Win8 improves performance by optimizing hard drives

One of the best ways to improve computer performance is to optimize your hard drive. The features included in Windows help optimize the various types of drives that computers use today. Regardless of the type of drive your computer uses, Windows automatically chooses the optimal way to fit the drive.

By default, "optimized drive" (formerly known as "disk defragmenter") runs automatically every week. But you can also manually optimize your computer's drive.

Steps to manually optimize the drive

1. Open "Optimize Drive" by: Swipe in from the right edge of the screen and click "Search" (if using the mouse) , point to the top right corner of the screen, then move the pointer down, click "search"), type defragmentation in the search box, and then click or click "Set" and " Drive defragmentation and optimization".

2. Under "Status", tap or click the drive you want to optimize. (The "media type" column shows the optimized drive type.)

3. To determine if you need to optimize your drive, click or click "Analyze". The system may ask you Provide an administrator password or confirm your choice.

When Windows finishes analyzing the drive, check the "Current Status" column to see if you need to optimize the drive. If the drive's fragmentation ratio exceeds 10%, you should optimize the drive immediately.

4. Click or click "Optimize". The system may ask you to provide an administrator password or confirm your choice.

Drive optimization can occur anywhere, from minutes to hours, depending on the size of the drive and the degree of optimization required. The computer can still be used during the optimization process.

Note:

If the drive is being used by another program or is formatted using a file system other than NTFS, FAT, or FAT32, the drive cannot be optimized.

Network drives cannot be optimized.

If the drive does not appear in the "optimized drive", it may be due to an error in the drive. Please try to repair the drive first, then return to "Optimize Drive" and try again.

Steps to Change the Optimization Plan

1. Open "Optimize Drives" by: Swipe in from the right edge of the screen and click "Search" (if using the mouse) , point to the top right corner of the screen, then move the pointer down, click "search"), type defragmentation in the search, and then click or click "Set" and "for your drive Defragment and optimize".

2. Click or click "Change Settings". The system may ask you for an administrator password or confirm your choice.

3. Do one of the following:

To turn off plan optimization, clear the "Run as scheduled" checkbox.

To change the frequency of program optimizations, click or click the drop-down list next to "Frequency", and then tap or click "Daily", "Weekly" or " The monthly ". default optimization plan is run weekly during "automatic maintenance".

To select a drive to be included in or excluded from the plan optimization, click or click "Select" next to "Drive" to check or clear the check next to the drive Box, then click or click " OK". If you don't want the new drive to be added to the plan optimization, you can also clear the "Automatically optimize new drive" checkbox. If Windows cannot optimize a drive, it does not use this drive as an option for "automatic maintenance".

4. Click or click "OK".

Steps to repair the drive

1.Open "computer" from the right side of the screen by Swipe the edge to the middle, click "Search" (If you use the mouse, point to the top right corner of the screen, then move the pointer down, click "Search"), enter the computer in the search box, and then Click or click "App" and "Computer".

2. Press and hold or right-click the drive you want to repair, and then tap or click "Properties".

3. Click or click the "Tools" tab, then under "Error Check", click or click "Check". The system may ask you to provide an administrator password or confirm your choice.

4. Follow the instructions. You may need to restart your computer after the error check is complete.