Windows 10: Is my SSD actually being defragged (I thnk not, but...

Today an error in the Event Viewer made me pause. Would someone provide confirmation or correction to my thinking. BTW, TRIM is enabled on the SSD drive (C*Smile.

• The "completed defragmentation on OS (C*Smile is incorrect. I want the optimizer to run TRIM but not to defrag.
• After reading the posts I'm thinking Optimizer should be run monthly instead of weekly to reduce writes. (C: has 326 GB free of 452 GB)
• Optimize Drive reports that the System & Restore partitions have never been Optimized. I think they should be unscheduled to avoid the attempt.
• If you are not too tired yet, WHAT is a Restore partition? Searches lead to "how to restore" and "the recovery partition".

Supporting details.
This is the error in event viewer

• The volume Restore was not optimized because an error was encountered: The disk being optimized is full. (0x8900001F)

Associated Information event entries.

• The storage optimizer successfully completed retrim on OS (C*Smile <<good
• The storage optimizer successfully completed defragmentation on OS (C*Smile <<< WHAT!?
• The storage optimizer successfully completed retrim on Recovery
• The storage optimizer successfully completed defragmentation on Recovery

These posts both helped my understanding and raised more questions!
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...ed-trim-right/
Why is Windows defragging my SSD?

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
ASUS ROG G751JY (Laptop)
CPU: 2.50 gigahertz Intel Core i7-4710HQ
MB: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. G751JT 1.0
Mem: 32 MB
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M

:)

 

Stop windows from defragmenting my SSD!!!

Hi Bob I get this all the time when I teach the Windows 10 course and I will tell you what I tell my students.

Yes, Windows does put all your drives even if they are SSD in the Weekly defrag schedule.

However, Windows will NOT defrag an SSD weekly, at the most it does this once a month. And you are right that SSD drives don't get fragmented as often but they still can get fragmented. So the defrag utility will first check to see if if requires a defrag before
defraging. It actually does that on all types of drives.

And for SSD drives it doesn't do the same "traditional defrag" as with HDD drives.

It actually uses a TRIM feature to defrag SSD drives.

So you don't need to disable it all. I have a laptop that has a SSD drive and it has been running Windows 10 for 2 years with defrag enabled it is absolutely fine.

I hope this helps. Take care.

 

Optimization not available Windows 10 Pro

An SSD shouldn't be defragmented. It's not really necessary and will shorten the SSD's useful life.

That's why Microsoft changed the name from 'defragment' to 'optimize.' For a HDD, 'optimize' means defragment; for an SSD, 'optimize' means running the TRIM command and performing a procedure known as 'garbage collection.' If you have a hybrid, both definitions
apply to the respective components.

Whatever the type of drive, Windows checks whether it needs to be optimized on a regular schedule, but the procedure only happens when it's actually necessary. Improvements in HDD and SSD logic make regular optimization less necessary.

 

1. Windows knows what is an HDD or SSD and uses the appropriate optimisation method for the kind of drive, you do nothing except select a schedule.

2. I choose monthly there, ultimately a trivial point.

3. If you are worried then do a manual one, the Optimise button.
The small system ones and the manufacturers recovery partitions contents don't change so don't need any optimisation.

4. Normally this is a manufacturers Restore Partition 10-20 GB or so, which is Windows as supplied when you bought the PC/Laptop. Used to restore to bought state and making a manufacturers Recovery drive.

That partition is usually just about full which does not matter as it never changes and obviously no optimisation required, therefore your error message you can just ignore.
The other event entries are you fiddling about doing things you should not be doing on partitions that don't change in content.

 

Thank you. I sort of figured it was a misnomer left over from pre-SSD days. I think monthly as well.

Not so much worried as avoiding the attempt knowing it always fails so why bother. It may fail because I don't use the admin account very often or for very long.

Thanks again!

 

When i installed win 10 with a SSD I had to manually enable TRIM for the SSD, to say that you can not just blindly trust windows to "do the right thing", as any software is has bugs.

 

Agreed. When the system was purchased that was one of the early configurations performed. So far, all SSD drives came with TRIM enabled. Plus, I checked it again just to be thorough.

 

The real and complete story - Does Windows defragment your SSD? - Scott Hanselman

The defrag of the SSD by Windows is very minimal and is only done due to the reason quoted above. It's to keep the actual file system from crashing and not to improve performance.

 

NavyLCDR,

That was an awesome post. Thank you for sharing. I'm sending the link to several friends.