TWEAK WINDOWS TO BOOST YOUR SSD SPEED
Check and enable your the Trim command
As we explained on page 51, your SSD needs to move data and delete blocks before it can write new information to its memory – a process that requires both time and power. To speed up the operation, Windows PCS offer a command called Trim (sometimes capitalised as TRIM, though it’s not an acronym), which tells your SSD which blocks of data are no longer in use and can be safely erased. This means that when you save new data to the drive, your SSD doesn’t need to waste time moving and deleting data to make room for it, so the writing process is as fast as possible.
Windows 10 and 11 should detect and enable Trim automatically, but it’s worth double-checking, especially if your SSD is running slowly. Type cmd into the taskbar search box, choose ‘Run as administrator’ under Command Prompt and click Yes to allow changes to your PC. When Command Prompt opens, type the following command and press Enter: fsutil behavior query Disabledeletenotify ( 1 in our screenshot above right, top) – you can copy this from our Pastebin account at www.snipca.com/45465.
If the command gives you the result ‘Disabledeletenotify = 0’, then Trim is enabled, and no further action is required. This detail will appear next to your SSD’S file-system type, such as NTFS – Windows 11 makes clear that it means ‘Allows TRIM operations to be sent to the storage device’. But if you get a result of ‘Disabledeletenotify = 1’, then Trim isn’t running and your SSD isn’t receiving the necessary information from Windows.
To turn on Trim, type the following command and press Enter: fsutil behavior set Disabledeletenotify 0 2 – you can copy this from Pastebin at www.snipca. com/45466. After running the command, you’ll see the result ‘Disabledeletenotify = 0’, which confirms that Trim is now active. Confusingly, this is a doublenegative that tells you the option to disable the feature is itself disabled.
Turn off Hibernate to speed up your SSD
SSDS have smaller capacities than similarly priced mechanical hard drives, and slow down as they fill up, so it’s important to get rid of junk files you don’t need.
One of the biggest space hogs is the
Hibernate feature, which is designed to conserve power when you’re not using your PC. It works by copying everything in your system’s memory to a file called ‘Hiberfil.sys’, then powering down your computer. When you turn it back on, Windows loads all the data from the saved file.
However, because SSDS use less power than standard hard drives, they don’t require hibernation, and copying data to the ‘Hiberfil.sys’ file simply wastes valuable space and slows things down. This is especially true when you’re using a mains-connected PC rather than a laptop running on a battery.
To discover how much space Hibernate uses, run Command Prompt as an administrator then type the following command and press Enter: dir c:\ /as (replace ‘c:\’ with your SSD’S drive letter if different). Look at the figure for ‘hiberfil.sys’ to see how much storage the file wastes – nearly 1.5GB on our PC (see 1 in our screenshot above).
To disable the Hibernate feature and speed up your SSD, type powercfg /h off into Command Prompt 2 and press
Enter. You won’t receive confirmation that Hibernate is disabled, but you can check by typing powercfg /a and pressing Enter - this should display a response that ‘Hibernation has not been enabled’. Turn ‘Hibernate’ back on again by entering the command powercfg /h on.
Ensure that write-caching is enabled
SSDS use a feature called write-caching to temporarily store data in their memory before it’s permanently saved to a block. This allows them to perform operations more quickly, though it means there’s a small risk of losing data if there’s a power cut.
Write-caching should be enabled by default in Windows 10 and 11, but it’s worth checking to ensure your SSD is working at optimum speed. Type device manager into the search box, choose Open next to Device Manager and click the arrow next to ‘Disk drives’. Right-click the name of your SSD, choose Properties and on the Policies tab make sure the option ‘Enable write caching on the device’ is ticked (see screenshot below).
Although SSDS use less electricity than traditional hard drives, and are therefore cheaper to run, it’s still possible that Windows isn’t allocating enough power to your drive. This will prolong battery life when you’re out and about, but at home you can tweak your power settings to boost your SSD’S speed.
In Windows 10, open Settings and select System, then ‘Power & sleep’ and choose ‘Additional power settings’. Click ‘Create a power plan’ and select ‘High performance’ (see screenshot above right) to allow your SSD to run at full capacity. Click ‘Next’ and specify whether the new settings apply only when your computer is plugged in, or on battery as well, then click Create.
You can also prevent your SSD from switching off when idle, to save you waiting a second or two for it to ‘wake up’, though this will mean it uses more power. Click ‘Change advanced power settings’ and open ‘Hard disk’ then ‘Turn off hard disk after’. Choose ‘Never’ next to ‘Plugged in’ and click Apply or OK.
In Windows 11, open Settings and click System, then ‘Power & battery’ and select ‘Best performance’ in the ‘Power mode’ menu.
Turn off search indexing in Windows
Windows includes a tool called Search Indexer, which runs constantly in the background. It catalogues the files and folders on your drives, so you can find them quickly when carrying out a search, but it also uses a fair amount of processing power and memory. Your SSD is fast enough to find the files without referring to a search index, which means the feature just slows it down.
To disable search indexing in Windows 10 or 11 (and stop it diverting system resources from your SSD) type services into the search box and open the Services app. Scroll down to Windows Search and double-click it to open its Properties box. Click the Stop button to terminate the Search Indexer process, then choose Disabled in the ‘Startup type’ dropdown menu (see screenshot below left).
Click ‘Apply’ or OK to turn off search indexing. You can turn it back on again by choosing Automatic in the ‘Startup type’ menu and clicking Start.
Update your SSD’S drivers
Windows should automatically update your SSD’S drivers through Windows Update, to keep it running smoothly and fix performance bugs (though sometimes it has the opposite effect). But you can also check for updates manually, rather than wait for Windows to install them.
Right-click your SSD in the ‘Disk drives’ section of Device Manager and choose ‘Update driver’. Click ‘Search automatically for drivers’ to check for updates and Windows will check for recent updates. If it doesn’t find any, click ‘Search for updated drivers on Windows Update’ then choose ‘Check for updates’ to give it a nudge.