Solid state drives are an excellent replacement for any tired hard drive in your computer. The performance differences can be enormous, and that’s why installing an SSD remains the top recommendation for reviving a system. However, SSDs don’t always work under ideal conditions. While many fellow sites explain the virtues of the TRIM command, today at NeoTeo we’re going to dig a little deeper and teach you to optimize your SSD by exploring different options.
SSD: Almost magical... but they need help
Although technically there’s no “disk” in them, SSDs have no major difficulties replacing traditional disks. In fact, many manufacturers have fully adopted solid state, removing HDDs from their configurations. Laptops were (and still are) the main beneficiaries of that change, because it allows them to leave behind 5,400 RPM drives.
However, the story doesn’t end with cloning your hard drive to an SSD and enjoying the new hardware. There are several parameters you should verify and/or enable to optimize your SSD and ensure its maximum performance. Some of them even invalidate the possibility of cloning data, and you’ll need to reinstall the operating system if you want to avoid conflicts. In any case, don’t worry. Most likely everything is in order, but it doesn’t hurt to review the configuration...
IDE mode and AHCI mode
When connecting storage devices to SATA ports, the motherboard enables two modes: the classic IDE, and the standard AHCI, Advanced Host Controller Interface. IDE mode is often used as a “compatibility shortcut” and is the recommended option for older operating systems (say, Windows XP or earlier).
On the other hand, AHCI works very well with SSDs, and it’s what you should use if you have this technology. To check 100% if you’re in IDE or AHCI mode, enter your computer’s BIOS/UEFI. Now, using IDE mode with an SSD is not the end of the world, but performance will be limited, and some functions are lost (for example, TRIM doesn’t always work under IDE mode).
The real issue is that you can’t switch from IDE to AHCI by magic in Windows. I’ve personally tried everything, from registry hacks to recovery environments, and the OS always responded the same way: with a blue screen. The suggested method to change from IDE to AHCI is to reinstall the operating system.
Firmware updates
The most affordable solid state drives don’t usually receive firmware updates, but if you have a more advanced model (the Samsung PRO and EVO series come to mind), it’s not a bad idea to visit the manufacturer’s page and check if there’s an update intended to fix errors or performance issues.
Obviously, before performing any low-level operation on your SSD, you should back up all your data, no matter what the manufacturer says. Also, all firmware updates carry some risk, and if you notice your SSD works fine, you can skip this step.
The TRIM command
The official description for TRIM tells us about “a command that allows the operating system to inform an SSD of data blocks that are no longer in use, and that can be internally erased.” Combined with integrated garbage collection functions, TRIM maintains the drive’s performance and saves time by processing blocks in the background.
In very relaxed terms: An SSD doesn’t know the file structure, and it doesn’t have a list of available blocks for use. The operating system reports “free space,” but if those free blocks still contain data, for the SSD it’s an overwrite operation, which generates overhead. The block must be erased before being written, and write performance falls apart. TRIM anticipates block preparation, eliminating overhead from the root.
Enough theory. How do we check if TRIM is working correctly on Windows? Simple: Open the command prompt with elevated privileges, and run the command fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify.
If the values are 0, you don’t have to do anything else. TRIM is enabled and will run whenever necessary. Otherwise, you can try to reactivate TRIM with fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0, and restart the computer.
If for some strange reason (massive compatibility conflict, asteroid, zombie apocalypse, etc.) you discover you need to disable TRIM, the command is fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 1.
Drive optimization
Many users don’t know this, but the old Windows “defragmenter” now works as an SSD optimizer. In fact, its official name is “Defragment and Optimize Drives” and it works automatically, but if you want manual control over each drive (in other words, to enable TRIM at will), open the app, choose the SSD, and click Optimize.
“Defragment and Optimize Drives” also allows us to schedule frequency, increase priority if three consecutive optimizations are missed, and exclude drives. Weekly frequency works well in most cases, however, you can do a daily TRIM sweep to be safer.
“Optimization not available”
In isolated cases, it’s possible that one of the solid state drives reports that “Optimization not available” using the app. The alternative is to open the command prompt with elevated privileges again, and use the defrag command as follows: Defrag (driveletter:) /U /V /L /O.
For example, above, drive D doesn’t have optimization support, but the /U /V /L /O combination (report progress, report results, “retrim” and optimization) should start it anyway. If it still doesn’t work, there’s another possibility: the SSD may have been configured as a dynamic disk in Windows. Dynamic drives don’t support TRIM or optimization.
How to optimize your SSD: Summary
We hope this guide helps you get the maximum performance from your SSD. If it’s a new drive with a fresh Windows installation, chances are you don’t have to modify anything, but if you need to check the status of drives on another computer, this will help. Good luck!
