Optimize your hard drive
Windows has the tools you need to optimize the drives in your PC.
The types of optimization include:
Defragmenting: Rearranges fragmented data so a drive can work more efficiently.
Trim optimization: This process informs the backing storage which blocks of data are no longer in use. This allows the storage to optimize space and performance for future use.
Slab consolidation: Used primarily in thinly provisioned drives, this process rearranges data from sparsely populated slabs to densely populated slabs.
The type of optimization the drive needs depends on the drive. In each case, Windows automatically chooses the optimization that’s right for your drive.
Here's how to optimize a drive:
Open the Search charm, enter Defragment, and then tap or click Defragment and optimize your drives.
Pick the type of drive you want to optimize under Media type in the Optimize Drives dialog, and then tap or click Optimize.
Follow the on-screen instructions.
Optimizing a drive might take from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size of the drive and degree of optimization needed. You can still use your PC during the optimization process.
Here’s a chart showing the different drive types and optimization available for each:
| Drive type | | Defragment | | Trim | | Slab consolidation |
|---|
Hard disk drive | | Yes | | Yes (If Trim is supported; Trim optimization is unavailable for FAT and FAT32 file systems) | | No |
Solid state drive | | No | | Yes (If Trim is supported; Trim optimization is unavailable for FAT and FAT32 file systems) | | No |
Virtual hard disk | | Yes | | No | | No |
Differencing virtual hard disk | | No | | Yes | | No |
Thinly provisioned drive | | No | | Yes | | Yes |
