Windows 10: Why Windows 8 and 8.1 defragment your SSD; how to avoid!

Could not find it on this forum yet, so just FYI as it also may afflict Windows 10.

I came across this article while reading about maintenance on Windows 8.x.

why-windows-8-defragments-your-ssd-and-how-you-can-avoid-this

It's an article with some codes to run in PowerShell to show you excactly what Windows 8.x is running under the hood, and wow how was I wrongly informed that Windows 8.x BY DEFAULT did not - in any way - touch your SSDs with defragging command.

Have a read, Cheers...

:)

 

Defrag Windows 10

This is normal for SSD.

Do some reading here:

Should You Defrag an SSD?

How to Use "Optimize Drives" to Defrag HDD and TRIM SSD in Windows 8 and 8.1

 

windows 10 and ssd

Hi

i have a windows 10 pro installed on a hdd drive, i dont have any problem. recently i switched to ssd drive with clean install windows 10 pro but freezes repeatedly after an hour or less than an hour. i tried to use my old hdd drive with same os it doesn't
show any problem, i thought maybe the ssd is the problem so go to the store and replaced the ssd with higher brand, but after a week its shows same problem again.

fyi. i also tried this article
Optimizing Solid State Drives SSD for Windows 10

and
Windows 8 and 8.1 defragment your SSD

if you have any helpful info and suggestion, please guys.

many thanks,

auwi

 

You might find this interesting also. Flip a coin for which one you would care to follow.
Even more interesting. Scroll down and read Vadim's response and arguments with the author.

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

 

Defrag on 8/8.1 does not defrag SSDs, it sends commands to trim to optimise it so its perfectly safe to use. I use it without any problems.

Also a warning about using 3rd party defraggers. You must check to see whether they detect SSDs and act accordingly, not all of them do pick them up.

 

Did you read either of those links? That is your opinion, but the jury still seems to be out on that one!

 

Did you read either of those links? That is your opinion, but the jury still seems to be out on that one!

I am not sure that comment quoted below is quite accurate, I think you can safely disable it. Now the article might be referring if you have a mix of hard drives or use a usb hard drive. You can also unplug the usb hard drive. I can't see just disabling defrag would disable other tasks.

 

The way I read the information Dave linked to ...

There is only one process that handles all required SSD and Spinner Defragmentation related operations,
This process is fully aware of the presence and special requirements of an SSD so will not perform the specialised Operations needed more that the absolute minimum needed.

Disabling this process in the scheduler may cause more issues long term that letting it run as designed.
This is a possible issue as with most drive issues it will always depend on actual usage pattens. *Smile

 

Did you read either of those links? That is your opinion, but the jury still seems to be out on that one! I didnt need to read those links, I read an official Microsoft blog written during the development of Windows 8 so I imagine they know what they're talking about.

Just in case you need a reminder, here's a statement: https://social.technet.microsoft.com...ssds-a-default

 

And did you actually read it? According to your link (and both the others above) defrag (not just TRIM) is run once a month on SSDs if you have system protection turned on.

 

And did you actually read it? According to your link (and both the others above) defrag (not just TRIM) is run once a month on SSDs if you have system protection turned on.

I wasn't going to get into this but here is a quote. This should clear things up.

Note, this is from a Microsoft Employee. The employee also said for windows 7 users defrag is turned off for SSDs.

 

Thats basically what I pointed out in my post. Thanks for clarifying.

 

Scott Hanselman is also a Microsoft Employee. I will provide the link here again:

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

That information comes directly from developers on the Windows Storage team. This is not speculation. This is not fantasy. This is fact.

Windows *DOES* defrag drives once per month by default, and there is a good reason for it to do so... certain filesystem data structures become fragmented to the point of slowing performance despite not being on a physical medium.

It also performs a TRIM operation, which it does more regularly.

Note this comment:

In other words, despite the fact that fragmentation may not affect performance due to it being a random access medium rather than a sequential access medium like a disk platter, it can still affect performance due to cluttering up the fragmentation lookup tables, and can actually fill them up if you don't defrag.

As usual, it's best to let Windows manage this, and not try and second guess it. Microsoft has spent a lot of time and effort analyzing what needs to be done, which is effort you have not done. You are only going by what someone told you.

 

Mystere

I would like to know who dgeddes is, if you are calling this person inaccurate. SSD can handle many rewrites and if that the case, it doesn't matter which Microsoft employee is correct. It will last a lifetime, even if windows does regular defrag every day, only exception is if you have faulty hard drive to begin with. What about dgeddes statement saying Windows 7 doesn't even run defrag if a SSD is detected? My non ssd drive is never defraged but that because I use Macrium.

 

According to this, he's a Microsoft employee, specifically a "Senior Support Escalation Engineer" (ie he works in support):

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/profile/dgeddes [MSFT]

Just because someone works for Microsoft doesn't mean they are always right. However, I do trust developers on the storage team to know what Microsoft is intending Windows to do with defragging rather than a random Microsoft support employee (even if they are a senior one).

In general, it's true that Windows does not defrag SSD's, except for the once per month situation in which it does an intelligent defrag of volume information specifically designed for SSD's.