What OS tweeks or software is needed for XP SP3 ?

[idata]

Yes, I know, but I am forced to use XP because these are government computers. They are working on upgrading to Win 7, but for now i am stuck.

Anyways, since XP doesn't support TRIM, what else can I do?

I am running the SSDs in AHCI mode.

I have turned off Defrag.

Disabled System Restore.

Disabled Indexing.

Disabled large system cache.

Is there anything I am missing? Is there anything else I can do to help out these drives? Ther are not in a RAID, there is only one SSD per machine.

Is there any 3rd party software that may help?

Thanks

[idata]

The next thing you should do is install the Intel SSD Toolbox: http://www.intel.com/support/go/ssdtoolbox/index.htm http://www.intel.com/support/go/ssdtoolbox/index.htm

Then schedule the SSD Optimizer to run weekly.

You can also probably disable Hibernation assuming this is a desktop and power outages are rare. Hibernation requires disk space equal to your RAM size.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907477 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907477

Run powercfg.cpl, select the Hibernation tab, and uncheck "Enable Hiberation".

[idata]

I'd also check the drive alignment as you are using XP. Vista and Win 7 set the alignment up correctly, but XP does not always do this. You can check with diskpar or later versions of AS SSD Benchmark will tell you if the drive is misaligned.

[idata]

Thanks you two for the suggestions.

I already have the toolbox installed, but Hibernation was still turned on.....not any more

I will also check the disk alignment in the next couple of days as well. If it is out of alignment, what would that cause to happen?

I have read about using a piece of software called SSD Tweaker. Have any of you ever heard of this program?

Also, (I hope this doesn't get me in trouble on here) I have read that using an unofficial version of the RST drivers may also help. Any of you guys know anything about that?

[idata]

The alignment issue is that the XP installer starts at the 63rd disk sector instead of the 64th. This cause all other sectors to be misaligned by 1 sector. If you have a write that would fit in one sector.... it now takes two as just a tiny bit of goes into the next sector. This hurts SSD performance.

If you use the Vista or Window 7 installer, it uses the correct alignment. There are programs to help realign your SSD though.