Q
Reading the final part of your
Windows 8 Crash Course in
Issue (www.snipca.
com/9035), I was alarmed by this
passage: “A great new Windows 8 tool
called Automatic Maintenance helps
keep your PC in good order. It
automatically performs routine
maintenance tasks such as
defragmenting the hard disk”. The
problem is, I have two separate hard
disks internally – one is an ordinary
standard SATA drive for Windows
Vista, while the second drive is an
SSD that I use for Windows 8. You’ve
previously said that it is unwise to
defragment SSD drives, as it could lead
to damage. I’m wondering if I could
disable the defragmenting for this
drive? There must be quite a lot of
people now facing this situation.
Alka Shah
A
Worry not – Windows 8’s
defragmentation tool (now
called Optimise Drives) is well
aware of SSD drives. Indeed, one reason
why Microsoft renamed the tool to
Optimise Drives is because it wanted to
remove the worry caused by the word
‘defragmentation’ when mentioned in
the same sentence as SSDs. So, while
Optimise Drives will detect and
display your SSD drive – and indeed,
even let you click the Optimise button
– it will defragment data only on
traditional hard disks. When Optimise
is clicked with an SSD selected, other
optimisations are performed
(assuming your particular SSD
supports them).
 |
| Windows 8’s Optimise Drives tool will not attempt to defragment SSD drives – these storage disks can be damaged during sucha procedure |
If you’ve not yet discovered the
Optimise Drives tool, from the Start
screen type optimise and click Settings
followed by ‘Defragment and optimise
your drives’. To change how often it
runs (which by default is weekly),
click the ‘Change settings’ button.
