Specific issues unique for SSD?

When installing and using an SSD, are there specific issues you need to be aware of that you don't need to worry when using a mechanical hard drive?

The drive would be installed in a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit laptop with 8GB RAM and Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz. This machine has SATA 2 interface although I would most likely buy a SATA 3 drive which is backward compatible.

 

@hendra make sure you overprovision the drive, to keep it fit and fast over the time. I recommend 30%; some might call it overkill.

 

Overkill, phfff!

33% or go home.

 

No difference between HDD and SSD:

• Clean O/S install required.
• DO NOT DO ANY 'SSD' TWEAKS.
• DO NOT DO ANY 'O/S' TWEAKS.
• Partition the drive if the O/S, Programs and DATA are to stored on it.
  • C:\Drive - 150GB - O/S + Programs + 25GB Minimum Free Space (and can 'shrink' the drive after fully setting it up to add the equivalent to the Data drive partition, while respecting the minimum free space requirements, of course).
  • D:\DATA - remainder of the drive after OP'ing by 33%.
    • Eg. SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD:
      • 480GB nominal = ~447GB actual
      • 447GB x .67 = ~300GB after OP'ing
      • 300GB total available capacity minus 150GB for C:\Drive leaves 150GB capacity for D:\DATA drive.
• Install the drivers as necessary to get a stable and fully functioning system.
• Move the Users folders to a folder on the D:\Drive (I usually use 'u' as the folder name - shorter is better).
• Do all required O/S updates.
• Install required Software and fully update each one.
• Install DATA to D:\Drive as needed.
• Disable sleep timers and leave the system idle at least overnight.

At this point, I would defrag the system using PerfectDisk.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ion-are-there-now.784638/page-2#post-10172746

Read the relevant posts on defragging starting with the link above.

(Note: I would also highly recommend Win10Pro for your setup assuming you can find stable drivers (with a clean install - not an upgrade). More stable, more responsive (especially with an SSD) and with better battery life and a cooler running system (at light loads).

Now? Enjoy.

 

There are a few things. The SSD should be aligned for 4k sectors, which Windows will do automatically if you install directly (instead of cloning). Also, Windows defragmenting should be turned off, as it is not needed for SSDs. There are a few more tweaks that can be done to maximize usable space (such as disabling hibernation if you don't use it and reducing page file to the minimum) or preventing excessive I/O wear on the SSD (such as disabling superfetch, prefetch, and/or indexing), but they're more of a user preference thing whether or not you want to do them.

Additionally, similarly to hard drives, SSDs perform slower when they are completely full, so leave 10-30% of the SSD capacity free to maximize performance.