[Solved] Why Is My SSD Slower than My HDD?

Scenario: Why is my SSD slower than my HDD?

“My SSD takes a little longer to boot up than a WD Blue 7200 HDD. So I checked the startup time, and my PC booted up in about 2 minutes this time. It's not a typical SSD performance. What could be going wrong?”

Many people prefer to move from HDDs to SSDs for one simple reason: SSDs start up a computer rapidly. However, poor SSD read/write speeds are a genuine issue. If your device has an SSD, you may have observed that its performance drops considerably at times. Opening programs and transferring files will take longer than usual, and this may also create freezing difficulties, making your device more difficult to operate.

Why is SSD slowing down?

SSD is a type of storage device that has grown in popularity in recent years. It employs integrated circuit assemblies to assist users in permanently storing data. However, sluggish SSD read or write speeds on computers can be caused by a variety of factors.

1. TRIM command is either deactivated or does not exist.

2. AHCI mode is disabled.

3. the BIOS/firmware is outdated.

4. Low system drive space.

5. The boot sequence has been specified wrongly.

6. The computer or SSD is infected with the virus.

7. Something is wrong with the SATA port or cable

8. RAM shortage

These are the common reasons why your SSD is slow.

How to optimize Windows 10/11 SSD

In this part, we’ll show some solutions to help you speed your SSD up and optimize it. You can choose some of them to try to check if the SSD has been improved or not.

Solution 1. Check the TRIM command

Step 1. Click Start, and in the search bar, type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click Command Prompt and click Run as Administrator.

Step 3. Type the command below and press “Enter”: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

If you get 0, it means TRIM is already enabled. If you get 1, please type: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0

Solution 2. Check that AHCI mode is enabled

Step 1. Open Device Manager.

Step 2. Expand the IDE ATA / ATAPI Controllers.

Step 3. If you see AHCI Controller in the list, you have it enabled. You will likely have AHCI disabled on your computer if you see only ATA and IDE words.

AHCI Mode is critical for keeping your SSD's excellent performance and preventing it from running slowly. If this feature is deactivated, the computer may crash or display the dreaded BSOD.

If AHCI is deactivated and you wish to enable it on Windows, follow these steps:

Step 1. Open the Registry editor, find these keys, and set the value name to 0:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorAVC\StartOverride

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\StartOverride

Step 2. Restart your computer and go to UEFI/BIOS firmware settings to enable AHCI mode. After you save and exit, restart your computer once more.

Solution 3. Disable onboard VGA

Step 1. Restart your computer and open BIOS.

Step 2. Navigate to the Advanced BIOS section.

Step 3. Search for Onboard VGA.

Step 4. Select the Disable option.

Step 5. Exit BIOS and click Yes to save changes.

Solution 4. Adjust the boot sequence

If the boot device order is incorrect, the SSD will be delayed during Windows 10 starting. In this instance, you must modify the boot sequence to prioritize the SSD.

Step 1. Reboot your PC and enter BIOS by pressing the corresponding button(s).

Step 2. Navigate to Advanced BIOS.

Step 3. Access Hard Disk Boot Priority.

Step 4. Choose SSD as the First Boot Device by using the up and down arrows.

Step 5. Exit BIOS and save changes.

Solution 5. Extend system drive space

If the system drive is running out of space, your OS will also boot very slowly. Extending C drive space can fix this problem, but not every C drive can be extended.

If there is an unallocated space right behind your C drive, then you can go to Disk Management to easily extend it. However, if it’s not at the right location or you have a D drive on the same SSD, then Disk Management is not a suitable tool.

In these cases, you can choose AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. It’s a Windows disk and partition manager that can merge nonadjacent unallocated space and allocate free space from one partition to another. What’s more, you can also move some installed large apps to another drive/disk to release free space on the C drive.

▶ Merge partition

Step1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, you will see the main environment of your hard drive. Right-click the C drive and point to "Advanced", then select "Merge Partitions".

Step2. Then, it will move to the window where you can assign unallocated space to C drive by selecting the partitions in the box. Click "OK". (You can also merge two neighboring partitions)

Step3. Here you can see that you have already extended the C partition by adding the unallocated space to the C drive. Don’t forget to click "Apply" to submit the whole operation.

▶Allocate free space

Step 1. Open it and you will see enough free space on drive D. Right-click it and choose the button "Allocate Free Space".

Step 2. The following picture will show up. It will give you the detail. Choose the size and destination drive you want.

Step 3. Please click "Apply" to commit. After that, another window will show up. Please select "Proceed". The picture below shows all your operations are finished.

Solution 6. Change to a larger SSD

If your SSD has been in service for almost 5 years and now you feel it’s slower, then you can change to a new SSD with larger storage space. Normally, an SSD can run for 5 years if you’re not a gamer. If it’s almost over 5 years, it’s normal that you feel it’s slowing down.

Some users feel annoyed to reinstall OS and data loss during the disk upgrade. Well, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant to clone your old SSD to your new SSD. Then all data will be transferred and you don’t need to reinstall the system and all your programs. And the operation is quite simple, only a mouse click needs. Once your new SSD is connected to your PC and initialized, then we can start.

Step 1. In the main interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, click “Clone” and then “Clone Disk”.

Step 2. Choose the Windows system drive as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the SSD drive as the destination disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone", and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of the SSD. 

Step 5. Click “Finish” and then click “Apply” to execute the pending operation.

After you have cloned the Windows system to the SSD drive successfully, you need to change the boot order in the BIOS menu to boot Windows your new SSD.

Solution 7. Check SATA port

The speed of the port has a significant impact on the performance of the SSD. It might be difficult to locate the SATA Port, therefore consult the motherboard's instructions for assistance. Typically, Intel chipset-based motherboards include an Intel SATA controller. This controller in particular has the fastest speed. As a result, the boot device should only be attached to this one.

Solution 8. Change power settings

Step 1. In the Start menu, search for power and click on Power & Sleep settings.

Step 2. Select Additional power settings on the right side

Step 3. Click on Create a Power Plan on the left and select High Performance.

To sum up

In this post, we show you the possible reason why is my SDD slower than my HDD, and some ideas to fix SSD slowing down. Hope you can improve your SSD and PC performance in these ways.

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a helpful tool for Windows users, it can convert a disk to MBR/GPT without deleting partitions, convert file systems between FAT32 and NTFS without formatting, and so on. And it has the Server Edition for Windows Server users.