I have been given an 60gb SSD and want to use it with Windows XP Pro. Having read around it sounds like using an SSD as an XP boot drive is problematic. Has anyone successfully done this?
Would it better to just use the SSD as a storage drive for commonly used games and programs but still have XP on a normal SATA hard disk?
Windows XP does not support TRIM so the lifespan of the SSD drive maybe affected.
Depends on the SSD - Some have their own implementation of TRIM & GC built in and ignore the command anyway.
Also it depends if the SATA controller supports it - just to add that into the mix too.
No problems with SSDs and XP at all, it behaves as a normal HDD would...
@Apex: what do you mean by 'if SATA controller supports it'?
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Not quite. XP doesn't support TRIM. If you have a SSD that needs the TRIM command to function properly / keep speeds up, then you're going to have a bad time on XP.Originally Posted by spoon_
Not only that, but XP does not align the SSD which can cause major stuttering issues. This means you need to either setup the disk on another machine first that can, or download the recover image from Microsoft for Vista/Win7 and do it from that.
TRIM needs to be supported at the controller level, not just the driver and OS level.
Are these issues only if you install XP on the SSD?
What if i just use it as a drive for games and have XP on a normal hard disk?
Then you'd lose out on much of the benefit of having an SSD.
The performance gains come from the Boot/OS drive having many random reads in normal system operation.
Random reads being where SSDs greatly outclass HDDs
They're issues if you run XP and use the drive much, and if you format the drive in XP.
Doesn't help. You still need to partition the drive using something block-aware, which XP is not, and if the drive you guy relies upon the OS issuing TRIM commands, then the drive will slow down, fast.What if i just use it as a drive for games and have XP on a normal hard disk?
IIRC Kingston drives had aggressive GC which meant they were fine for XP,
and intel toolbox works fine with XP too.
So I bought a (an?) SSD Corsair NOVA 60 GiG last year and have been putting up with it s lack of performance for quite a while while trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer.
Turns out that there was an incompatability between the automatic setting on the NTFS format proceedure for win XP and SSD drives. Heres the solution that I found, Now it works fine.
1. Get any competent Drive / Partition software. I used Minitool Wizard home that I got for free off of CNET.
2. Partition for XP, Format with NTFS and set for 4K secters. SSDs use 4k secters, but the Auto sets them at 5k (thats where the problem is).
3. When you install Win XP, DO NOT FORMAT. Leave the file system intact.
4. Install should be a breeze and you should have a really fast drive.
Good Luck
Similar situation here, a friend has recently ordered a Samsung 840 and wants me to help him set it up on his XP machine.
Does it matter that he is using XP, will the software that Samsung provide keep it in a healthy state without TRIM?
Will the migration software work fine under XP?
I slapped a verbatim black in an old laptop for a mate a few months ago and apparently that's running absolutely fine on XP. iirc I just cloned the drive over using whatever package it was that came free with my Kingston HyperX 3k. Any decent modern SSD should have behind the scenes garbage collection that will keep it running nicely even without TRIM support - AFAIK it's completely transparent to the OS.
Willzzz (04-02-2013)
The SSD needs to be formated with NTFS at 4k sector size. Any good free partition manager will do this.
Even if you start from a regular Win XP HD system on an old drive, with the SSD plugged in and supported in the BIOS.
Your standard administrative tools in the control panel will do this. Just remember to not reformat when you do the install. Also, keep in mind that your machine will still only start up as fast as the slowest drive on the system.
Once you get your SSD configured with all of your programs, you will still see a dramatic performance increase because the programs that you will use will be loaded onto the SSD.
mac`s have only just started supporting TRIM , yet they use SSD`s perfetly well - most SSD`s have an inbuilt garbage collection *GC* routine anyway
This thread is rapidly approaching a year old and people are just repeat posting what's already been said several times.
Can we let it die now?
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