Defraggler id issue

[lethal42]

Hi, was using win 10 optimisation, and saw 'optimisation not available' for my primary drive.

Suggestion was to use defraggler.

How it shows my primary drive as a HDD (mechanical), when it is actually a SSD.

Comments, question or ways fix please?

regards

[nukecad]

'optimisation not available' from Windows indicates that Windows is seeing something odd about the drive.
Defraggler goes by what Windows tells it the drive type is.
You might want to try this, it might even fix the 'not available' in Windows:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/61734-drive-listed-as-ssd-instead-of-hdd/#comment-333325

Next thing, did you run the Windows optimiser from File Explorer? (Right-click the drive>Properties>Tools).
That can sometimes cause the 'not available' so if you did it that way then try running it from the start menu instead.
Open the start menu and type: defragment, the app should pop up after you've typed 3 or 4 letters, click on "Run as administrator".

If that still doesn't work then:

You can defragment SSD's, the old articles about not doing so are based on the limited number of write cycles that the early SSD's had.
Regular defragging would use up the write cycles, thus shortening the life of the SSD.
Modern SSD's still have a 'life' of write cycles but it's many times more than the early ones did so an occasional defragging is not the same issue.
(Windows itself will defrag an SSD now and again).

So you should be OK running a defragment with Defraggler if you want to.

However you may want to try a few other things first, and of course try to fix whatever the issue is.

You could try booting into Safe Mode and running Windows Optimiser/Defragmenter from there to see if it will work. (Method 4 in the link below).
If you can get it to run once that will possibly fix whatever is causing the issue.

Another way of trying to fix it is to run chkdsk, Method 5 here:
https://www.partitionwizard.com/clone-disk/optimization-not-available.html
If you are comfortable using the registry editor then if the chkdsk doesn't fix it Method 3, clearing registry keys, may be worth a look.

Just for info what Make/Model is the SSD?

 

[lethal42]

Hi nukecad,

Thanks for the detailed response.

Particluarly interesting  was the 'old' theory regard defragging SSD's. This possible mis-information is common place, so it seems. Including advise recently from Piriform (owners ccleaner & defraggler).

May take a while to test the different methods aimed as resolving the issue.

 

Many thanks in the interim, the ssd are kingston. model unsure...(how do i identify this)?

 

Back again. I ran the dos defrag analyser, it showed zero defragmentation....

However the winsat formal & reboot did not convince windows that it is an ssd

 

regards

Edited October 3, 2022 by lethal42

[nukecad]

There are a few ways to find the drive model, probably the easiest is to open Task Manager and look there:
This is the Crucial SSD in this laptop:

You can also find it at Device Manager>Disk drives

 

One other thought occured to me, check that TRIM is enabled for your SSD.
On a Kingston it should be enabled by default, but still a good idea to check.
This tells you more about it and how to check: https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/blog/pc-performance/ssd-garbage-collection-trim-explained

On a more general note.

The question of defragging SSD's or not has become a bit of a contentious one.
Many articles and advice givers just repeat the advice not to do it, but without really knowing why and often giving the wrong reason why.

I have to admit that I was disingenious above.
Although you can defrag a SSD without harming it other that using up write cycles - it isn't going to make much difference, if any at all, other than giving you the feeling that you have done something 'good'.

This from Crucial tells you the same:
https://www.crucial.com/articles/about-ssd/should-you-defrag-an-ssd
That tells you that although defragging a SSD won't harm it (just use up some the write cycles), it doesn't do much anyway.
"At best it won't do anything, at worst it does nothing for your performance and you will use up write cycles."

TBH I've now come to consider 99% of the defragging that is done world wide on HDDs to also be unnecessary, it just gives the user a sense that they have done something 'good'.
Defragging drives is something that was wanted/needed years ago, but technology has moved on and it isn't so important now.

It doesn't really matter to a modern computer if the files on a drive are fragmented, it might make a fraction of a second difference loading them from a modern spinning drive and none at all loading them from a SSD.
Defragmenting is not going to magically make any more space on a drive, it just moves things about.

So it's merely become a Tetris like game of showing you a drive map with lots of coloured blocks and then moving them all together to show a prettier picture.
(Do I still defrag spinning drives? Yes, because I've been using computers since the 1980's, and over many years things become a habit even though you know they are now just that and nothing more. But I'm weaning myself of doing it).

You might have noticed that the Windows defragmenter/optimiser no longer even shows you such a drive map, if it's not there then no one gets bothered about it in the first place,

If you are interested in the whole subject of defragging SSDs (and why Windows still does it) then this is a good in depth article about it all, although it's from 2014 so a bit old now:
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/the-real-and-complete-story-does-windows-defragment-your-ssd