Solved SSD performance concerns when booting win 7 ult

[Jaime74656]

Ok reciently some were working to help me try and resolve windows update issues which lead to me having to just reinstall the OS and that in turn gave me the excuse and oppertunity I needed to also do some small hardware upgrades.

I recently got a Kingston 120GB SSD which I have installed and its running my OS (listed in system specs), and when I got the drive from my local computer place they said I should/would see some sort of performance increase, well truth be told Im NOT seeing it, in fact it seems that boot times are suffering some, as when I had my mech drive (at least 4+ years old mind you) that was a Seagate 500GB drive, booted quicker then the SSD...as for the drive don't ask me specifics about the mech, as all it says is that it is "built for OEM specs and for further info contact teh PC mfg" (where lies another issue as I don't remember what PC it would have come out of as I usually pull drives out of any PC that im getting rid of and reuse them untill they more or less start to have problems/fail on me...so this piticular drive could very well be from the days of my mom's gateway (long gone since 2007/2008.

I am wanting to know of good (safe) ways to make it boot/load faster, once I get into the desktop part it loads with in meer seconds, so my main tiff is the part where you see the windows graphic with the words starting windows...it seems to just sit there and hang for at least 30 seconds to 1 minute or possibly longer...(havent timed it yet)


anyways before people start going on about enabling trim, disableing this thing or that thing, keep it simple, this is my first SSD that I have purchased, I am also reading any and all threads I can about SSDs...so what I want to know is the following (see questions below) questions...

1. How do I enable trim or verify if its already turned on? this is a fresh install of Win 7 64-bit ultimate on the new drive

2. how do I increase the boot time (when the pretty windows graphic shows with "starting windows"

3. how can I squeeze every bit of performance out of the SSD?

4. get the windows loading bit to speed up?

5. any thing else that might help me get to faster load/boot times and get them down as low as they can go...


Thanks for your help as always!!

 

[kbrady1979]

First of all, read this tutorial and check your restart time before you make any changes. Gives you a good baseline and lets you keep track of your improvements. Restart Time

Next, we have a great SSD Optimization Tutorial that you should read.....it should answer most of your questions. SSD Tweaks and Optimizations

 

[JimLewandowski]

How to Use Event Viewer to Find Your PC’s Boot Time

The above link is for semi-reference.


Go to Control Panel, Event Viewer.

Then navigate to:

Microsoft
-- Windows
---- Diagnostics/Performance

Events "100" are what you are looking for. When you highlight an event in the upper pane, the lower pane will display it. Click on the DETAILS tab and then cut and paste a few of the complete FRIENDLY VIEW text.

We should be able to isolate what part of boot is slow.

As an example, here is one of mine:

I just tried cut/pasting the FRIENDLY VIEW text and it won't word wrap so maybe a screen capture would be good.

 

[carwiz]

Click Copy on the menu on the right then paste it here. Select the copied text then click on the # in the tools ribbon. You'll get something that looks like this.

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance
Date:          2/28/2013 2:16:27 PM
Event ID:      100
Task Category: Boot Performance Monitoring
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Event Log
User:          LOCAL SERVICE
Computer:      CCW3-PC
Description:
Windows has started up: 
     Boot Duration  : 40046ms
     IsDegradation  : false
     Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2013‎-‎02‎-‎28T20:14:29.671600300Z
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="[url=http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event]Error[/url]">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance" Guid="{CFC18EC0-96B1-4EBA-961B-622CAEE05B0A}" />
    <EventID>100</EventID>
    <Version>2</Version>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>4002</Task>
    <Opcode>34</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000010000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-02-28T20:16:27.777313800Z" />
    <EventRecordID>3050</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation ActivityID="{036C4A60-F800-0004-E8FA-D636F015CE01}" />
    <Execution ProcessID="1540" ThreadID="2892" />
    <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational</Channel>
    <Computer>CCW3-PC</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-19" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="BootTsVersion">2</Data>
    <Data Name="BootStartTime">2013-02-28T20:14:29.671600300Z</Data>
    <Data Name="BootEndTime">2013-02-28T20:16:25.223167700Z</Data>
    <Data Name="SystemBootInstance">1160</Data>
    <Data Name="UserBootInstance">1157</Data>
    <Data Name="BootTime">40046</Data>
    <Data Name="MainPathBootTime">25546</Data>
    <Data Name="BootKernelInitTime">17</Data>
    <Data Name="BootDriverInitTime">276</Data>
    <Data Name="BootDevicesInitTime">2481</Data>
    <Data Name="BootPrefetchInitTime">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootPrefetchBytes">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootAutoChkTime">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootSmssInitTime">19858</Data>
    <Data Name="BootCriticalServicesInitTime">332</Data>
    <Data Name="BootUserProfileProcessingTime">901</Data>
    <Data Name="BootMachineProfileProcessingTime">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootExplorerInitTime">1011</Data>
    <Data Name="BootNumStartupApps">9</Data>
    <Data Name="BootPostBootTime">14500</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsRebootAfterInstall">false</Data>
    <Data Name="BootRootCauseStepImprovementBits">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootRootCauseGradualImprovementBits">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootRootCauseStepDegradationBits">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootRootCauseGradualDegradationBits">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsDegradation">false</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsStepDegradation">false</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsGradualDegradation">false</Data>
    <Data Name="BootImprovementDelta">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootDegradationDelta">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootIsRootCauseIdentified">false</Data>
    <Data Name="OSLoaderDuration">992</Data>
    <Data Name="BootPNPInitStartTimeMS">17</Data>
    <Data Name="BootPNPInitDuration">2509</Data>
    <Data Name="OtherKernelInitDuration">340</Data>
    <Data Name="SystemPNPInitStartTimeMS">2845</Data>
    <Data Name="SystemPNPInitDuration">248</Data>
    <Data Name="SessionInitStartTimeMS">3098</Data>
    <Data Name="Session0InitDuration">17422</Data>
    <Data Name="Session1InitDuration">101</Data>
    <Data Name="SessionInitOtherDuration">2334</Data>
    <Data Name="WinLogonStartTimeMS">22957</Data>
    <Data Name="OtherLogonInitActivityDuration">676</Data>
    <Data Name="UserLogonWaitDuration">146</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

 

[TVeblen]

1. How do I enable trim or verify if its already turned on? this is a fresh install of Win 7 64-bit ultimate on the new drive

Start > type: cmd > Right click on cmd.exe > Run as administrator
Type: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify > and hit ENTER
If the result is '0' TRIM is enabled.

Now you did not say it so I have to ask: is your SATA controller set to AHCI mode in BIOS?

Does your motherboard have SATA 2 or SATA 3 ports?

How does Windows start up if you disconnect all of your other drives except the SSD?

Let us know.

 

[Jaime74656]

ok dug through the other linked topics (forgot to mention this) and did most of what was there as far as dealing with a fresh install, did a restart but for what ever reason didn't get any message about the windows reboot time so I may try that again (i did get some window that asked me what to do about the program), going to check if the program got blocked, altho I did get a window that asked if i wanted to open/run or cancel that program...

 

[Jaime74656]

Ok update, as far as from the time from the windows balls that fly in and make the flag, to the time it takes to get to desktop seems a lot faster, it still seems things before that point are still slower, so I will be checking things like my boot order and see if there is a way to speed things up there (boot to OS first vs looking at other drives first, ect)

 

[essenbe]

Jamie, everything before you see the starting Windows, is the bios. The bios runs POST (Pre Operation Self Test) before anything, that's when you hear the beep. Once you see the Windows starting is the first time the SSD has anything to do with start up time. Your bios should be in AHCI mode, if it is not, let us know and we can tell you how to put it there. If you do it now, windows will not boot at all. Is your SSD aligned? Download AS SSD and open it, you don't have to run the test if you don't want to. It is a performance test for SSDs. Post a screenshot on your next post making sure we can read the AS SSD window. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html. Also, make sure your SSD data cable is connected to the first data port on your motherboard. And as with all downloads, be sure to read what is downloading with the program. You can uncheck the boxes to not download any add ons they want to include.

 

[carwiz]

Don't expect any answers Steve. The OP seems to be doing his own thing.

 

[essenbe]

Don't expect any answers Steve. The OP seems to be doing his own thing.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

 

[Jaime74656]

Sorry guys things have been hectic lately pulled a mirical move of packing an entire move of all my things with in 3.5 hours so its been nuts, oh and that was with me having to go to work the next day and still manageing to get to bed on time, usually a move with as much as I got takes at least two days, but I will be trying to check the things you suggested, and as for the SSD I do believe the data cabel is in port 1, will recheck as I did add a few new cables and optical drives, as for the ACSI not sure I assume it is, as I never touch the bios (and I always heard it as post on self test or POST) but thats another story. anyways I would be interested in knowing how to either check and set it or at least to check it.

 

[Jaime74656]

Ok figured I would update you guys, every thing has been stable and every thing from the windows logo (I believe where the BIOS hands off to the software) works very nicely, I have since added a second drive (SSD) and put games on it with glass like performance so Im quite happy, so far no hitches and its been about two years or so with them in, possibly a bit longer!


Thanks everyone who contributed and helped reassure me I was doing well with going SSD!