Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-01-19)

60

Solid-statedrivesaremuch

fasterthantraditionalhard

drives,butonlyifthey’reset

upcorrectly.RobertIrvine

explainshowtoensureyour

SSDachievesandmaintains

itsoptimumspeed

Checkthat Trim is enabledtoensure your SSDwritesdataas

quickly as possible

S

SDstandsforsolid-statedrive,

butweprefertothinkofitas

meaning‘superspeedydevice’.

Computersequippedwithan

SSD,beitinternalorexternal,startup

muchfasterthanthosewithatraditional,

mechanicalharddriveandperform

everydayPCtasksmorequickly.However,

SSDscanalsosufferperformance

problems,eitherbecausethey’renot

configuredcorrectlyortheyhave

compatibilityissueswithWindows.Some

Windows1 1 usersrecentlyreportedthat

theirSSDswererunningsignificantly

slowersinceupgradingtothenew

operatingsystem(seewww.snipca.

com/4 0449 ).Here,werevealthebestfree

fixestostopyourSSDlosingspeed.

CheckyourSSD’s

Trimcommand

ThesmoothperformanceofyourSSDis

partlydeterminedbyafeaturecalled

Trim–thisissometimescapitalisedas

TRIM,becauseit’sacommand,butit’s

notanacronym.TrimallowsWindowsto

tellyourSSDwhichblocksofdataareno

longerinuseandcansafelybedeleted.

Thismeanswhenyousavenewdatato

thedrive,yourSSDdoesn’tneedtospend

timeerasingexistinginformationto

makeroomforit,helpingittoworkas

quicklyandefficientlyaspossible.

Windows 10 and 11 shoulddetectand

enableTrimautomatically,butit’s

importanttocheckthatit’sactive,

especiallyifyourSSDisrunningslowly.

TypecmdintotheStartmenusearchbox

andchoose‘Runasadministrator’under

CommandPrompt.WhenCommand

Promptopens,typethefollowing

commandandpressEnter:fsutilbehavior

queryDisableDeleteNotify-youcancopy

andpastethisfromourPastebinaccount

atwww.snipca.com/40441.

If thecommand givesyou theresult

‘DisableDeleteNo tify =0’, thenTrim is

enabled, andnofurther action is required.

Thisdetailmay appear next to your SSD’s

file-system type,suchasNTFS(see

screenshot below). Butifyou getaresult

of ‘= 1’,thentheTrimfeature is di sabled

andyourSSDisn’tgettingthe

requiredinformationfrom

Windows.

ToactivateTrim,typethe

followingcommandthenpress

Enter:fsutilbehaviorset

DisableDeleteNotify 0 (copy

thisfromPastebinatwww.

snipca.com/4 0462 ).After

runningthecommand,

you’llseetheresult

‘DisableDeleteNotify=0’,

whichconfirmsthatTrimis

enabled.

Disablethe Hibernate

featureonyourSSD

As with standardharddrives, an SSD

that’s runningout of storagespacewill

runmoreslowly,soi t’sworth performing

regular clean-upstor emoveunnecessary

programs andfiles.Weexplainedthe best

ways to deleteWindows junk in our

CoverFeature in Issue

620(page 50), buta

specific trick for

freein gupspacefrom

an SSDinvolves

disablingthe

Hibernatefunction.

Thisfeature is

designed to prolong

your laptop ’s battery

lifewhile you’re not

19 Januar y–1February 2022 •Issue623

usin gitbycopying everythi ng in its

memory to afile called ‘Hiberfil.sys’, then

powering down your computer.When

youturnitbackon, Windowsloads all

thedata fromthesaved file. However,

because SSDs uselesspower andare

more efficientthanmechanicalhard

drives,theydon’t need to hibernate, and

copying data to the‘Hiberfil.sys’file

simply wastesvaluablespaceandwears

out thedrive.

To findout howmuchspaceHibernate

uses,run CommandPromptasan

admini strator(seeprevious tip), type the

followingcommand andpress Enter:

dir c:\/as (replace‘c:\’withyourdrive

letter if your SSDuses adifferen tone).

Look at the‘hiberfil.sys’linetosee the

amount of storagethe filetakes up –

YourSSDdoesn’tneedtheHibernatefunctionsoyoucan

disableittofreeupspace

Keep your

S ld d h

FAST

SSD

running