Solved Stop killing your SSD: 6 must-do Windows 11 tweaks

cheaterslick · Jan 30, 2026

DJNelson said:
The article completely missed the fact most of the unnecessary wear on SSDs is caused by W11 having prefetch and superfetch enabled by default. You do NOT need either if your system has a SSD.

In services.msc, it's called SysMain now.

Enable or Disable SysMain or Prefetch for SSD in Windows 11

Learn how to enable or disable SysMain/Superfetch & Prefetch for SSD. Find out how Windows 11/10 treats Prefetch and SysMain on Solid State Drives.

www.thewindowsclub.com

I also set the page file to let the system manage it and have been doing it that way for years. I'd rather have system stability then worry about any perceived notions from PCWorld concerning 'SSD wear'.

neldog · Jan 31, 2026

FrancoDT said:
Lol, you know back in the 90's I subscribed to their hardcopy paper magazines religiously until they stopped publishing.

Lol, same here - it was a good read back in the day.

gunrunnerjohn · Feb 6, 2026

antspants said:
PC World…

At one point PC World and PC Mag had useful content, but nowadays they're all trying to monetize every page so they've become a giant sales tool for anyone that will pay them. It's really hard to find any off-line or on-line content nowadays that isn't trying to sell you something that's sponsored.

Django · Feb 6, 2026

i took 2 old HDDs i had laying arround (80gb and 360gb both 7200 rpm) and stripesetted them (Software Raid). then i deleted pagefile from C: and took 3 times the amount of physical ram this ancient pc has = 18gb and created 18gb static pagefile on D:. Now smol 128gb SSD can live a stressless life in peace and harmony. why? because i can

HeavyHemi · Feb 6, 2026

My Samsung 850 Pro 256GB OS drive is

Power on hours according the SMART, is 47K. All my other SSD drives are 97% or higher, but they are basically storage for games. My oldest drive a M4 Crucial 500GB.

gunrunnerjohn · Feb 8, 2026

My pagefile has been 4GB every since I installed Windows on this machine, it's never changed.

My whole installation takes 1/3 of the logical drive, so it's really a non-factor.

hdmi · Feb 10, 2026

DJNelson said:
The article completely missed the fact most of the unnecessary wear on SSDs is caused by W11 having prefetch and superfetch enabled by default. You do NOT need either if your system has a SSD.

But did you completely miss the fact that Windows 8 and later versions of Windows will already skip the Superfetch function (which is part of SysMain as of Windows 10 version 1809) for SSDs dynamically?

Defrag: Disabling Hibernation, Superfetch, onboard VGA

Microsoft tech troubleshooter extraordinaire Gov Maharaj and I help walk you through troubleshooting solutions to your tech support problems. If you have a problem you want to send us, you can use the

web.archive.org

jimbo45 · Feb 10, 2026

This whole thing on SSD wear and tear is rediculously overstated. I've still got a load of classical 2.5 inch SSD's that I use daily and have had for years -- still all in good working order. Just don't defrag or waste your time with that sort of stuff even with modern spinners with proper cache sizes and minimum of 7200 RPM don't ever bother with defrag -- total waste of time and effort.

Cheers
jimbo

DJNelson · Feb 10, 2026

hdmi said:
But did you completely miss the fact that Windows 8 and later versions of Windows will already skip the Superfetch function (which is part of SysMain as of Windows 10 version 1809) for SSDs dynamically?

Defrag: Disabling Hibernation, Superfetch, onboard VGA

Microsoft tech troubleshooter extraordinaire Gov Maharaj and I help walk you through troubleshooting solutions to your tech support problems. If you have a problem you want to send us, you can use the

web.archive.org

Not sure what you're talking about. It is a fact Sysmain (superfetch) is enabled by default in all versions of windows 11, even on machines with an SSD system drive.

hdmi · Feb 10, 2026

DJNelson said:
Not sure what you're talking about. It is a fact Sysmain (superfetch) is enabled by default in all versions of windows 11, even on machines with an SSD system drive.

Just click on the video and listen to the explanation from Microsoft developer Gov Maharaj.

Bree · Feb 10, 2026

Surely Superfetch/SysMain has no effect on the life of an SSD? Isn't it just reading from it? It's writes that wear an SSD.

gunrunnerjohn · Feb 10, 2026

I'm in the camp of having a pretty old SATA SSD that was my Windows 10 drive for years, it still shows perfect health and 85% of life remaining. I'm not losing any sleep over my SSD's dying from use.

FrancoDT · Feb 10, 2026

gunrunnerjohn said:
I'm in the camp of having a pretty old SATA SSD that was my Windows 10 drive for years, it still shows perfect health and 85% of life remaining. I'm not losing any sleep over my SSD's dying from use.

I was thinking about that, how many here have had an SSD die on them before the PC became so outdated it needed replacing anyway?

gunrunnerjohn · Feb 10, 2026

FrancoDT said:
I was thinking about that, how many here have had an SSD die on them before the PC became so outdated it needed replacing anyway?

The old PC is sitting in the corner stripped of anything useful, it's totally retired. I bought the SSD 5-6 years ago. and "upgraded" that machine for speed. The SSD was my Windows drive all that time, presumably getting the most use, and it appears to have years of life ahead of it.

Of all the SSD's I've have, probably around 15 or so, I have had one failure under warranty of one of the early 128GB models. I did have another SSD failure, but it was a bad power supply cable that put 12V on the 5V line, probably couldn't expect that one to survive! So far, my SSD drives have been probably as reliable as my HDD drives, so I can't really complain.

The one difference seems to be that when an SSD fails, it is more likely to just go dead and it's bye-bye data. Many HDD failures give you more warning, but obviously not all failures.

The basic rule here is have good backups whatever storage technology you are using.

pseymour · Feb 10, 2026

FrancoDT said:
I was thinking about that, how many here have had an SSD die on them before the PC became so outdated it needed replacing anyway?

Exactly. Most of the fear around SSDs wearing out comes from the days when the technology was new. It just isn't that way anymore. I've had only one die that I can remember, and it was in a work PC. It was about six months old and just quit. I didn't wear it out; it just decided to retire way before I did.

Timbo128 · Mar 21, 2026

Ghot said:
....I'm OCD. I've been doing the same things for 25 years at least. ....

Well, it's comforting to know that I share the OCD gene with someone....for the longest time we were beginning to think we were the only one on the planet that had it!....

.....

Btw, what brought me to this thread was the hunt for solutions to W11 issues that decided to start plaguing me....am drafting up a new thread to present here shortly with a plethora of concerns and issues....hope you and @Bree will have time to help me....

Much Thanks-
Timbo (the lord of overthought)

DJNelson · Mar 21, 2026

FrancoDT said:
I was thinking about that, how many here have had an SSD die on them before the PC became so outdated it needed replacing anyway?

It's habit. I replaced a lot SSDs that failed within 2-3 years, but those were all in machines that were built during the windows 7 days or even earlier.

Solved Stop killing your SSD: 6 must-do Windows 11 tweaks

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