Fake News
WHAT NOT TO DO...
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DON’T DEFRAG AN SSD Defragmentation software can be helpful, but only for older drives. If you have a SATA SSD or
M.2 NVMe drive, you don’t want to try defragging it; there are no significant performance benefits (because SSDs have no moving parts, there’s no risk of mechanical latency building up over time), and the lengthy defragmentation processes can actually wear out the memory cells and ruin the drive’s lifespan if you do it too many times. Just don’t bother.
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RAM DISKS AREN’T
THAT USEFUL Also known as RAM drives, these nifty data storage solutions use third-party software to partition a given amount of your memory to be used as data storage instead of random-access memory. The advantages jump out immediately; RAM is a lot faster, netting you vastly improved data transfer speeds for your virtual drive. If you’re moving files around a lot and only have an HDD or SATA SSD, it seems like a no-brainer. However, RAM disks are volatile memory; if your PC loses power, that data is wiped. It’s necessary to have regular automatic backups to your physical drive, and to reload the RAM disk image back into your memory every time you boot up your system, which takes time. Unless you have a staggering amount of memory to spare, it just isn’t worth it.
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DON’T TWEAK POWER PLANS ON DESKTOP Simply put: There’s no point. If your PC is connected to mains power, set the power plan to high performance and call it a day. Some people will claim that there are benefits to using the other plans; we’re not saying those people are wrong, but we are saying that any benefits will be practically unnoticeable.
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DON’T REINSTALL WINDOWS A complete fresh install of Windows should only ever be a last resort, when other attempts to salvage your system have failed. System restore points are a more useful resource, and it’s generally a good idea to have both cloud-based and physical backups of your data. Reinstalling Windows is often like bringing a broadsword to a knife fight; effective, but far too much effort and potentially messy.