Windows offers disk optimization tools that can help you speed up system performance. In fact, much of this is automated and can also be scheduled. That said, when you open the Disk Defragmenter or Optimize Drives tool and notice that Optimization is not available where it shows Never run in Windows 10, here’s what you can do about it.
Optimize readers displays Never executed or Optimization not available
When you notice the last analyzed and current state, you should see Last analysis or execution can display “Never run“and Actual status can display “Optimization not available. “At the same time, if you notice the type of driver support with status, it can display Unknown. This could also be the reason why optimization is not available, especially if the player is encrypted. However, we see reports in forums where users with SSDs and disks without encryption also face the same problem.
Windows 10 v2004 users have noticed this issue and Microsoft should fix it soon. In the meantime, here are a few things you can try to fix this:
- Click the Optimize button
- Defragment from the command line
- Third-party defragmentation tool
- Delete Defrags statistics keys from the registry
- Remove Driver from IDE ATA / ATAPI Controllers in Safe Mode
Before continuing, if the button is available, you can try to run it, but it’s likely that it won’t work. Some users have also reported that the status becomes Optimization unavailable once the restart is complete.
1]Click the Optimize button
First the very basic. Click the Optimize button to run the defragmentation manually and see if the message disappears.
2]Defragment from the command line
Press the Start menu and type cmd. When the command prompt appears, right-click it and click Run as administrator on the shortcut menu. Execute the defragmentation command with the / A switch to perform an analysis for the specific volume
defrag c: /a
Depending on the analysis, if the result suggests defragmentation, you can run the defragmentation command with the / U / V switch for hard drives and the / L / O switch for SSDs. This will execute the trim command once the operation is complete. You can also use the / X switch to consolidate free disk space on the volumes that you specify
defrag c: /U /V
If you can run the defragmentation tools from the command line, but not from the user interface, it may be a bug that makes it unavailable. A cumulative update will likely fix it, but until then, you can use the command line option. Once you have executed the commands, you should see the changes once the process is complete.
3]Third-party defragmentation tool
You can use third-party defragmentation tools such as UltraDefrag, MyDefrag, Piriform Defraggler, Auslogics Disk Defrag, Puran Defrag Free, and more to perform drive analysis and defragmentation. If it is an SSD, be sure to read the guide if you need to perform performance analysis. Until the Optimize Player tool displays Never Run or you cannot run it, use them.
4]Delete Defrags statistics keys from the registry
You can use this trick if you are having the problem after upgrading the operating system or upgrading the driver. This will force the operating system to recreate the keys with new information. Be sure to create a system restore point while we are about to modify the registry.
Type Regedit in the Run prompt (Win + R) and press the Enter key to open the registry editor
Navigate t:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftDfrgStatistics
Delete all subkeys under Statistics
Restart your PC and open the Windows defragmentation tool. You should now have the Optimize button activated.
As you can see in the screenshot image above, each of the drives I have on the PC is listed here.
Details include LastRunTime, MovableFiles, MFTSize and other details, which are crucial in defragmentation. When you delete the keys, Windows recreates it all as a fresh start, which should make the optimization option available.
4]Remove Driver from IDE ATA / ATAPI Controllers in Safe Mode
Drivers are known to cause all kinds of misconfigurations, and this can be the reason when a media type is displayed as Unknown. To solve this problem, we will have to remove the controllers and restart.
Boot into Safe Mode by pressing the Shift key, then click on the Restart option in the menu. It will restart the computer in the advanced boot options. Select Safe Mode from the option.
Once in safe mode, open Device Manager using WIN + X, then press the M key. Expand the IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers. Right-click on each of the lists and uninstall the device. Restart the computer and Windows will automatically install the drivers.
Now, if you try, the optimization button should be available.
Should you remove SSDs from the defragmentation schedule?
The problem can also cause another problem. Since it always forgets when the drives have been optimized, it will repeat the cutting and defragmentation on SSD drives, which is not good. It would be a great idea to uncheck the disks for the automatic maintenance function.
- From the Start menu, type defragment, then click the Optimize Drives tool when it appears.
- Click the Change Settings button, then click the Choose button next to Drive.
- Uncheck all the SSDs in the list. If there is a hidden partition that is part of the SSD drive, uncheck it too.
- Save and the SSDs will no longer be optimized.
In fact, you don’t need to optimize the solid state drive at all if you’ve enabled Trim and used OEM software to manage it.
I hope that the publication was easy to follow and that you were able to optimize the Drive even if the Optimization button was not available in Windows 10
