarities

The SSD series uses three-bit 3D TLC V-NAND memory. The volumetric structure with the vertical shape of the cells made it possible to eliminate their influence on each other. In addition, they are arranged in 48 layers (or 32 layers in earlier revisions), which ensured an increase in capacity despite the large manufacturing process (40 nm versus 16 nm typical for planar memory). The latter feature in this case became a strength, since such cells are thicker and, therefore, will last longer: the time between failures (MTBF) is 1.5 million hours, and the guaranteed recording capacity is 150 TB.

Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB (old revision) and 1 TB (new revision)

Samsung SSD 850 Evo supports S.M.A.R.T., TRIM and Garbage Collection. There is also a Device Sleep mode to reduce power consumption in simple and AES 256 hardware encryption, compatible with TCG/Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 standards.

For Samsung SSD 850 Evo, linear read and write speeds of up to 540 and 520 MB/s are stated, respectively. Peak speeds are indicated taking into account proprietary TurboWrite technology, which actually uses a fast pseudo-SLC cache, its volume is 12 GB in the 1 TB model.

Tests

Measurements in AS SSD Benchmark demonstrated speeds close to the declared ones in sequential read and write mode, as well as good results in random reading and writing of 4 KB blocks. CrystalDiskMark shows comparable results.

The measurements in Anvil's Storage Utilities and the branded Samsung Magician were also encouraging:

An SSD with RAPID mode active, which uses the computer's free RAM, is impressive:

The phenomenal acceleration, however, is noticeable only in benchmarks; in practice, the gain is 5-10%, for example, during OS loading. But it’s still nice, because faster is not slower.

All of the above measurements showed an almost empty drive, but even after it was filled, the tests produced similar numbers:

The Samsung SSD 850 Evo demonstrates some of the best performance among SSDs in the mass consumer segment, not only in synthetics, but also in real life, delivering excellent speed in launching games and applications, loading the OS, copying and archiving files.

Model range

Solid-state drives are almost silent, fast compared to HDDs, and less susceptible to mechanical damage, but the cost of each gigabyte is much higher. Therefore, the choice of SSD should be taken seriously. The Samsung SSD 850 Evo line is represented by several models, the cost of devices varies in different stores, sometimes the difference is significant (prices for SATA, mSATA and M.2 are approximately the same):

• 250 GB - 2600-3500 UAH
• 500 GB - 4500-5300 UAH
• 1 TB - 8000-12 000 UAH
• 2 TB - 15,000-21,500 UAH
• 4 TB - 35,000-44,000 UAH

The first two options are suitable for most users who do not want to give up cheap HDD memory for storing files; the 1 TB version is the optimal choice as the only drive, and the 2 and 4 TB models (only SATA versions are available) will be needed by those who wants to use an SSD for all tasks, including storing an extensive home collection of videos and photos.

The lineup also includes a 120 GB version, but in 2017 such a modification looks outdated and the site cannot recommend it for purchase. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to find this option, and the cost is practically no different from 250 GB.

Conclusions

Samsung is increasingly gaining a foothold in the storage drive market, facilitated by its own production, engineering innovations and, as a result, a flexible pricing policy. If the flagship 850 Pro line is expensive and is an uncompromising product, more focused on professional tasks, the low-end line looks interesting for home computers, laptops, consoles and other devices where you want to get a minimum of noise and increase speed.

Samsung SSD 850 Evo with a capacity of 1 TB showed decent efficiency in testing, the supported capabilities cover all user needs, and TurboWrite technology only increases the attractiveness of the device. Plus, you can brag to your friends that the SSD uses “3D memory.”

The theoretical durability and overall benefits of SSDs make the Samsung SSD 850 Evo one of the most attractive SSDs on the market, and the availability of large capacities allows it to satisfy the needs of even demanding users. We must take it.

Let's talk about how to set up an SSD for Windows 10. Let's start simply: in most cases, there is no need for any configuration and optimization of SSDs for the new OS. Moreover, according to Microsoft support staff, independent optimization attempts can harm both the operation of the system and the disk itself. Just in case, for those who accidentally came in: .

However, some nuances should still be taken into account, and at the same time we should clarify things related to how SSD drives work in Windows 10; we’ll talk about them. The last section of the article also contains more general (but useful) information related to the operation of solid-state drives at the hardware level and applicable to other versions of the OS.

Many have noticed that by default automatic optimization (in previous versions of the OS - defragmentation) is enabled for SSDs in Windows 10 and some rushed to disable it, others to study what was happening during the process.

In general terms, Windows 10 does not defragment the SSD, but optimizes it by clearing blocks using TRIM (or rather, Retrim), which is not harmful, and even useful for SSDs. Just in case, .

Some have written lengthy articles on how SSD optimization works in Windows 10. I will quote part of such an article (only the most important parts to understand) from Scott Hanselman:

I dug deeper and spoke with the team of developers working on the storage implementation in Windows, and this post is written exactly in accordance with what they answered the question.

Drive Optimization (in Windows 10) defragments the SSD once a month if Volume Shadow Copy (System Protection) is enabled. This is due to the impact of SSD fragmentation on performance. There is a misconception here that fragmentation is not an issue for SSDs - if the SSD becomes highly fragmented, you can reach maximum fragmentation where the metadata cannot represent any more file fragments, causing errors when attempting to write or increase file size. In addition, a larger number of file fragments means that more metadata needs to be processed to read/write a file, which leads to performance losses.

As for Retrim, this command runs on a schedule and is required due to the way the TRIM command is executed on file systems. The command execution occurs asynchronously on the file system. When a file is deleted or space is otherwise freed, the file system queues a request for TRIM. Due to peak load restrictions, this queue may reach its maximum number of TRIM requests, causing subsequent ones to be ignored. In the future, Windows drive optimization automatically performs Retrim to clean up blocks.

To sum it up:

• Defragmentation is performed only if system protection is enabled (restore points, file history using VSS).
• Disk optimization is used to mark unused blocks on the SSD that were not marked when TRIM was running.
• Defragmentation for SSDs may be necessary and is automatically applied if necessary. At the same time (this is from another source) a different defragmentation algorithm is used for solid-state drives compared to HDDs.

However, if you want, you can.

What functions to disable for SSD and is it necessary?

Anyone who has wondered about setting up an SSD for Windows has come across advice related to disabling SuperFetch and Prefetch, disabling the page file or moving it to another drive, disabling system protection, hibernation and indexing of disk contents, moving folders, temporary files and other things to other drives , disabling disk write caching.

Some of these tips came from Windows XP and 7 and are not applicable to Windows 10 and Windows 8 and to new SSDs (disabling SuperFetch, write caching). Most of these tips can actually reduce the amount of data written to the disk (and SSDs have a limit on the total amount of data written over their entire service life), which in theory leads to an extension of its service life. But: through loss of productivity, convenience when working with the system, and in some cases, to failures.

Here I note that despite the fact that the service life of an SSD is considered shorter than that of an HDD, it is highly likely that an average-priced solid-state drive purchased today with normal use (games, work, Internet) in a modern OS and with reserve capacity (to avoid loss performance and service life extension, it is worth keeping 10-15 percent of the space on the SSD free, and this is one of the tips that is relevant and correct) will last longer than you need (that is, it will eventually be replaced with a more modern and capacious one). The screenshot below shows my SSD, it has been used for a year. Pay attention to the column “Total recorded”, the guarantee is 300 Tb.

And now, point by point, about various ways to optimize the operation of SSDs in Windows 10 and the advisability of using them. Let me note again: these settings may only slightly increase service life, but will not improve performance.

Note: I will not consider such an optimization method as installing programs on the HDD if there is an SSD, since then it is not clear why the solid-state drive was purchased in the first place - is it not for the quick launch and operation of these programs?

Disabling the page file

The most common advice is to disable the Windows page file (virtual memory) or move it to another drive. The second option will cause a drop in performance, since a slow HDD will be used instead of a fast SSD and RAM.

The first option (disabling the paging file) is very controversial. Indeed, computers with 8 or more GB of RAM can work with the page file disabled in many tasks (but some programs may not start or detect failures during operation, for example, from Adobe products), thereby preserving the reserve of the solid-state drive (fewer write operations occur ).

At the same time, you need to take into account that in Windows the page file is used in such a way that it is accessed as little as possible, depending on the size of the available RAM. According to official Microsoft information, the read-to-write ratio for the page file during normal use is 40:1, i.e. no significant number of writes occur.

It’s worth adding here that SSD manufacturers such as Intel and Samsung recommend leaving the page file enabled. And one more note: some tests (from two years ago, actually) show that disabling the page file for underperforming cheap SSDs can lead to improved performance. See if you suddenly decide to try.

Disabling hibernation

The next possible setting is to disable hibernation, which is also used for the fast startup feature of Windows 10. The hiberfil.sys file, written to disk when the computer or laptop is turned off (or put into hibernation mode) and used for subsequent quick startup, takes up several gigabytes of storage space (approximately equal to the occupied amount of RAM on the computer).

For laptops, disabling hibernation, especially if it is used (for example, it automatically turns on some time after closing the laptop lid) may be impractical and lead to inconvenience (having to turn the laptop off and on) and reduced battery life (fast startup and hibernation save battery power). compared to normal inclusion).

System protection

Restore points automatically created by Windows 10, as well as File History, are, of course, written to disk when the corresponding function is enabled. In the case of SSDs, some recommend disabling system protection.

Among some is Samsung, which recommends doing this both in its Samsung Magician utility and in the official SSD manual. It is stated that backup can cause a large number of background processes to run and reduce performance, although in fact, system protection only works when changes are made to the system and while the computer is idle.

Intel does not recommend this for its SSDs. Just like Microsoft does not recommend turning off system protection. And I wouldn't: a significant number of readers of this site could fix their computer problems many times faster if they had Windows 10 protection turned on.

Read more about enabling, disabling and checking the status of system protection in the article.

Transferring files and folders to other HDDs

Another proposed option for optimizing the operation of an SSD is to transfer user folders and files, temporary files and other components to a regular hard drive. As in previous cases, this may reduce the amount of data written, while reducing performance (when moving temporary file and cache storage locations) or usability (for example, when creating photo thumbnails from user folders transferred to the HDD).

However, if you have a separate capacious HDD in the system, it may make sense to store really large media files (movies, music, some resources, archives) that do not require frequent access on it, thereby freeing up space on the SSD and extending the lifespan services.

Superfetch and Prefetch, disk content indexing, record caching and record cache buffer flushing

There are some ambiguities with these functions; different manufacturers give different recommendations, which I think should be read on the official websites.

According to Microsoft, Superfetch and Prefetch are also successfully used for SSDs, the functions themselves have undergone changes and work differently in Windows 10 (and Windows 8) when using SSDs. But Samsung believes that this function is not used by SSD drives. Cm. .

Regarding the write cache buffer in general, the recommendations boil down to “leave it on,” but on clearing the cache buffer they vary. Even within the same manufacturer: in Samsung Magician it is recommended to disable the write cache buffer, and on their official website it is said about this that it is recommended to keep it enabled.

Well, as for indexing the contents of disks and the search service, I don’t even know what to write. Search in Windows is a very effective and useful thing to work with, however, even in Windows 10, where the search button is visible, almost no one uses it, out of habit, looking for the necessary items in the Start menu and multi-level folders. In the context of SSD optimization, disabling indexing of disk contents is not particularly effective - it is more of a read operation than a write operation.

General principles for optimizing SSD operation in Windows

Up to this point, we've mostly talked about the relative uselessness of manual SSD settings in Windows 10. However, there are some nuances that apply equally to all brands of SSDs and OS versions:

I guess that's all for now. The general result of the article: in general, you don’t need to do anything with a solid-state drive in Windows 10 unless there is a clear need for it. If you have just purchased an SSD, then you may find the instructions interesting and useful. However, in this case, in my opinion, a clean installation of the system would be more appropriate.

I'll show you how to change a HDD hard drive to a high-speed SSD drive. I bought a 250 GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD. and installed it on my laptop. Then I installed Windows and all programs on the new SSD drive.

I bought my SSD drive Samsung 850 SSD EVO 120 GB SATA III on AliExpress . At first I wanted to order this Samsung 750 SSD EVO 120 GB SATA III (it is 120 GB and cheaper), but in the end I ordered 250 GB, although I could have done with 120 GB. The Samsung 850 EVO SSD arrived after about 12 days (the fastest product that came from AliExpress).

The parcel is well packed and sealed with polystyrene foam. Inside the box is plastic, and in it is an SSD drive.

Here are the specifications of this SSD drive. My reading speed tests, notes at the bottom of the page.

1. Copy all the information you need from your disk

If you, like me, have only one hard drive space in your laptop, then first copy all the information from your hard drive to your external drive or to another computer. Or buy . So that you can then connect your removed HDD drive via USB and download everything you need from it to your new SSD drive.

Here is a visual video of this adapter.

2. Remove the hard drive and install the SSD

Turn off the laptop, unplug the laptop from all wires, turn it over and remove the laptop battery. Now on the back cover of the laptop, find the inscription HDD - this is the place where your hard drive is installed. On my Samsung NP-R560 laptop it is on the bottom left. The hard drive is closed with a cover with two screws.

We unscrew these two screws securing the laptop hard drive.

Remove the cover covering the hard drive. There should be arrows on it showing in which direction you need to pull to move the cover.

Here is the hard drive of my laptop. It has an aluminum lid to help dissipate heat and has a pull tab to make it easier to remove. Simply grab this tab and pull it to the left to disconnect the hard drive from the connector.

Done, the hard drive is disconnected from the laptop and connectors. We lift it and put it aside.

This is what a laptop looks like without a disk.

Now insert the SSD disk in place of the HDD disk.

Carefully insert it in place of the old HDD drive. I also installed an aluminum plate from the old HDD on the new SSD.

Close the hard drive cover.

Tighten the screws of the lid.

Ready. Now we turn the laptop over, insert all the wires into it, put the battery back and turn on the laptop.

3. Install Windows on the new SSD

There is nothing on the new SSD drive and there is no OS (Windows) either, so now you need to install Windows on it. You will receive this error when you try to boot from a new SSD drive that does not yet have a Windows operating system.

Partition table invalid or corrupted. Press any key to continue…

You need to insert your bootable USB flash drive and boot from it.

If you don’t have a bootable USB flash drive yet, it’s time to make one.

Here is a video on how to configure the BIOS to install Windows from a bootable USB flash drive.

Now that we have a bootable USB flash drive and boot from it, we install Windows on the new SSD. We select our SSD, it will be marked as “Unallocated space on disk 0” and click “Next” and install Windows.

The copying of Windows files will begin, then preparation for installation, installation of components, installation of updates, completion. The computer will restart several times. After the first reboot, you can remove the bootable USB flash drive.

If you have never installed Windows via BIOS, then you will find a video on this topic.

After installing Windows on a new SSD drive, change the boot priority in the BIOS so that the Windows bootloader is first looked for on the SSD drive. Although if everything loads and works, then you don’t have to change anything. I'll go to BIOS, Boot - Boot Device priority.

And using the F5 or F6 key I will move the SSD disk to the very top, so that the boot sector on the SSD disk is first searched, and then on the other disks, if it is not found on the SSD.

4. Comparison of SSD speed with HDD and USB drives

Using the CrystalDiskMark 3 program, I measured the writing and reading speed of my HDD drive even before removing it and replacing it with an SSD. The reading speed from it was approximately 100 MB/sec. when reading and writing sequentially.