@doppler As along the lines of what
@SMcNeill suggests by using a RAM drive. I essentially only run QB64 off a RAM drive. I use a very different implementation of RAM drive to that of
@SMcNeill. However in my implementation it takes about 7 seconds longer to start QB64 for the first time in a power up session but no wait if the computer is in sleep mode (rather than a restart).
If your SSD uses a SATA interface - you would probably notice significant speed increases (over the order of 10-17 times) compared to a spinning HDD. However if your SSD uses a PCIe interface (usually something like a M.2 drive) you may find that even greater speed increases are achieved over a SATA SSD.
RAM memory (e.g. for a RAM drive) is very much faster than SATA access however you may even find a speed performance decrease (compared to PCIe SSD).
Yes non-volatile SSD have finite write cycle lifetimes (however volatile SSD effectively supposed to have practically infinite write cycles e.g. referring to the RAM memory). A drawback of RAM memory (volatile) is if for instance the power is disconnected, the memory is lost forever - hence
@SMcNeill going for persistent configuration.
On SSD vs HDD endurance - SSD (non-volatile) media relies on a Quantum physics phenomenon (spinning HDD is only a magnetic phenomenon) and the technology is relatively new (compared to magnetic technology). A big problem with the Quantum physics approach is that manufacturers are pushing the limits into memory/cost factors to make the product competitive to spinning HDD. It is well known that decreasing the size of each memory cell = small silicon die chip = statistically higher production yields. However decreasing the number of silicon atoms per memory cell causes a drastic reduction of write cycles - so as a SATA SSD is grouped into so called TBW (Tera Bytes Written), a usb flash drive (having smaller memory cells) pales into insignificance compared to say SATA SSD.
Of course if you were really wanting the ultimate non-volatile SSD, as far as TBW is concerned - there is a relatively much newer technology with significant improvements of TBW - but be prepared to spend as much as 10x $'s per byte then the better brands SSD.
On my computer I have QB64 stable build on the PCIe SSD (where Windows is) and the QB64 dev builds (which I use much more often than the stable builds) is on the RAM drive. The ram drive folder is only about 600 Mbyte for me - so I could safely get away with a 750 Mbyte RAM drive (only for QB64). The QB64 stable build (on C:\) is where ALL QB64 programs are stored only (including those from the dev builds). The RAM drive does get "hammered" by the QB64 IDE constantly rewritting of the per-keystroke editing of a program.
