SSD on EX58A-UD7 question

[ed1]

I have a Patriot Torqx 64GB SSD as the OS drive for Windows 7 64-bit on a EX58A-UD7.

I have always used AVG Free for anti-virus. AVG 9 has a caching/optimization routine that does a lot of indexing of system and other files. As far as I can tell, this routine runs constantly.

I have read that with SSD drives, it is wise to disable OS services that involve a lot of HDD access, such as prefetching, indexing, etc. to prevent excessive wear on the SSD. I believe that Windows 7 in fact turns off these services automatically for SSD drives.

Is it wise to use AVG 9 on a system with a SSD OS drive in view of this repetitive disk access issue?

[Psycho101]

Re: SSD on EX58A-UD7 question

Using Av tools like AVG isn't an issue. You want to be avoiding unnecessary writes, not reads. AVG will only write to a small syatem log and to move things to quarantine in the (hopefully) rare case it finds a virus/mal-ware.

AVG doesn't constantly cache files, it scans everything loaded into RAM via its resident shield. It only creates an Index once to map out the important OS files etc. Any optimisations caan be turned off in the options menu.

Also don't rely on Win 7 removing scheduled defrag, superfetch, prefetching etc. I've installed Win 7 Final on 2 SSD's so far, run the WEI and it did nothing.

[ed1]

Re: SSD on EX58A-UD7 question

Psycho101, please check out this thread:

AVG Forums - AVG9 - Disc Access

Are you saying that this is not a concern at all for SSD's, particularly SSD's with the OS loaded?

[Psycho101]

Re: SSD on EX58A-UD7 question

From reading that thread it seem s like a bug in AVG, not anything you should be worried about unless you experience the bug too.

The IO Write Bytes the guy quoted were from an initial install. That number is to be expected on the first few boots, activity will calm down to log file only very swiftly (unless this "bug" is happening for you too).

Under no circumstances should a user attempt to disable AVG or any other AV tool to minimise SSD writes. There are many more and safer optimisations to make. Did you know that during 1 hour of average web browsing, I observed Google Chrome make 85 Million write bytes to the internet cache? This kind of activity will happen every time you use the browser. Same goes for the page file. it's seen as one big file but is merely a container for many many small pages.

AVG is very configurable. Moving the designated AVG temp file to a normal HDD will also move the cache to that location (unless its configured manually, in which case move it manually).

If you're worried about this "bug" that only two-three people seem to have experienced (according to that thread) then I suggest moving to another AV product. Microsoft Security Essentials is a very competent program with a low memory profile and combined malware, spyware and virus resident scanner.

For me MSSE is on 72000 write bytes on a system that's been running for 7 hours. It's only that high because it's downloaded an update earlier.

Too much emphasis is put on writes to SSD's, so much that it gets a little pointless really. Why buy a SSD and then be scared to use it? I don't blame you, I blame the scaremongering that's propogated, usually by people who know very little.

As long as you've moved your Page File, Disabled Scheduled Defrag, Disabled Prefetch and Superfetch, Disabled Indexing (leave windows search, it's useful), moved the Page file to the first partition of a spinning disk and moved the Internet Cache, you have done everything humanly reasonable to prolong its life. Even with all those things enabled, it'll last longer than its useful life, ie you'll replace it long before it dies. Perfornance restoration processes like Idle Garbage Collection and TRIM will also increase wear, but are necessary, as is AV.

Edit: According to an AVG staff member there will soon be an option to disable caching on each drive seperately. Until then, if it worries you I'd switch AV products or see if you can disable the caching/Optimization function.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: SSD on EX58A-UD7 question

also don't rely on win 7 removing scheduled defrag, superfetch, prefetching etc. I've installed win 7 final on 2 ssd's so far, run the wei and it did nothing.

+10 ^^

[ed1]

Re: SSD on EX58A-UD7 question

Psycho101, thanks for all of that info. Very informative and appreciated.