Resolved My SSD boot drive appears to be getting slower and slower...

so today I decided to investigate why, especially after a OpenOffice document refused to "respond". I have never defragmented my SSD, I know enough not to do that.

My SSD is: Samsung 840 Pro 120Gb installed on 25/05/2018 (when I built my PC, Gigabyte g1.Sniper MB, Intel core i-5 3.3Ghz, 4Gb RAM, 2 x 500Gb HDD).
I'm running Windows 10 64 Pro.

I did run the SSD Properties/Hardware, properties/Events, View all events and found this (screenshot).



Is this anything to do with my problems please? I'm lost within Windows at this point.

 

Actually, you couldn't if you tried. At least not with Windows' own "Optimize Drives" program. Windows knows the difference between hard drives and SSDs and also knows SSDs are not to be defragged. So it doesn't.

How much free space do you have on that SSD? 120GB is not very big to begin with - especially if all your downloads and installed programs are being saved to that disk too. If running low, that would certainly cause problems.

I recommend running Windows Disk Cleanup (or CCleaner) on the drive to clean out the clutter and old Windows install files from the drive. If Windows is otherwise running fine since the last major update, you can also manually delete the windows.old file if still there - it is supposed to auto-delete after 30 days. It can consume many gigabytes of space too.

If your downloaded and installed programs are on that drive, I would recommend you move them to one of your secondary drives. Note this is often best done by uninstalling them, then installing them them on the other drive by ensuring you select the "Custom install" option during the installation process. If you simply cut & paste, the Registry will not be updated and your application may not run. If you find a program you downloaded and/or installed you don't use, I recommend taking this opportunity to just uninstall it.

You will hear all sorts of numbers for how much free disk space you need on the boot drive and particularly, SSD. Many will even claim you need some percentage of the drive size. 25% to 30% is commonly mentioned. That is total nonsense! 1TB SSDs are becoming common now and 30% would mean up to 300GB would remain unused. That is a huge waste of space. 4TB SSDs are out now. It just does not make sense to not use 1TB to 1.2TB of that space.

So IMO, that percentage figure would have been good years ago when 256GB SSDs were considered huge. But not today. I generally recommend keeping at least 30GB free on SSDs. In your with that 120GB SSD, that's still 25% so in either case, even those who go by percentages should be happy.

If you have a lot of files in your Documents folder, moving that folder to a secondary drive will help with your free disk space. Here's a good tutorial for doing that.

Having only 4GB of RAM does not help. Windows can run fine in that, but when you start including running programs (including your security programs), the RAM gets crowded. To compensate, the operating system uses the page file (by default, located on the boot disk) more and more. You should consider bumping up your RAM to 8GB. That is typically considered the "sweet spot" for Windows. That is, less than 8GB and performance is noticeably degraded. More than 8GB and performance gains are minimal, if noticeable at all.

Speaking of security, what are you using for security? Sadly, many security programs tend to bog systems down. Contrary to what many want us to believe, Windows own Windows Defender is actually an excellent security program - especially in Windows 10. It is what I use on all my systems here. If you visit AVTest, one of the most respected testing labs you will see Windows Defender is tied at the top with a 6 and is also certified as a Top Product.

I am NOT promoting Windows Defender over any of the other top rated products and will not get into yet another debate over which is better. I mention this only as a way to free up precious resources if you are already using a 3rd party security app.

But to that, regardless your primary security app of choice, everyone should have a secondary security scanner on hand for "on-demand" scanning just to make sure you (the user and ALWAYS weakest link in security) or your primary scanner did not let something slip by. I generally recommend (and use) Malwarebytes Free for that.

 

I would download and install Samsung Magician for Windows.
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/magician/
This will tell you if you have the latest firmware and the correct driver etc. and will also let you Optimize (Trim) the drive.

 

First then Bill,

C: Drive has 89.9GB used with 28.9GB free. I only use the C: Drive for windows and programs. All my documents and downloads are on G: and I: is dedicated to Family History research.

I use Malwarebytes premium and I’ve had no problems with viruses etc since installing. I used to use CCleaner but uninstalled it after it had it’s meltdown a while ago and it ruined all my settings.

I ran Disk cleanup and it found a whole 687 MB on C: so I re-ran it on System files and it found another 7.20 GB. However, 6.84 if that is Windows update clean-up files. Should I clear these out?

In view of these answers would you still recommend I uninstall my programs and reinstall them on another drive?

 

Hi Caneman,

Samsung Magician is a program (actually, have all programs been re-labelled apps in recent years?) I had not heard of before so I will be trying it shortly.

Thanks

 

Windows itself supports TRIM so Magician is not needed for that. I used it once years ago with my first Samsung SSD and it caused me a lot of grief with Windows. So I uninstalled it and I never use Magician now. Windows does not need any 3rd party software to support SSDs. However, Magician might be useful here for diagnostics but once done, I would uninstall it again. I only recommend it today to "Secure Erase" a SSD before getting rid of the drive since "wipe" does not work effectively on SSDs.

BTW, CCleaner's problems in the past have been long corrected. But with 28.9GB, you don't need the free space.

Some day, maybe but with that much free space, I would not worry about it now. But you do need to watch to make sure you keep a decent chunk of free space available. TRIM and wear-leveling need that space to prolong the life of the drive, and to keep performance optimal.

Going back to your opening post, why do you say the drives "appears" to be getting slower? Why the drive and not the computer itself?

 

I get your point Bill. I’ve installed Magician and run it and it’s made no difference, so I will uninstall it.

I say “drives” because, when my pc was first booted up with the Ssd it was up and running in about 10-12 seconds. Now It takes (i’ve Just timed it) 32 seconds. Also, I refer you to open office “not responding” and the errors I found earlier (see screenshot). I just wondered if it was the SSD?

Maybe i’m Just worrying for no good reason?

 

I mistyped when I said drives, I meant drive.

You may need to uninstall and re-install Open Office. I might suggest you check out LibreOffice. As a Microsoft Office alternative, it is generally preferred.

I would also check to see what you have starting with Windows. They can sure slow down boot times too.

 

Thanks for your advice Bill. I have tried Libre Office before but prefer OO as I’m familiar with it, LO meant a learning curve with time spent that I didn’t have.

I shall check out my boot programs too.

Thanks again.

 

Samsung Magician didn’t report any errors. Thanks for the advice.