WD recommended optimization after install of SSD

I was surprised I found no results in a search for this. I just successfully replaced my HDD with a WD Blue 1TB SSD. I cloned the original HDD using the WD Acronis software. I was hoping WD had published recommended Windows 10 optimization recommendations that should be performed after the SSD is installed and running. There is a lot of conflicting information online about what Windows settings (trim, indexing, page files, system restore, write caching, etc.) should be adjusted for best SSD performance and reliability. Does WD publish their own recommendations and where can I get them?

thanks!

All I’ve ever used on my SSDs is the Western Digital SSD Dashboard. I use the trim option there under the Performance tab. No issues here other than the Dashboard software updating or installing properly with V2.5.0. But…I don’t clone when I change drives. I do a Windows Custom install as I’ve never had much success with cloned installs. Seems there’s always some kind of issue so I just backup my personal data to a NAS and install Windows.

Windows 10 performs optimization for SSDs automatically. You don’t need to do anything. The conflicting information you have seen online about all those different settings were mostly to do with earlier versions of Windows and smaller capacity SSDs.
Here are some details:

  1. TRIM: Starting with Windows 7, TRIM works automatically to erase areas (flash memory cells) that contain deleted files so the space is available for new files without having to wait for erasure. Older Windows versions such as XP and earlier do not support TRIM; however, all SSDs include their own “garbage collection” feature which periodically cleans up/erases deleted file areas. Not as frequent or efficient as TRIM, but still effective.
  2. Most of the other things you mentioned were of concern because most early consumer SSDs were smaller capacity and their life expectancy was shorter than that of a good spinning hard drive (HDD). Limiting the number of “Writes” (saving files) helped extend the SSD’s useful life. Newer SSDs such as your WD Blue do not have this limitation; you can write many thousands of Gigabytes of data before the SSD wears out. WD’s free SSD Dashboard tells you how much life is left on your drive. For example, the PC I’m using right now has a 4 year-old Sandisk 960GB SSD, and it handles all of the Indexing, Page File, System Restore, Write Caching, etc. I Write (save) many videos, photos, download and install numerous games, and delete a lot of it after use, so my Sandisk SSD has worked pretty hard over the last 4 years. My Sandisk Dashboard shows that it has 99% life remaining, and it operates as fast as ever. Your WD Blue SSD is based on Sandisk flash memory chips and design.
  3. Indexing - Turning it off reduced the amount of Writes, and SSDs can find files so quickly that Indexing is not essential. Having said that, Indexing is still a wee bit faster and very convenient.
  4. Page File - Turning it off (or moving it to a secondary hard drive) saved space reduced the amount of Writes on the SSD. Leave it on and get the benefit of a fast-response Page File. If you want to be super-fussy you could set the Page File to a fixed size (about 1.5 times larger than your amount of RAM memory, i.e. for 8GB RAM set Page File to 12GB fixed size). Again, this is NOT important, but it prevents Windows from shifting/adjusting the size.
  5. System Restore - Turning it off or limiting the number of Restore Points saved space and reduced the number of Writes. Again, this is no longer necessary, and you want at least a couple of Restore Points in case you need to roll the system back to overcome some glitch in Windows.
  6. Write caching - This should always be left on / enabled. If you enable Write Cache Buffer Flushing it may produce a performance boost, but at the risk of data loss or even complete system failure if you lose power to the computer suddenly. Therefore, it should NOT be enabled. Certain SSDs (not your WD Blue) have built-in power loss protection. Anyway, any performance boost is only noticeable when running benchmark tests, not in real-world use.
  7. To repeat - WD Blue SSD has a very long life expectancy and Windows 10 applies all necessary optimizations.
1 Like

starvinmarvin thank you so much for the information. My system appears to be running very well on my new SSD and I’ll follow your advice and pretty much let Windows 10 do the work!

You’re welcome.

@ flhthemiyou must be using windows 7 ?
that explains the custom installs

Nope, Windows 10 latest and greatest.

Brothers, the way to optimize SSD is very simple. 4K alignment and SSD secure erase are common methods. You can give it a try to ensure that your SSD has a substantial improvement.

Your advise in point 6. is contradictory. Should Write Caching be enabled or disabled?

I did some testing and found out that disabling write caching resulted in lower write performance for my rig.

With write caching off:
image

With write caching on:
image