This Disk Optimization Error in Windows 10 Can Harm Your Disk
The latest Windows 10 update seems to trigger the automatic hard drive optimization process more often than necessary. While this is a necessary part of hard drive maintenance, and allowing Windows to run the TRIM command on your SSD never hurts, over- defragmenting the drive is generally not necessary and can affect the lifespan of the SSD over time.
Simply put, defragmenting a disk organizes data for more efficient loading. However, defragmenting a disk requires large-scale rewriting of the contents of the disk, and re-defragmenting can wear out your SSD faster as the microscopic cells of the SSD that hold data are weakened every time data is read or written.
Many experts suggest defragmenting an SSD no more than once a month, and many even recommend not defragmenting an SSD at all. However, computers running Windows 10 version 2004 perform an automatic defragmentation every time the SSD is plugged in, including every time the computer is restarted. It will take a long time for an SSD to fully wear out, but excessive defragmentation is harmful nonetheless.
Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and will release a hotfix to fix it. In the meantime, you can turn off the automatic defragmentation tool in Windows 10 settings to prevent unwanted overwrites:
- Enter “Defragment” in the Windows 10 search bar.
- Click “Defragment and Optimize Drives” in the search results to open the Optimize Drives window.
- Click Change Settings under Scheduled Optimization (if it says Enable instead , then Automatic Defragmentation is already disabled.)
- Uncheck the Run on Schedule box .
- Click OK, then Close.
You can still manually start the defragmentation process by clicking a drive in the list and choosing Optimize.