How to optimize your SSD to enjoy maximum MB/s

A SSD In addition to requiring some maintenance, the default use may not provide maximum performance, so we tell you How to optimize this component.

SSDs require maintenance, but beyond that we can often find units that need optimization. Be careful, as this optimization can range from activating TRIM to replacing the motherboard (or SSD). Let’s see how to get 100% out of your SSD.

Learn all the options for optimizing your SSD

You don’t need to do everything we’re going to explain, but we think it’s interesting to think about, plus, the same things don’t apply to everyone.

Be careful with benchmarks!

Their use will significantly shorten the lifespan of the SSD, especially if we abuse them for “trial and error”. It’s okay to use it once to see if it actually performs as advertised by the manufacturer, but multiple uses are not necessary.

Check its PCI-Express compatibility (M.2 SSD)

The first thing is crucial: check your M.2 SSDs use the same PCI-Express interface Available in M.2 slot. Now you may be asking, how do I know? simple:

• on the one hand, View SSD technical data sheet You have what interface it uses (PCIe 3.0, 4.0 or 5.0) and how many rails it has (usually x4).
• go Technical sheet for your motherboard model And check if it uses the same interface as SSD. If you don’t know, open the start menu and look «system message” exist

Does this mean that if my SSD is 3.0 and my motherboard offers 4.0, it will work poorly? No, in this case the motherboard will use PCIe 3.0 for the SSD; what you can’t do is the opposite: if the motherboard has an M.2 slot with PCIe 3.0, and the SSD uses PCIe 4.0, use the latter to work .

If you use PCIe 4.0 solid state drive On a motherboard with PCI-Express 3.0… you are wasting its ability to transfer speeds because the hard drive will be “throttled”. It’s the same as using an M.2 PCIe 3.0 SSD on a PCIe 4.0-capable motherboard, although this doesn’t matter if you don’t need the highest possible speeds.

That’s why we always tell you that the motherboard is the center of everything and one of the key components of your PC. Therefore, please check whether the SSD and the M.2 slot on the motherboard are aligned.

Do you have updated firmware?

Every component needs to be up to date, so you have to Keep your SSD firmware up to date. I say this because the brand is committed to software development to correct errors that occur in SSDs.

If you don’t know how to update, it’s easy:

• Do you know what model your SSD is?
  • • Yes– Google “firmware (SSD model)”. Next, go to the official website, download and install.
    • No– Install CrystalDiskInfo and run it to see which SSD you are using. As before, upgrade the SSD.

Confirm TRIM is working

We already have a post to know about How to activate TRIM,This is a Function for SSD to erase last used block. When these blocks need to be written, they are available without any loss in write speed.

Not only does it help in getting faster speeds; Extend the life of your SSD Because you don’t need to read or write as much. If you are using Windows 10 or 11, TRIM is enabled by default, but I highly recommend confirming that it is working properly. You must perform the following steps:

1. We open start and write cmd Run command prompt as administrator (right click).
2. Copy this command, paste it into the command prompt, and press Enter.

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

Enabled if both entries are marked “0”; If it is “1”, it is deactivated and you must activate it.

High performance energy plan

Another tip to know How to optimize our SSD and laptop Or use a computer without a high-performance power plan. From the start, I recommend that all desktops come with a high-performance power plan, but if you have a laptop with an SSD… things are different.

Most of the time we activate plan «balanced«, but you should be aware that this will cut power to the non-OS secondary SSD, causing a boot delay.

this is very simple:

• We access it by opening the Start menu and typing “Control Panel”.
• I recommend selecting “View small icons” in the upper right corner as everything is clearer.
• Let’s go into the power options and select “High Performance.”
• You can create a plan yourself that activates more options to further improve performance, but this drains the battery unnecessarily.

Enable caching

Be careful if there is a power outage or power surge as this may cause damage to the SSD, such as data loss. for it, It’s a good idea to turn on write cachingand enable it this way:

• we are open Start Menu We write “Device Manager”. Let’s open it.
• We look for the SSD in “Disk drives” and right-click on it and select “characteristic«.
• We are ready to go”instruction»Then we enable the box«Enable write caching on the device«.

• You click Accept.

Disable startup programs

Immediately loading a working SSD is not a good idea, so I recommend disabling unimportant startup programs. The steps to follow are:

• Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to open Task Manager.
• Let’s go to the Startup tab and disable programs that don’t need to be started.

You just close the window.

Defragment and optimize SSDs

I know defragmenting a hard drive refers more to HDD than SSD, but be careful because SSD needs optimization Same method. Remember that when we delete files on the SSD, they need to be optimized so that these empty blocks can be used in the future.

• We open the Start menu, search for “Defragmentation” and select “Defragment and optimize drives”.
• A window will open showing the hard drive we have and its “current status”. You can click on any of them and select “Optimize” without any problem.

• By left clicking on “Change Settings” we can Automatic scheduling optimization and select the units to optimize.

Without a doubt, this is one of the best ways to optimize your SSD.

Disable Windows Search

Specifically in Windows 11 and 10 we have search indexer

, a process that runs in the background and analyzes files on the SSD so that we get immediate results when we search for something in the Start menu. Additionally, this puts additional load on the CPU and RAM, which is unnecessary since the SSD should be able to handle this task.

• Open the Start menu and search for “Services” to run it.
• We look for Windows Search and double-click with the left button.
• In the new window, we select “Disabled” in the “Startup type” drop-down list. We accept that, that’s it!

Use space sniffer

As the icing on the cake of this tutorial on how to optimize an SSD, we find SpaceSniffer as a free and interesting third-party application for optimizing performance.

This is ideal for those who have a large amount of data on an SSD and need to delete large, useless files. With the help of this program you will view the most occupied files in detail, find their exact path and delete them from SpaceSniffer.

I hope this information is helpful and if you have any questions please leave a comment below so we can help you.

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