"Win8 System damage hard drive" big old rumors

First of all, we need to understand how to call the "hard drive", because in the current Windows system environment, not only users in the use of the application software has read and write instructions to send the hard disk load, but may be in any idle situation, Defender, SuperFetch and other services will work in the background and cause the load, so when the user does not use the computer to see the hard drive light is also flashing will be disturbed, in fact, this is normal.

Each generation of operating systems will optimize the data structure in order to have better performance in future applications, so the load on the hard drive is inevitable. Is that a slightly higher disk load system is the "hard drive" system? This is obviously a bit exaggerated.

Windows 8 RP Defender Service issues

Windows Defender

First, let's take a look at defender, when a user responded to the Windows 8 Release preview version when it was in use because of the high hard disk load caused by cotton, this is because the RP version, the system in the user's every operation defender will do a scan, packet Enclosed open a folder will also be scanned once, so it is caused by the cotton, especially the mechanical hard drive users. Fortunately, Windows 8 RTM has fixed this problem, so it is also using the RP version of the user to upgrade to RTM as soon as possible.

SuperFetch and mixed startup troubles

Superfetch (Super Pre-read) problem

The other is the SuperFetch (Super Pre Read) service. This technology has been used by Microsoft from Windows Vista, the predecessor of Windows XP "Prefetch". This technology is designed to enable users to start an app, will record the use of this app in the hard drive, and the next time you start the app, it will read the last saved state directly, thus increasing the speed of the operation.

In a way, superfetch can be used in accordance with the user's habit, automatically stored in the hard disk of the exchange file into the memory page, so that users often run the program to start the speed is further accelerated. So the normal use of the hard drive will naturally have a certain occupancy rate. From Vista to Windows 7 to Windows 8, this technology has been in use, which is why many users initially upgraded from XP directly to the new system, apparently feeling the hard drive load is high.

SuperFetch Services in System services

So is superfetch important to all users? Previously, Kai-Fu Lee has talked about: SuperFetch service is designed for enterprise applications and large-scale collaborative software, in large enterprises in the use of professional software and enterprise policy Management, the database startup process will be up to 10 minutes long. And the use of superfetch, can reduce the start-up time to less than 6 minutes, and for individual users, the daily use of the day-to-day software itself is very short start-up time, usually within 1-2 seconds, superfetch the speed of this moment is only 0.2~0.5 seconds, basic can be considered to be no role, It also increases the monitoring of the hard disk (loss of CPU performance time) and read time (increased disk IO addressed thread allocation).

You can deactivate the superfetch here.

So if the average user feels that the hard disk utilization is too high and the usage experience drops, it can be turned off without much impact on performance. In fact, the day-to-day use of individual users often in multiple applications frequently switching multitasking environment, mechanical hard disk random operation performance is a great bottleneck, the use of SSD will be a lot faster. And the system automatically shuts down SuperFetch when it detects only SSD. Now SuperFetch has been accepted by the vast number of users, it will only slightly increase the load on the hard disk, and "hard drive" is not the same thing.

Hybrid boot (mixed boot) service problem

In fact, the most discussed is the new hybrid boot hybrid boot service brought by Windows 8, which refers to compressing the system's core systems such as drivers, system services, and so on when Windows 8 shuts down, and then writing data to the hard drive through the processor. Windows notification shuts down when the data is written to the hard disk. This allows Windows to call these files directly without having to perform a complex initialization process the next time it is powered on, greatly speeding up the boot time.

Quick Launch options in power management system settings

This is actually an advanced hibernate feature. In fact, all the PCs are currently in hibernation to write the hibernation file to the hard disk, the default size of this file is 75% of the physical memory. In this case, it is necessary to increase the hard disk load, this is to get a better experience at the next boot, this is not to destroy the hard drive body.

Disk optimization and upgrade from HDD to SSD

Defragmentation and optimization of disk

Finally, let's talk about defragmentation, and if you use HDD mechanical hard drive, Windows 8 turns on automatic defragmentation, defragmenting the system when it's idle, and you can choose to turn off manual cleanup.

It is worth mentioning that Windows 8 has better support for SSDs, we know that trim is a vital directive for SSDs, and typically it will be tagged after the SSD is idle to improve the efficiency of garbage collection, of course, can also use the SSD vendor-specific tools for manual optimization, the effect is better. However, not all SSD vendors have a companion management tool, Windows 8 is ready for us, in the Disk Management tool, if it is SSD, then click "Optimization" can be achieved trim.

Windows8 can be said to bring the SSD optimization tool

But it is also unreasonable to say that some of the hard drives are not broken by the fact that the HDD is replaced with SSD, and that the reason for this is that the user can hardly feel the delay when using SSD, rather than the hard drive lantern flashing for a long time as an HDD. This is only because the SSD response time is much faster than the HDD, but the load is actually the same.

Many users are misled by some rumors on the internet, and mistakenly understand that the hard disk load is slightly higher than the previous one is "Hurt hard drive", which was in Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 just released when all appeared, but did not have a new system caused by large area of hard disk scrap. We recommend that the majority of users or attitude, the hard disk itself is expendable, normal use do not have to worry about.