Windows Misidentifies C Drive as Solid State Drive - cannot defrag?

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  1. Posts : 17
    Windows 10
       #1

    Windows Misidentifies C Drive as Solid State Drive - cannot defrag?


    Hello,

    When I was running Windows 7, my system had a small solid state C drive that did not have enough space for windows 10 upgrade. I got a larger 2TB regular hard disk and used the manufacturer's software to clone the old Windows-7 SSD C drive to the new 2TB and then upgraded to Windows 10.

    Now under windows 10, when go into defrag, the C Drive shows as a Solid State drive and of course windows does not want to optimize it.

    The new drive definitely is not SSD. I assume somehow that setting was cloned from the old disk.

    Is there either a way to change the C drive to a regular "hard disk drive" or force windows to defrag what it thinks is a SSD?

    Thank you in advance.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,579
    Windows 10 Pro
       #2

    You might want to start by looking in Device Manager (right click Start and select Device Manager) and seeing how that disk drive is identified. Does it show as the SSD?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 17
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Word Man said:
    You might want to start by looking in Device Manager (right click Start and select Device Manager) and seeing how that disk drive is identified. Does it show as the SSD?
    Thank you for replying. Looking as Device Manager, it appears that the correct driver for the disk drive is installed and in use. It is not a driver for SSD drive.

    I am thinking that this "Media Type" shown in the Optimize Drive is stored somewhere in the registry. But where? I found some settings in the registry, but they are hex?

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
    Last edited by Flame Red; 10 Sep 2015 at 10:20.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 17
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Solution!

    Run WinSat formal in elevated command prompt and it rescans the disks and resets the disk back to normal disk drive :)
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 2,832
    MS Windows 10 Home
       #5

    Flame Red said:
    Solution!

    Run WinSat formal in elevated command prompt and it rescans the disks and resets the disk back to normal disk drive :)
    [QUOTE=Flame Red;386177]Solution!

    Flame Red: P

    lease tell us more about the "run WinSat formal in elevated command prompt"

    I and maybe others need to know more about "WinSat Formal".

    Thanks so much.... Cliff M.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 609
    W10
       #6

    winsat formal runs a pre-defined set of assessments and saves the data to an XML file in %systemroot%\performance\winsat\datastore. There are no command line parameters available for use with the formal assessment.

    From winsat formal
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 42
    Windows 10
       #7

    Flame Red said:
    Solution!

    Run WinSat formal in elevated command prompt and it rescans the disks and resets the disk back to normal disk drive :)
    Sadly didn't work for me. Still shows Solid State.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 42,734
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #8

    Hi, try Win key X, Computer Management, Disk Management.
    Can you post a screenshot?

    Secondly, if you (temporarily!) download some other defrag tool, what does that think of C:?

    If the first appears normal (i.e. no SSD) and the second would defrag C:, I suppose that suggests the identity of C: is as you say held somewhere else.
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 42
    Windows 10
       #9

    Hi thanks. The PC is at another site which I'll be visiting again over the next few days. Yes, I was going to try 'Defragger' to see what that finds. I did look at Disk Management and it displays the drive as 'normal' as it would any other standard C Drive with all the partitions. The Dell PC does use RAID which came as standard so I wonder whether that is part of the problem as Device Manager doesn't list the actual two drive manufacturers etc. The Win 10 upgrade may have thrown something away? I'll let you know what I find for info.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 42
    Windows 10
       #10

    OK, so I downloaded 'Defragger' and it instantly found the harddrive(s) and is busy defragging the array. Looks like the Win 10 upgrade with the MS deframenting tool is confused by a Dell RAID array structure?
      My Computer


 

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