Hard Drive Optimization Tips and Tricks

[ProDigit10]

SSD: No pagefile, or less than 128MB. Pagefile to ram, with any 64 bit system with more than 4GB ram (6 or 8GB).
Any computer over 2GB should not need a pagefile for standard windows procedures.
Most computers have 3GB (2x2gb with video drivers). So pagefile is not necessary.

HD: Defrag operating system files by name, on the outward ring of the HDD for faster OS response. Put the "program files" directory under it. And store my documents, large data files like ISO's, large compressed archives, and movies, and music files (like MP3, OGG, WMA) store those on the inner circle of the HD, as they generally don't need fast access/fast data rates. If you're concerned about battery life, then put them on the outter rim, as netbooks harddrives go slower on the outter rim, than on the inner

 

[felip3]

You forgot MyDefrag which is an amazing software, You can make any script as You need.

 

[SAL-e]

You are missing the most important SSD optimization: Partition Alignment more details could be found here: http/blog.nuclex-games.com/2009/12/aligning-an-ssd-on-linux/

 

[Guest]

Wow I wish these tech writers would do there research before writing these columns.

1. To start with Microsoft themselves says not to move the page file off an SSD as most of the writes are not small & are infrequent not to mention the page file hardly used anymore, so your effectively just increasing boot time & lowering Performance when it is being used by doing so.

2. All 3rd gen SSD will outlast any modern day Mechanical HDD due to wear leveling & OS improvements, so disabling Indexing, SuperFetch & whatever other tweaks you recommend are just plain out of date.

 

[mjor]

I don't necessarily recommend. The article is put together with more stock graphics and less sense than a pop-up book. BUT - if it was read, he just put 90% of "IT Consultants" and nearly ever tier "2" help-desk/support technician out of work. lol

 

[Guest]

My system has 16GB RAM, 80GB SSD for primary drive, 750GB secondary drive, and when connected 2 additional external drives.

Windows 7 Ultimate when freshly installed, all drivers installed, and all Windows updates are applied takes about 30GB on my system, if I remember right. For this reason, I do not use a pagefile or hibernate file. They by themselves ate up all but 8-10GB of my drive resulting in poor performance. After removing them, my boot time dropped for about 2 minutes to around 15 seconds. At least for SSD drives, the best advice is leave a large percentage free. I strive for 30%-50%.

I do not know what programs were alluded to that cannot run without a pagefile.sys. I have never encountered this problem. The only programs I have had problems running are my old DOS and Windows95/Windows98 games. The problem appears to be hardware and OS compatibility (some op codes have changed as well as directx calls since versions 1.0, 5.2, and 6.1).

 

[danwat1234]

"SSD Tip 3: Disable Drive Indexing" may reduce writes. WHO CARES? 25nm MLC SSDs can handle 100s of Terabytes of writes in their lifetimes! Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter.

http/www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page216&post#5380

 

[beetlejuicegr]

1) SSD - OS and 1-2 select games you play all the time (speed on most things you do daily)
2) HDD Raid 0 - 5 etc Your Media/Backup/Application install files/iso files drive, (your secure data folder)
3 HDD single drive, you download folders/torrents etc along temporary and other installs like games you want to try out or these huge new f2p mmos ^^

About gaming i want to also point out that in many cases ssds aren't the only solution for performance. Due to size you can't really fill it up with all the games you play or all the media suites you want. (unless you have 258gb+).
I encountered micro stuttering in some games and the only solution that REALLY worked fine was moving some folders/files of the game to different hard disks with the help of the command "symbolic linking". You can read about it for example google "diablo 3 and symbolic link"

 

[redjupiter]

so where is the blasted article then? all I see are adverts.