Windows usually schedules drive optimisation automatically. Before installing a separate utility or repeatedly pressing Optimise, inspect the existing maintenance arrangement and identify which drive you are looking at.

Keep ordinary maintenance separate from a drive that disconnects, reports read errors or contains the only copy of important files. If those symptoms are present, protect the data and investigate reliability first. Optimisation is not evidence that damaged hardware has become trustworthy.

Read the media type and current status

Search Windows for defrag and open Defragment and Optimize Drives. Select the intended drive, checking its label and media type. Record the displayed status and previous run information before requesting another operation.

Microsoft distinguishes hard-drive defragmentation from the trim operation used for SSD optimisation. The built-in tool handles the media-specific task; the shared Optimise wording does not mean that both kinds of drive receive an identical procedure.

For a hard disk drive, Analyze lets Windows assess whether optimisation is needed. If you run Optimise, choose a time when your work can tolerate the activity and let the operation complete before judging the result.

Review the schedule before changing it

Under Scheduled optimization, open Change Settings. Microsoft documents a weekly default, with daily, weekly and monthly choices available. Inspect which drives are included and preserve the existing schedule unless there is a reason to change it.

Record any deliberate change so another person maintaining the computer can understand it. Repeated manual runs after every slow moment provide little useful evidence if the actual cause is an application, lack of free space or another component.

After a completed run, note the tool’s reported result and repeat a representative ordinary task if performance was your concern. Keep those two observations separate: maintenance can complete successfully without noticeably changing that task’s speed.

If optimisation repeatedly fails or the drive develops read errors, preserve the exact message. Avoid replacing a recorded problem with an unsupported promise that another round of defragmentation will fix it.

Sources: Microsoft drive optimisation.