does TRIM activate by default on a new Windows 7 install?

[jtrino]

if my new Thinkpad comes with an SSD, does TRIM automatically activate in Windows 7?
For example, if my thinkpad comes preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium and I later want to install Windows 7 Professional using the commercial DVD, can I just install Professional with the DVD and TRIM will activate because I have an SSD. Or do I need to activate it manually?

[sarbin]

welcome to the forum.

i believe it depends entirely upon whether the ssd supports TRIM, natively. example, i've got win7pro64sp1 installed on my x301 that has a 128gb samsung oem'ed ssd, which uses a proprietary 'garbage collection' routine rather than TRIM. none of the benchmark reporting tools show TRIM as being enabled.

hth.

[jtrino]

how do I discover if TRIM is enabled or not?

The SSD I have is intel M-G2 and it natively support TRIM.

[Wiz]

Your SSD support trim. You can run the following command in command prompt to check if trim commands are enabled or not: "fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify".

DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Windows TRIM commands are disabled)
DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)

That doesn't necessarily mean that trim is active and working, but show you if enabled or not in Windows. Also you have to use AHCI and not compatibility mode which is a setting in BIOS. You also need drivers that support trim, but both the Microsoft AHCI driver (included with Windows) and the Intel RST support trim. Some older versions of RST did not support trim, but i assume you use 10.x or newer if you use the Intel RST drivers and then trim is supported.

So if you follow these steps and everything is ok then trim is working, but there are no place in Windows where you can check if trim is actually active and working as far as i know. You can also download and install Intel SSD toolbox to run trim manually. Intel SSD toolbox will also change some settings (with your permission) in Windows that Intel recommend to change when using a SSD.

[jtrino]

what are "INTEL RST drivers"? since Windows has AHCI driver natively I don't need RST right? or do i need both?

[ozzymud]

RST = Rapid Storage Technology

Basically the difference... it's like any other driver, windows has included versions for a lot of devices, generally better to switch/upgrade to manufacturer drivers, the windows drivers are only current upto the release of the DVD, or when Microsoft gets around to updating them on windows update... the manufacturers drivers are as recent as you can expect and may provide bug fixes or speed improvements.

You don't need both as they do the same job, just one may work better then the other, newer is not always 100% of the time better, just most of the time

[andypeters]

Thanks for the clarity, ozzymund.