Using Microsoft Drive Optimizer to organize data
Disk Defragmentation doesn’t clean up files and folders on
a computer as much as organize them into a more efficient layout on the
disk. It does this by consolidating free space at the end of the disk
and by ensuring that system files and similar files are grouped
together. Doing this makes reads and writes from the disk much more
efficient, providing a better overall experience for the user.
The Drive
Optimizer application in Windows 8 analyzes and optimizes drives within
your computer to ensure that they perform at the best level possible
and are free of fragmentation. Figure 5 shows the Drive Optimizer.
Within the Drive Optimizer, the disks found in your computer are
listed along with the type of media they use. You also see the last run
time of the optimizer and the current status, which let you know
whether the disks are fragmented as of the last run of the optimizer.
To determine whether a drive in your computer needs to be optimized, complete the following steps:
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Select the drive you want to check for optimization.
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Tap or click Analyze.
During this process, the Drive Optimizer window might flicker or
disappear briefly. After the analysis is complete, the results are
displayed in the same list as before but with a fresh date and time for
the last run and the percentage of fragmentation found (if any).
After the analysis has completed, you can optimize your drives by completing the following steps:
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Select the drive you want to optimize.
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Tap or click Optimize.
You notice that the first step in optimization is to reanalyze the
drive. This ensures that the optimization details are accurate before
the relocation of files takes place. When the drive has been analyzed,
the optimizer begins relocating files to ensure that they are placed in
the best position for performance of the disk. The optimizer uses
several passes to ensure the best file placement.
Sometimes, you will not be able to optimize a drive, such as in the following situations:
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Drives are in use by other applications.
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Drives are formatted with a file system other than NTFS, FAT, or FAT32.
There might also be occasions when a drive doesn’t appear in the Drive
Optimizer. This can indicate that the drive is not inserted into the
computer (if the drive is removable) or that the drive has an error.
Another utility covered later in this lesson, Check Disk (chkdsk),
handles drive error checking.
You can also schedule the Drive
Optimizer to analyze and optimize a computer. By default, a weekly
schedule and the option for Windows to notify you if three consecutive
scheduled items are missed are configured. This helps ensure that
regular optimizations are performed and that they aren’t being missed
on portable systems that might be turned off when the schedule runs.
To modify the schedule Drive Optimizer uses, complete the following steps:
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On the Drive Optimizer main screen, tap or click the Change Settings button under Scheduled Optimization (see Figure 5).
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To change the frequency of the schedule, change the value in the
Frequency drop-down list from Weekly to one of the following values:
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To select drives to be included in scheduled optimization, tap or click Choose.
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All drives found within the computer are selected for optimization by default (see Figure 6). Clear the check boxes next to any drives that should not be included.
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To include new drives automatically, clear the Automatically Optimize New Drives check box.
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Tap or click OK in the Optimize Drives dialog box.
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Tap or click OK in the Optimize Drives Optimization Schedule dialog box.
This saves and configures the schedule for optimization and the drives against which the task is run.
Fragmentation can cause issues for any computer user, resulting in
slow performance and frequent file and application hangs. Regular
optimization of drives in a computer helps prevent issues and improves
performance of a computer, extending the useful life of the device. By
default, Windows 8 optimizes your drives on a weekly basis.
