Solved Superfetch on SSD+HDD system?

[thesystmwilfail]

Hello eightforums =)

I can't find a good answer to this online, just years old posts saying disable pre/superfetch for any ssd system, so now I'm asking here:

I have a 250gb SSD as a boot drive (8.1 pro) and a 1tb HDD for storage

I have heard that Win 8 will automatically disable pre/superfetch if it detects an SSD as the system drive, as well as continue to allow pre/superfetch to operate on other drives (hdds) in the pc

Just wondering if anyone can confirm/deny this, and if there is a way to verify (other than benchmarking) that pre/superfetch is operating on my hdd but not my ssd?

Thanks in advance =)

 

[Cliff S]

The best answer is to let Windows 8 take care of it. Windows 8(and now 10) OS's are optimized for SSD's. It will see what you have, and even if the service is still on, will apply to HDD's what HDD's need, and to SSD's what SSD's need. the only change I made is to policies in device management for disks, because I have a UPS battery backup and for my laptop too, because it has a battery:

 

[chris1neji]

I agree with Cliff as well. I think this idea of turning off those services stem from Windows 7. Windows 7 would disable those service if an SSD disk was detected, in Windows 8 however it no longer does this. It's because it got smarter about the way it was actually uses it. You will still see benefits of the 2 services in question by having it enable with an SSD. Just let the OS manage it.

Do you have a specific reason to consider turning these features off? Unless you are having a specific problem with them, there is no reason to do so.

 

[Cliff S]

I actually had problems once, when I shut them off, on Windows 8.1. Certain things stopped working and I received memory error codes.

The whole thing about turning off certain services, to reduce disk writing, is outdated on todays SSD's, where you can rewrite Petabytes and not just a few hundred Gigabytes like a few years ago. A "normal" user will probably never wear a newer SSD out. If anything you'll probable buy a new PC before the disk wears out.

 

[CountMike]

My windows 8.1 are installed anew on SSD and Superfetch was and still is set on auto and running, not that it's of much help on an SSD because it's so fast. Could not see any changes with it on or off.

 

[broe23]

Same here Count. I have a Crucial M500 and works like a champ. I took the old drive and use it on our Amazon Fire TV box for app storage. I have 292 GB available.

I tried my old 64 gb M4 with the Fire. It was no delay in opening game off of it. Amazon uses the same type of handling of the SSD, if it detects one.

An SSD on a Linux install will actually run faster than Windows on a SSD.

 

[CountMike]

Same here Count. I have a Crucial M500 and works like a champ. I took the old drive and use it on our Amazon Fire TV box for app storage. I have 292 GB available.

I tried my old 64 gb M4 with the Fire. It was no delay in opening game off of it. Amazon uses the same type of handling of the SSD, if it detects one.

An SSD on a Linux install will actually run faster than Windows on a SSD.

I don't have any more SSDs to use on Linux as the other one is with W 10 but have Linux mint on a HDD. Just downloaded new Fedora 22 but I'm not sure which Linux distros are good for SSD, if and which one has trim etc. to run on SSD properly. For me, Linux is just a tool to do things I can't on windows.

 

[LMiller7]

Superfetch reads applications into standby memory before they are accessed. No significant disk writes are involved.

My advice would be to let Windows manage this. The danger with disabling services is that you may end up disabling more than you bargained for. Many services do more than the documentation states. Like all modern operating systems there is much about Windows operation that is undocumented. Once something is documented it is very difficult to change without compromising application compatibility.

 

[thesystmwilfail]

Alright thanks for the confirmation guys =)
I'll continue to let Windows handle it
Thanks again for your time and replies

 

[crawfish]

the only change I made is to policies in device management for disks, because I have a UPS battery backup and for my laptop too, because it has a battery:
View attachment 62075View attachment 62074

Checking the bottom box is not advisable unless the drive has a PSU separate from the computer. Ordinary internal drives do not qualify, except some SSDs have capacitors that ensure buffers are flushed in the event of power loss; I think it would be OK to do it for them. To be clear, if the drive is getting its power from the PC, a UPS won't save you, nor will a laptop's battery. As the dialog box states, the drive must have its own separate power supply for it to be safe to check this box. For more, see:

Flushing your performance down the drain, that is - The Old New Thing - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

[broe23]

Mike I was using Xubuntu and had no issues. The Ubuntu based and Fedora are good at handling SSD's. The majority of the work is done by the kernel . I liked Xubuntu, because the GUI is very lightweight. Also the OS is a lot faster than regular Ubuntu.