Win 10 / 11 · Maintenance

Run drive optimization the safe way

Defragmenting an SSD is actively harmful; skipping it on an HDD leaves speed on the table. Windows has one tool that does both correctly.

DifficultyEasy
Time5 min
RiskLow
ReversibleYes
PlatformWin 10 / 11
UpdatedAug 18, 2026

Written and tested by emdottech

What that means

Low risk. This fix only checks things, or changes settings you can switch back in the same place. This change is reversible — you can return to the previous state without professional help or data loss.

The Defragment and optimize drives panel with the HDD set to defrag, the SSD set to trim, and scheduled optimisation on, plus a reminder to keep 10–20% of the main disk free

Steps

01
- Search 'Defragment and optimize drives' (or win+rdfrgui) — it lists every drive with its type
02
- HDDs: click Optimize to defrag; SSDs: the same button runs TRIM instead, which is what they actually need
03
- Click 'Change settings' → enable 'Optimize on a schedule' (weekly for HDDs, monthly for SSDs) and let Windows do it overnight
04
- Keep 10–20% of your main drive free — a full disk slows everything down, including the pagefile

How to verify the fix

The optimization schedule runs overnight without errors, and each drive gets its correct operation (defrag for HDDs, TRIM for SSDs).

If this didn't fix it

Optimization fails or the drive is still slow — check free space (keep 10–20% free) and run a disk health check.

Next stop: the related fixes below, or start a guided diagnosis.

Still stuck? Diagnose my problem Browse all Windows fixes

Run drive optimization the safe way

Steps

✓How to verify the fix

!If this didn't fix it

Related fixes

How to verify the fix

If this didn't fix it