Windows 7 vs. Windows XP for SSD Drives

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hawkvc
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Windows 7 vs. Windows XP for SSD Drives

#1 Post by hawkvc » Sat Sep 26, 2009 7:06 am

I have read that Windows 7 is optimized for SSD drives. Should I see a significant speed difference if I upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 if I have an SSD drive? Any other advantages to Windows 7 if I am not going to use all the multimedia features on my X41?

Thanks.

Hawk.

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Re: Windows 7 vs. Windows XP for SSD Drives

#2 Post by mgo » Sat Sep 26, 2009 7:36 am

hawkvc wrote:I have read that Windows 7 is optimized for SSD drives. Should I see a significant speed difference if I upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 if I have an SSD drive? Any other advantages to Windows 7 if I am not going to use all the multimedia features on my X41?

Thanks.

Hawk.
I am running Windows 7 with solid state drives and the speed is really impressive. However, even XP will run faster on a SSD.

Just because XP is not solid state hard drive "aware" doesn't mean you won't enjoy 30% to 60% faster response. (I tested that, and so I know) A faster drive is a faster drive. Just like a 5400 or 7200 drive will beat a 4200 drive.

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Re: Windows 7 vs. Windows XP for SSD Drives

#3 Post by sjthinkpader » Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:35 am

Most current SSDs will not benefit from Windows7's TRIM function. Windows7 may or may not set other functions correctly:

Superfetch set to disable
Defragmentation set to disable
File Indexing set to off
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Re: Windows 7 vs. Windows XP for SSD Drives

#4 Post by bananaman » Sat Sep 26, 2009 2:08 pm

Yes and Windows 7 should disable pre-fetch and ReadyBoost too. It's possible to make the adjustment manually to XP or Vista (you can't add TRIM though), but as sjthinkpader said, Windows 7 SHOULD make them automatically.

There's a nice Microsoft article on the Windows 7 SSD optimizations.

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Re: Windows 7 vs. Windows XP for SSD Drives

#5 Post by sjthinkpader » Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:10 am

I tried to enable Readyboost on a machine with Win7 and SSD. The OS did recognize the presence of SSD and adviced that I don't need Readyboost. I do have Readyboost device attached on Win7 installation with HDD.

I can't find pre-fetch service to disable it. Anybody can post some instructions?
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Re: Windows 7 vs. Windows XP for SSD Drives

#6 Post by mgo » Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:18 am

sjthinkpader wrote:I tried to enable Readyboost on a machine with Win7 and SSD. The OS did recognize the presence of SSD and adviced that I don't need Readyboost. I do have Readyboost device attached on Win7 installation with HDD.

I can't find pre-fetch service to disable it. Anybody can post some instructions?
There are two or three instances of that Registry statememt. Disable them all. While in the area you can also disable superfetch. Use Find to get to the first one, then Fn+F3 to move on to the next. (or "find again" in the dialog box")

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Superfetch also needs to be disabled within Services, should you decide to disable that as well.

For convenience, I just open Registry and Find "PrefetchParameters" and in a short while the Registry will take me to the proper location. That's easier than drilling down to the statement.

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