Solved Stability question about multiple OS reinstalls

Insipid

New Member
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First of all a warm greeting to everyone around, as I've just finished creating my account and joining the community!

As the title states, I have an issue I am not able to clear up for myself and couldn't (seemingly) find anything related on Google on the subject.

I've just finished building my new rig a couple of weeks back, and have become overly excited about the whole thing which caused me to mess around with my Windows 8.1 installation tweaking and installing all sorts of monitoring\optimization software which in the end rendered the system a bit unstable and I decided to perform a clean re-installation.

The process didn't go so well as I clumsily installed it on the wrong drive due to exhaustion and had to delete/install it on the proper one (SSD+SSHD config).

Yet another few days later on I wanted to try out my old Windows 7 Ultimate OS on the rig, but was unhappy with it and reinstalled 8.1 yet again.

Now finally unto my question, do the multiple installations/re-installations of the (Windows) OS affect the overall stability or snappiness of a system, or perform excessive wear on the storage drivers? I admit I am somewhat of a perfectionist and ending up installing Windows so many times on a new machine has me a bit worried. Of course I do not plan on keeping this up in the future, just on a need-to basis.

My storage configuration is a 120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD (for OS purposes) and a 1TB Seagate SSHD for mass storage and my Operating System I am and plan to be using is Windows 8.1 64bits. Also, the system is performing exceptionally well at the moment, so my question is more theoretical in nature I suppose.

Thanks in advance, and excuse my wall of text on the subject.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
It wont cause any "excessive wear on the storage drivers" or "affect the overall stability or snappiness of a system"as all your doing is writing to the drives but you could run into problem with other things if your doing upgrade rather than clean installs eg with driver conflicts why dont you use a virtual machine or dual boot your system if you want to be switching between different OS's I would say use a virtual machine if you want to keep tweeking the system that way if you mess it up its not a big thing and once you have it tweeked just the way you want it you can then make it into an ISO and install it as a main OS
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
It wont cause any "excessive wear on the storage drivers" or "affect the overall stability or snappiness of a system"as all your doing is writing to the drives but you could run into problem with other things if your doing upgrade rather than clean installs eg with driver conflicts why dont you use a virtual machine or dual boot your system if you want to be switching between different OS's I would say use a virtual machine if you want to keep tweeking the system that way if you mess it up its not a big thing and once you have it tweeked just the way you want it you can then make it into an ISO and install it as a main OS

Thanks for the reply!

You're referring to driver conflicts if I upgrade from W7 to W8 from the same installation, as opposed to just installing W8 directly, correct?

I am not entirely familiar with the concept of a virtual machine as I am by no means an expert and haven't used Windows in quite a while, but I have started looking into it since seeing your post, much appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
The short answer is no, though SSDs have a finite number of write cycles before they give out, so in a very technical sense you're causing excessive wear on the SSD, but I still wouldn't worry about it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
The short answer is no, though SSDs have a finite number of write cycles before they give out, so in a very technical sense you're causing excessive wear on the SSD, but I still wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks for replying asvent,

I am aware of the SSDs limited write cycles, however I recall reading a few reviews (including on the Samsung I purchased) which state the life cycle has improved quite a bit over the last few years, and you should get a few years worth of life out of a consumer based SSD. I obviously don't plan on installing my OS twice a week, so I'm thinking just day to day usage for browsing/gaming/media content.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
The short answer is no, though SSDs have a finite number of write cycles before they give out, so in a very technical sense you're causing excessive wear on the SSD, but I still wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks for replying asvent,

I am aware of the SSDs limited write cycles, however I recall reading a few reviews (including on the Samsung I purchased) which state the life cycle has improved quite a bit over the last few years, and you should get a few years worth of life out of a consumer based SSD. I obviously don't plan on installing my OS twice a week, so I'm thinking just day to day usage for browsing/gaming/media content.
Spinner HDDs have limited life cycle too and it's lower than modern SSDs !!! The only downside of SSDs is their price/GB ratio ! No need to "baby" SSD any more with tendencies to be more and more durable. According to tests, all the chances are that you will outgrow it's size or an SSD to become obsolete before you run it down by normal use.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Thanks CountMike, much appreciated!
SSDs have matured immensely last couple of years and most of data on them is way behind times and so are "advices to save them from tear and wear" that turned into some kind of Urban Myth which is way out of date. The naked truth is that as long as AHCI mode is turned on and "Trim" in windows works, there is no reason to treat them any different than a "spinner" of same size.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
SSDs have matured immensely last couple of years and most of data on them is way behind times and so are "advices to save them from tear and wear" that turned into some kind of Urban Myth which is way out of date. The naked truth is that as long as AHCI mode is turned on and "Trim" in windows works, there is no reason to treat them any different than a "spinner" of same size.

So I imagined, but the articles I kept reading did seem a bit outdated on the subject. I've checked the settings you've mentioned and confirmed that AHCI is enabled (checking Samsung Magician software), but how can I check if Trim is also enabled, or is it so by default?

Thanks again!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Thanks for replying asvent,

I am aware of the SSDs limited write cycles, however I recall reading a few reviews (including on the Samsung I purchased) which state the life cycle has improved quite a bit over the last few years, and you should get a few years worth of life out of a consumer based SSD. I obviously don't plan on installing my OS twice a week, so I'm thinking just day to day usage for browsing/gaming/media content.

That's more or less why I said I wouldn't worry about it. Only in a very technical sense, barely worth mentioning, have you done anything wrong.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
SSDs have matured immensely last couple of years and most of data on them is way behind times and so are "advices to save them from tear and wear" that turned into some kind of Urban Myth which is way out of date. The naked truth is that as long as AHCI mode is turned on and "Trim" in windows works, there is no reason to treat them any different than a "spinner" of same size.

So I imagined, but the articles I kept reading did seem a bit outdated on the subject. I've checked the settings you've mentioned and confirmed that AHCI is enabled (checking Samsung Magician software), but how can I check if Trim is also enabled, or is it so by default?

Thanks again!

yes Samsung 850 series SSD are guaranteed for 10 years!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro MC
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus G75VW / Z97 Pro
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3610QM / I7-4790K
    Motherboard
    Z97 Pro
    Memory
    16 GB Hyundai HTM315156CFR8C-PB PC3-12800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M (GF114M)
    Sound Card
    VIA 6.0.10.1600
    Screen Resolution
    1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro 256, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
    Internet Speed
    30 down 3 up
    Browser
    Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    NIS and Malwarebytes
To check, enable or disable Trim:
After Windows Installation, you can try if you can enable trim this way. You can open the Admin Command prompt and type:
fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

DisableDeleteNotify = 0 : TRIM is already enabled and working in Windows
DisableDeleteNotify = 1 : TRIM is not enabled

To enable SSD TRIM support in Windows
fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
To check, enable or disable Trim:
After Windows Installation, you can try if you can enable trim this way. You can open the Admin Command prompt and type:
fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

DisableDeleteNotify = 0 : TRIM is already enabled and working in Windows
DisableDeleteNotify = 1 : TRIM is not enabled

To enable SSD TRIM support in Windows
fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0

Just checked CountMike, seems to be on.

Thanks again for your replies!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
All right, so you're set with SSD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
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