Performing Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10 sometimes becomes deadly necessary to make a computer run fluently as well as to boot up faster. Due to prolonged use, the disk drives become fragmented making the windows laggy. Here you will find the optimization and defragment methods via the built-in tool, Command Prompt, moreover, PowerShell
What is Optimize and Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10?
Optimization and defragment are the maintenance utilities in Windows 10 including the previous editions that improve the performance. Hard disk drives are prone to get fragment after taking huge workload over the days.
They find too tough to read the data in windows or take a long time. Eventually, the computer slows down and we feel uncomfortable to work along.
In order to get rid of the clog, we need to optimize the windows by defragmenting it. This process might take a bit longer but repairs the drive that ends up with a boost up of the speed.
The necessity of Defragment
Hard disk consists of spinning platters and the data you store takes a place around these. After you save files and folders they get arranged in sequence with blocks on each side of platters.
Because of the fragmentation, data in the blocks split and divaricate from one another. The process puts all these broken parts together and arranges in the same fashion as it was earlier further.
When do you need to Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10?
Defragment is system maintenance you should run once found the device not performing as expected. It depends upon usage actually. There is no hard and fast rule. Generally, a defragment should be carried out before 10% fragment occurs in the disk.
Even though Windows 10 defrags on a weekly basis automatically, users can do it manually too once the device is sluggish.
Effects of Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10
The prime effect of defragmenting is the improvement the overall performance of the computer. However, this does following things in the system:
How to Optimize and Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10
There are quite a few easy procedures to Optimize and Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10 such as using Drive properties, Command Prompt, and PowerShell. Let’s see them in details:
Using the Built-in Optimization Drive tool
Step-1: Hold down Windows+E hotkey altogether in order to launch the File Explorer.
Step-2: Make a right click on any Disk drive you like to defragment and Select Properties.
Step-2: Switch to Tools tab and perform a click on Optimize.
Step-3: Once the tool opens you see how much percent the hard drives are fragmented in the Current status column. Moreover, click on Analyze after selecting a drive to know the situation at present.
Step-4: Select a drive and press Optimize to begin the defragmentation.
Step-5: Select “Close” once the whole process ends.
How to Optimize and Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10 via Command Prompt (Admin)
defrag /C
Note- If you need to defragment D, E, F or other dive replace with C.
defrag C: /O
defrag <volumes> | /C | /E <volumes> [<task(s)>] [/H] [/M [n] | [/U] [/V]] [/I n] Where <task(s)> is omitted (traditional defrag), or as follows: /A | [/D] [/K] [/L] | /O | /X Or, “to track an operation already in progress on a volume”: defrag <volume> /T
How to Optimize and Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10 at boot menu
Sometimes you might need to Optimize and Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10 when system refuses to boot in normal mode. Recovery environment lets open Command prompt using which you can run the defrag commands for the optimization.
1) Open the Start menu and Select Gear icon to open Settings app. Alternatively, press Win+I to do the same. Move on to Update & security.
2) Select Recovery from the left pane and move aside to corresponding right. Press “Restart now” option beneath Advanced startup.
Important – This utility will not allow the windows to reboot normally rather will proceed to an advanced boot menu before starting. It may take some time to load the screen.
3) Choose Troubleshoot from the following screen.
4) Select “Advanced options” from the left on next page.
5) Make a click on “Command Prompt” from here.
6) Once fully loaded, select “Computer” option from this screen.
7) Provide your Windows 10 password when prompted and hit “Continue” button. After verification, the system will advance you to Command Prompt (Admin).
8) Now, either type or copy/paste the following commands successively and hit Enter button after each:
diskpart list volume exit
9) Now use defrag /C to defragment the partition according to the procedure we discussed in Step-3 of above method.
How to Optimize and Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10 using PowerShell
i. Press Win+X and select “Windows PowerShell (admin)” from the list. Now for various types of Defragment, you need to run different commands:
• First of all, Analyze present optimization of a specific disk drive:
Run the following command and hit Enter button
Optimize-Volume -<c> -Analyze –Verbose
Replace “c” with the Letter of a specific Disk drive on your system.
• Automatically run Defragment in the right way:
Type the below command and press Enter button
Optimize-Volume -<c> -Verbose
Note- Substitute “C” with Drive letter you want to defrag.
• Trim Solid State Drive (SSD):
Optimize-Volume -<C> -ReTrim -Verbose
Note – Replace “C” with original driver letter.
See the particular instructions on another location – How to Trim SSD on Windows 10 Using PowerShell.
• Defragmenting Hard Disk Drive (HDD):
Optimize-Volume -<C> -Defrag –Verbose
Put the Letter indicating Specific drive in place of “C”
Lastly, close PowerShell after finishing the whole process.
How to Change Defragment schedule
Previously you have already come to know that Windows 10 regularly does Disk Drive Optimization on a weekly basis schedule using built-in setting. However, if you are a heavy user, you can change this schedule on your own. Here is the process.
Type “Optimize drive” in Cortana Search box beside Start menu. Select “Defragment And Optimize Drives” from the Best match field.
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Hit “Change settings” below “Scheduled optimization” in the available window.
Make sure that “Run on a schedule (recommended)” option is ticked otherwise, all options will be grayed out.
Pick one defragment frequency that suits you from the options “Daily”, “Weekly” or “Monthly”.
Proceeding forward, perform a click on “Choose” option besides Drives for optimization. Check “Automatically optimize new drives” options and select “Ok” option.
Note – Check “Select all” or choose one by one based on demand.
Finally hit click on “Ok” for saving the changes.
These are all about how to Optimize and Defragment Hard Disk Drive in Windows 10.
by Martin Brinkmann on April 01, 2019 in Windows - 13 comments
Microsoft's Windows operating system runs maintenance tasks including disk analysis and defragmention regularly on its own.
Most Windows users and administrators don't need to run these manually anymore, but there are cases where you'd like to do so.
I checked Optimize Drives recently and discovered that Windows refused to run on two of the hard drives. Windows displayed 'Optimization not available' as the status, 'unknown' as the media type, and 'never run' as the last run date and time.
You can access the Optimize Drives tool by right-clicking on a drive in Explorer, selecting Properties from the context menu, and opening Tools > Optimize.
The analyze and optimize buttons could not be used in the window as they were not active. My first assumption was that this might have something to do with encryption, as both volumes were encrypted and only mounted when I needed to access data on them.
Two solutions came to my mind: try the command line version of defrag to see if it would work, or use third-party defragmentation software like Smart Defrag, Vopt, Defraggler or Live Defrag. I decided to try the command line tool defrag first as it is a first-party solution.
Fixing the 'Optimization not available' issue
You need to launch an elevated command prompt to get started. If you are on Windows 10, use the shortcut Windows-X to display the 'hidden' menu and select Command Prompt (Admin). You may also open Start on any version of Windows, type cmd.exe, right-click on the result, and select run as administrator to launch an elevated command prompt window.
The core command is defrag and you may want to start running defrag /? to display all command options. Microsoft has a handy reference on the company's Docs website that explains each of the parameters and gives some examples.
You may want to run an analysis first. The analysis returns the fragmentation status of the drive and gives a recommendation.
defrag p: /A
The command analysis the fragmentation status of the drive P on the device. You need to change the drive letter if it is not drive P that you want to analyze. The command defrag c: /A would analyze the C drive instead.
You may defragment the drive if the drive is fragmented, e.g. when Windows recommends that you should defragment the drive.
defrag p: /U /V
The command runs the defragmentation operation on drive P. The parameters U and V echo progress and information on the screen while the operation takes place.
You will notice that defrag runs fine on the drives even though Windows' 'Optimize Drives' tool refused to run these operations.
Tip: If you want to defrag SSDs, use the parameters /L and /O as well. It instructs defrag to run a trim command after the operation completes and to run the proper optimization for the media type.
Other parameters of interest are:
Closing Words
If Windows refuses to run defragmentation operations on a drive in 'Optimize Drives', use the command line version of defrag instead to run the commands.
Fix 'Optimization Not Available' in Optimize Drives in Windows
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Find out what you can do if the Windows 'Optimize Drives' tool blocks defragmentation operations on selected hard drives.
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How to use this guide
In this guide, we will walk you through how to optimize your Windows computer if you’re receiving errors, devices aren’t recognized, or has poor performance in the studio. We recommend making one change at a time and check the performance after each step. If the issue is resolved, there’s no need to go on to the next step. Follow the sections below to get started.
Optimization 101: System Maintenance
Performing basic system maintenance is the first thing to do when optimizing your PC. These small tweaks can fix a lot of issues that may arise with your recording rig.
Basic system maintenance
There are many simple solutions to optimize your Windows computer. While they may seem trivial, it can make a world of difference and increase the performance of your PC. Here are a few basic tips to keep your system running smoothly.
File management
While it may not seem like an optimization, proper file management is essential. Not only does it make everything more organized, but it makes it easier to keep track of how much space you have on each hard drive.
Hardware connections
Using the right cables and making sure everything is connected correctly can most certainly help, especially when using your DAW. While it won’t necessarily affect speed, it can help eliminate any potential grounding noise and connectivity errors.
Drivers and Firmware
While some are considered class-compliant and don’t require driver installation, most external hardware devices such as audio interfaces, hard drives, and MIDI controllers need dedicated drivers to connect and communicate to a PC correctly. Some also include firmware, which is essentially a device’s “operating system”.
Updating audio hardware drivers & firmware
If you’re experiencing playback and recording issues, installing the latest firmware and drivers for your interface can fix that. You can find your interface’s available downloads from our driver index page below. We recommend disconnecting the hardware before installing the driver. Sometimes, especially if you restart your computer, a generic driver will be installed in its place which can cause hardware issues. Follow these steps to install the drivers correctly.
1. Uninstall the current driver then disconnect the audio interface.
2. Download and install the latest driver and firmware (if applicable) from the vendor’s website. Be sure to follow the on-screen instructions during installation.
3. Restart the computer then reconnect the interface.
Click the above image to download drivers for your audio & MIDI devices.
Updating system device drivers
There may be a time where you need to manually update system drivers, especially if you have an older system. For example, if you’re using the newest video editing software but have an out-of-date graphics driver, you may run into glitches and poor performance. Or, if you are using a wireless digital mixer and it’s not connecting, you may need to consider updating your computer’s network drivers. Follow these steps to update system drivers manually.
1. Open Control Panel and click on Device Manager.
2. Click the arrow next to Display Adapters for Graphics drivers, Universal Serial Bus for USB chipset drivers, or Network Adapters for Networks drivers.
3. Right-click and choose Update Driver, followed by ‘Search automatically for updated driver software’. If no driver is found, update the driver manually using the steps below:
Device Manager
Power & Disk OptimizationAdjusting Power Options
It is recommended to change the power options as these following features can cause playback and record issues as well as problems with your audio interfaces, mainly if you are using a laptop. Follow these steps to optimize your power options.
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1. Open Control Panel and click Power Options.
2. Select High Performance and choose Change plan setting.
3. Set the computer’s sleep time to Never.
4. Click on Change advanced power settings.
5. Click on the + next to USB settings, then click the + next to USB selective suspend settings.
6. Double-click where it says Enabled, then click Disabled.
7. Click on the + next to Processor power management, then click the + next to Minimum processor state and type 100 in the text field (%).
8. Click Apply, then OK, and finally Save Changes.
Disable USB power management
By disabling the USB power management, you can free up bandwidth on the USB bus which will help with issues related to device recognition and driver installation. Follow these steps to turn it off.
1. Open Control Panel and click on Device Manager.
2. Double-click on Universal Serial Bus Controllers as well as the first USB Root Hub item.
3. Click on the Power Management tab and uncheck the box that says “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” and click OK. Repeat this for all USB Controllers.
Hard disk optimizations
Performing hard drive optimizations will improve disk performance when recording and playing back audio files, and also improve loading times if you’re using a 5400 or 7200 RPM spinning disk hard drive. This is not required for solid state disks (SSD’s). Follow these steps to optimize your hard drives.
1. Right click on the Windows Logo, choose File Explorer, then click This PC in the left Column.
2. Right click on the drive on which you will store your audio and select Properties.
3. Make sure “Compress this drive to save disk space” and “Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed” are unchecked.
4. Click Apply, then OK. Repeat this process for any drive where you’ll be storing audio.
Helpful Links
I have Windows 8.1 Professional x64 running from a 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 SSD.
Windows has divided the drive in to two partitions:
Whenever Windows attempts to optimize the System Reserved partition, I get an error in the event log:
Should I just remove this from the list of items that are on the optimize schedule or is there a way to fix this issue such that the optimization can succeed?
Not only on SSD but also on Hard Drive the problem exists:
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Solid-state drives aren’t anywhere near as small and fragile as they used to be. You don’t need to worry about wear, and you don’t need to go out of your way to “optimize” them. Windows 7, 8, and 10 automatically do the work for you.
SSDs Aren’t as Small or Fragile as They Used to Be
There are a lot of guides out there about optimizing your SSD, but we don’t recommend following most of them. Some of the advice is outdated, and some of it was never necessary.
Much of the advice on “optimizing” Windows for an SSD involves reducing the amount of writes to the SSD. That’s because each cell of flash memory on the drive only has a limited number of writes before it can’t be written to anymore. Guides assert that you should try to avoid unnecessary wear on the SSD by minimizing the amount of writes.
But worries about SSD wear are overblown. Tech Report ran an 18-month-long stress test where they wrote as much data to SSDs as possible to see when they failed. Here’s what they found:
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve watched modern SSDs easily write far more data than most consumers will ever need. Errors didn’t strike the Samsung 840 Series until after 300TB of writes, and it took over 700TB to induce the first failures. The fact that the 840 Pro exceeded 2.4PB is nothing short of amazing, even if that achievement is also kind of academic.”
Even at 700TB, the lowest failure threshold, you could write 100 GB a day to the drive every single day for over 19 years before the drive failed. At 2 PB, you could write 100 GB a day to the drive every single day for over 54 years before the drive failed. It’s unlikely you’ll write that much data to the drive every single day. You’ll probably be done with the drive well before then. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ll die before your SSD dies of wear. Everything wears down, and SSDs are no exception–but they don’t wear down so quickly that we need to worry about it.
You still need to perform regular backups of your important files, as SSDs could fail for other reasons aside from wear. And for extremely heavy use–for example, database servers–an SSD might not be up to snuff. But tweaking Windows to write a bit less to the drive won’t make an appreciable difference.
Other guides advise you to reduce the amount of files you store on the SSD to save space. That’s because SSDs may slow down as you fill them up, just like any other drive–but this was more helpful when SSDs were tiny. Modern SSDs are larger and less expensive, so you shouldn’t have to disable important system functions (like hibernation) to stay within these limits.
Windows Already Performs the Necessary Optimizations For You
There are some important optimizations, but Windows performs them all automatically. If you used an SSD with Windows XP or Vista, you needed to manually enable TRIM, which ensures your SSD can clean up deleted files and stay speedy. However, ever since Windows 7, Windows has automatically enabled TRIM for any drive it detects as solid-state.
System Reserve Needs Optimization
The same goes for disk defragmentation. Performing a typical defragmentation operation on an SSD isn’t a good idea–even if wear isn’t a concern, attempting to move all that data around won’t speed up file access times like it will on a mechanical drive. But Windows already knows this, too: modern versions of Windows will detect that SSD and will turn off defragging. In fact, modern versions of Windows won’t even let you attempt to defragment an SSD.
On Windows 8 and 10, the “Optimize Drives” application will attempt to optimize your SSDs even further. Windows will send the “retrim” command on the schedule you configure. This forces the SSD to actually delete data that should have been deleted when TRIM commands were originally sent. Windows 8 and 10 will also perform an SSD-optimized type of defragmentation about once a month. Microsoft employee Scott Hanselman offers more details on his blog.
Windows 8 and 10 also automatically disable the SuperFetch service for speedy solid-state drives. Leave SuperFetch “on” in Windows 10 and it will automatically enable itself for slower mechanical drives and disable itself for fast SSDs. You don’t need to tweak this by hand–Windows 10 just does the right thing. Windows 7 will disable SuperFetch system-wide if you have a fast enough SSD. Either way, SuperFetch is disabled automatically.
Windows Update automatically updates your hardware drivers–whether or not you want it to–so you shouldn’t need to dig up new driver versions from your motherboard manufacturer’s website to go looking for performance improvements.
More SSD Optimization Myths, Debunked
RELATED:Why Solid-State Drives Slow Down As You Fill Them Up
It’s a good idea to leave some empty space on your SSD, though even this depends on your SSD. “Overprovisioning” ensures your SSD has spare memory that isn’t made available to you, so you can’t actually fill up your SSD completely. If an SSD is sufficiently overprovisioned, it may not even be possible to slow it down by filling it up with data.
Aside from that, a lot of the other tips you’ll see just aren’t necessary:
In short: Trust Windows. When it comes to SSDs, it knows what it’s doing.
If you do want to make your Windows 10 PC boot faster, use the Startup tab in the Task Manager to disable unnecessary startup program. That will help a lot more than disabling the boot logo.
Image Credit: Yutaka Tsutano
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