Settings for SSD and Windows Vista?

[random betrayal]

Don't hate on vista, I have an old system I want to cheaply upgrade to an SSD on and was wondering if there is anything I need to set in the OS for the new SSD like turning off defrag or something along those lines.

I seem to remember reading that TRIM was only on Windows 7 and up will this effect the SSD negatively?

 

[Elixer]

Yeah, Vista don't have built-in TRIM support, however, you can still use other utilities to TRIM the SSD.
Samsung utility does TRIM the drive, even on Vista.

You can also get a Sandforce based SSD, since it basically does it on its own...
And yeah, all the other rules about SSDs for the other OS's still apply.. turn off defrag & everything else.

 

[DigDog]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds
everything you always wanted to know about SSD setup but were too afraid to ask.

 

[random betrayal]

Perfect, thanks for quick replies.

 

[WT]

I'm using the Kingston V200 SSDs for my Vista HTPC rig. It handles sleep much better than some of the earlier problematic Sandforce SSDs. Granted, the Jmicron controller is not a good performer, but when we are talking an SSD, even a slower one is faster by leaps and bounds than any HDD. It has built in garbage collection to handle cleanup.

 

[nOOky]

I am installing Vista on a PC I basically built from spare parts as we speak lol. Installed a new Crucial M500 120 gig drive and an old HD6870 I had laying around. Does Trim even do anything worth the effort?

 

[Cerb]

I am installing Vista on a PC I basically built from spare parts as we speak lol. Installed a new Crucial M500 120 gig drive and an old HD6870 I had laying around. Does Trim even do anything worth the effort?

With that drive, and not having a vendor utility for it, nah, don't worry about it, so long as the partition is aligned. It will be slower than with TRIM, but realistically, that, "slower," is still going to be in the low thousands of IOPS, and could stay in the low tens of thousands indefinitely, depending on your typical write patterns.

Do make sure it's aligned, and make sure defragging is off (defragmentation runs are pretty much the only thing regular users can do that can cause enough wear on a current-gen SSD to be worth worrying about).

 

[mikeymikec]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds
everything you always wanted to know about SSD setup but were too afraid to ask.

I haven't picked through the rest methodically, but the author of that guide gives the classic "here's how to verify TRIM is working" advice (fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify), which is of course, wrong. Either that or every HDD with Win7 is TRIM enabled!

I don't think getting rid of the hibernation file is a great idea either as it provides insurance against power loss during sleep mode (read up about hybrid sleep).

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I've been running a Crucial M4 with Windows Server 2008 (not R2, wrt TRIM it's the same as Vista) for nearly a year now, and it appears to be as responsive as the day I installed it. I disabled SuperFetch and auto defrag, that was about it IIRC.