What’s new: Windows has built-in maintenance tools for SSDs that are often overlooked by users. These tools include TRIM, S.M.A.R.T., and Storage Sense, which help optimize SSD performance and longevity by managing data efficiently and monitoring drive health.

Who’s affected

All Windows users with SSDs can benefit from these hidden maintenance features, especially those using smaller SSDs that may fill up quickly and require regular management to maintain performance.

What to do

• Verify TRIM is enabled by running the command fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify in Command Prompt. If it returns 1, enable it with fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0.
• Access S.M.A.R.T. data through Settings → Storage Settings → Advanced storage settings → Disks & Volumes → Properties to monitor drive health.
• Utilize Storage Sense to automatically clean up temporary files and free up space on smaller SSDs.
• Check and adjust the write caching policy in Device Manager for improved performance under heavy workloads.
• Consider resizing or moving the paging file to another drive if you have ample RAM to reduce unnecessary writes to the SSD.

Sources

• XDA