SSD: Deactivate prefetch

If you have an SSD disk, the prefetch has no advantages and you should deactivate it. We'll show you how.

Disable prefetch on Windows

A prefetcher moves frequently used files on the hard disk in order to enable a faster system start. With an SSD disk, this makes no sense and can even slow down the system start. To deactivate the prefetch, proceed as follows:

• First, open the registry editor. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, click the start button and enter "regedit" in the command line. In Windows 8 you can get there by moving the mouse into the lower left corner of the screen. As soon as the Windows symbol appears, click on the right mouse button and then on "Run". Now enter "regedit" in the command line and confirm.
• In the registry editor, look for the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" key on the left. From there, navigate to the "Control" folder via "System -> CurrentControlSet". There you will find the "PrefetchParameters" in the "Session Manager -> Memory Management" folder. Click on it to see the parameters.
• Double-click the "EnablePrefetcher" entry and an editing window opens. Replace "3" with "0" in the input field and confirm your entry with "OK". Leave the base on "Hexadecimal", you do not need to change anything here.
• In order for the changes to take effect and the function to be deactivated, you must restart the system.

You shouldn't mess around in the Regestry Editor, just make changes if you know what you're doing. The registry is the central location for all configuration data - if you do something wrong here, you can damage your system. What you can do if your SSD hard drive is not recognized can be read in another practical tip.