Windows XP and SSD (tips)

[imperiallord]

I am one of those guys still using Windows xp and sadly despite doing all the things i want i now realized that the OS considers an SSD as if it was a HDD.

Wiindows 7 has a inbuilt TRIM command while windows XP does not, however to aid Windows XP users acronis cloning software has a TRIM option.

Question 1 - how often would i need to trigger this? once a week? Once a month?
I use the PC everyday and i web browse alot.

Question 2 - web browsers will surely limit the lifespan of the SSD, how can i reduce this? Would installing Firefox on the HDD help? can i change where the temp files go? (meaning can i make them go to the hdd instead)
Is there any other tips to reduce writes on the SSD?

Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Why XP?

2. SSD dying from too many writes is not really a consideration anymore.

 

[iceblitzed]

Question 1 - Once a week should be fine.

Question 2 - Id make firefox on the ssd. You can lower the cache of firefox and change where the temp files go.. As USArfnet said the writes from firefox won't limit your ssd lifespan (it will most likely outlive us)

Also another thing USArfnet said, I might consider going to a lightweight Linux OS which are more "ssd friendly" but it is just a suggestion.Yes unfortunately ssds haven't worked the best with windows OS's until win 7

 

[Dereck47]

Question 1 - how often would i need to trigger this? once a week? Once a month?
I use the PC everyday and i web browse alot.

SSDs use idle Garbage Collection in addition to TRIM in order to maintain drive performance so you don't need to manually trigger TRIM that often.
Once every 3 months will be ok for you.

Question 2 - web browsers will surely limit the lifespan of the SSD, how can i reduce this? Would installing Firefox on the HDD help? can i change where the temp files go? (meaning can i make them go to the hdd instead)
Is there any other tips to reduce writes on the SSD?

Not true. Just use your SSD normally as you would a HDD.
Consumer-grade SSDs have been out since 2008. You can search Tom Hardware, Google, Amazon.com, NewEgg.com, etc., and you will see users with SSDs that die everyday, but you won't find one where an SSD died because the user "wrote too much" to it and exhausted the SSD's P/E (Program/Erase) cycles.

I've had 2 60GB SSDs in RAID-0 since 2009 with no issues.
I also have an AMD motherboard/CPU, which means that my SSDs have never had TRIM.

If a 2009 SATA 3Gb/s SSD can perform without TRIM then a 2014 SATA 6Gb/s SSD definitely can.

 

[imperiallord]

1. Why XP?

2. SSD dying from too many writes is not really a consideration anymore.

For starters windows 7 can't connect to my hub in order to have internet, i have the hardware and the password, but it doesn't seem to connect at all, have had ppl here and in some cases they can connect and in some cases they can't, in my case i can't, i can however connect to some non protected ones without an issue, but the reliability of the connection is worse.

Many of the games i still play work primarily for windows xp, some were even modified for that purpose alone, changing to windows 7 would either imply a use of a VM that uses way to many resources or me changing the games themselves so that they work flawlessly on windows 7, worst case cenario it would imply redownloading the games and reinstalling (kinda pointless when they are up and running right now)

Had dual boot at some point, but windows xp opperated everything while windows 7 was being used just for some minor things, making it rather useless, i was using 2 OS and in many cases both did the same tasks just as good, but windows 7 did less tasks.

Windows 7 despite it's compatibility with newer games, those games would never work decently under the hardware i'm using atm, changing OS sounds sweet as newer games can be played, but if they run like c*** then it's pointless.

Security issues aren't a problem to me as i have advanced knowledge about safety procedures, trust me, things such as windows updates isn't a problem, they may relate to the majority of users, but to me they don't really apply, am i vulnerable? yes. But the odds of somethic catastrofic happening is next to nill and the chances wouldn't differ much in windows 7 as i would do the exact same steps to increase security.

I resist change for now and i have gone through great lengths to improve my experience in windows xp and to make application work on it.

Eventually i will move to windows 8 or windows 10, when obviously the change is actually justified or when there is an actual gain to it, but as of now investing on a new machine is just to expensive and changing just the OS will criple my experience.
Changing to windows 7 is something that i actually agree for the general consumer, but sadly for my case it doesn't apply.


2 - i understand writes isn't an issue, but web browers leave a trail of temporary cache files that limit and will hinder the lifespan, so i want to maximize this to avoid problems later on.

EDIT: it seems it won't be a problem for a very long time then? still any tips to minimize writes?

 

[USAFRet]

As far as writes to the drive is concerned.....any current SSD will last decades.
Temp files or whatever.

 

[iceblitzed]

http://www.prime-expert.com/articles/a06/performance-tuning-of-windows-xp-on-ssd-based-netbooks.php

 

[imperiallord]

http://www.prime-expert.com/articles/a06/performance-tuning-of-windows-xp-on-ssd-based-netbooks.php

ty (cool new things to learn, neet) and thanks everyone for all the help