Is this good advice?
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Thread: Is this good advice?

  1. #1
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    Is this good advice?

    is the following good advice to use if you have SSDs?

    - Disable System Restore. This wastes writes on the device and shortens its lifespan.
    - Disable your pagefile. When using an SSD this quick it is not needed and it also wastes writes. Just make sure you have at least 4GB of RAM in your system if you do this.
    - Turn off timestamps on NTFS. This is unnecessary and can reduce the life of your SSD.

    David

  2. #2
    Do NOT disable system restore.
    This feature might be Windows's most USEFUL one. It saved the "life" of my Windows several times already, since Windows XP.

    If you have enough RAM, then you can disable the pagefile, it is indeed a good idea. It won't cause any damage, and you can reactivate it anytime in case you start suffering from "Not enough memory" popups in your usual programs

    Concerning the timestamps, I have no idea, it's the first time I read this.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pepere View Post
    is the following good advice to use if you have SSDs?

    - Disable System Restore. This wastes writes on the device and shortens its lifespan.
    - Disable your pagefile. When using an SSD this quick it is not needed and it also wastes writes. Just make sure you have at least 4GB of RAM in your system if you do this.
    - Turn off timestamps on NTFS. This is unnecessary and can reduce the life of your SSD.

    David
    My 2 cents worth:

    System restore - seen it cause more problems than it solves, only ever seen is used usefully once.
    Pagefile - the original advice doesn't seem to understand what the pagefile is for, it is nothing to do with how quick the *disk* is, it is your virtual memory file used when your actual RAM is full. Having said that, you can disable it on the SSD and leave it enabled on any normal HDD in your computer and that should be fine.
    Timestamps - didn't know you could turn them off. I definitely would NOT do that.

  4. #4

    Is this good advice?

    As a Fortune 500 company IT support engineer who is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer I can tell you Daube is spot on, including bolding the word NOT. We have saved many a rebuild by using System Restore.

  5. #5
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    As a former IT Manager of a Physician Network and gamer computer builder in my spare time...SYSTEM RESTORE IS A MUST HAVE!
    Ted
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  6. #6
    as a currant CAT manager,i can tell yall that i have no clue on this PC stuff,BUT i do know how to feed and pet my CAT Dori..see avatar....hope this advice from a right idiot helps................

  7. #7
    I have had last file access stamp turned off for years, think that's one of the things allowing my older pc to run FSX.

    Also turned off hard drive indexing, for the rare searches I do, I use the search companion.

  8. #8
    I haven't used a pagefile in years, never had an out of memory problem. I also have not used system restore since xp.

  9. #9
    Never needed system restore. "Last Known Working Configuration" or the recovery console is all I need.

    I'd, of course, have a differing opinion if I had to fix other people's computers, but it's my computer built and configured by me for me and for me only.

    Hence, system restore is unnecessary dead weight.



    Don't forget to disable automatic defragentation, prefetching and Superfetch

  10. #10
    A few other things you might want to do:

    - move the temp and tmp folders to another drive (in the enviroment variables)
    - do the same with the temporary internet files folder (internet options)
    - disable indexing (disk properties)

    All the above reduce the writing cycles to the SSD which prolongs disk life.

    Dumonceau

  11. #11
    System restore? That's a laugh! Never been able to get my W7 64 to be able to get a functioning backup. Every time it churns away and eventually throws up an error message telling me the action failed. And this is on a fresh install of Windows.
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  12. #12
    Use disk imaging software.
    Much safer.

    Dave

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Naismith View Post
    System restore? That's a laugh! Never been able to get my W7 64 to be able to get a functioning backup. Every time it churns away and eventually throws up an error message telling me the action failed. And this is on a fresh install of Windows.
    with you on that. I've never been able to find past restore point/dates and don't even know if it is on, though I've tried to turn it on.


    for now I think i'll just try these three:

    - Disable pagefile on my SSDs. I have 12GB of RAM.
    - Turn off timestamps.
    and
    - disable indexing (disk properties)

    thanks

    David

  14. #14
    You can extend the lifespan of SSDs - and the rest of your rig - by not switching it on. I hope you find this helpful...
    Tom
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  15. #15
    I found this site to be helpful

    http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/s...-for-ssds-hdds

    Go down the posts and read the section "Now it's time for the system set up and Optimization, be sure that you click to expand the sub-sections.
    There are some optimizations for SSD drives. I do leave the Restore on but like they suggest it is made a bit smaller.

    Hope it helps

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by capun View Post
    I found this site to be helpful

    http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/s...-for-ssds-hdds

    Go down the posts and read the section "Now it's time for the system set up and Optimization, be sure that you click to expand the sub-sections.
    There are some optimizations for SSD drives. I do leave the Restore on but like they suggest it is made a bit smaller.

    Hope it helps
    Aaargh why do these handy sites always come to light 10 days after I have reinstalled everything.
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  17. #17
    There was another good site but the info is about the same.

    Just a quick note. After using a SSD for a while I wish I have done it a bit different. I think it can be done but It's too late for me.

    I would have set the SSD as the boot drive but assign it as the "D:" drive. There are some poorly written software that write to the "C:" drive instead of using the new locations set in the Hard Drive.

    For example the Garmin Base Camp by default writes to the C: Drive, you have to force it to write to the Data drive. And those gpx files can be big.

    And there are other programs/games that do the same, I end up with two Users/MyName folders in both the C: and D: Drive. Instead of all of the data being in the magnetic Hard Disk

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by capun View Post
    There was another good site but the info is about the same.

    Just a quick note. After using a SSD for a while I wish I have done it a bit different. I think it can be done but It's too late for me.

    I would have set the SSD as the boot drive but assign it as the "D:" drive. There are some poorly written software that write to the "C:" drive instead of using the new locations set in the Hard Drive.

    For example the Garmin Base Camp by default writes to the C: Drive, you have to force it to write to the Data drive. And those gpx files can be big.

    And there are other programs/games that do the same, I end up with two Users/MyName folders in both the C: and D: Drive. Instead of all of the data being in the magnetic Hard Disk
    capun

    there is a program that can help you "junction link magic" you can have files on any drive and it looks to the computer that they are on "C" Drive. I have FSX on "K" drive but you can see it on either C or K and FSX thinks it's on "C" but it is really on "K"...... Check it out. http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...nk-Magic.shtml


    David


  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Pepere View Post
    capun

    there is a program that can help you "junction link magic" you can have files on any drive and it looks to the computer that they are on "C" Drive. I have FSX on "K" drive but you can see it on either C or K and FSX thinks it's on "C" but it is really on "K"...... Check it out. http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...nk-Magic.shtml


    David

    Thanks David, I'll check it out and see if that fits my needs. With some programs I had to muck with the registry and forced them to go to the Data Drive. If properly written the programs should look for the Win7 link to where the actual Data drive is and not hard coded to the C: drive.

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