Best way to speed up PC?

NavyLCDR said:

Respectfully, it does not amount to the same thing, virtually or in reality. I used to think the same thing until I was shown that I was mistaken by @Bree:

Do I need to defrag the hard disk even if I format the hard disk Solved - Windows 10 Forums

Starting at post #7 and proven by my own testing:
So here are the results of my testing:

I made a backup image of a Windows 10 installation that was in a 250GB partition. First when I restored the partition, I shrunk it by 1GB so the restored partition was 249GB is size. This was the result:
Attachment 195415

Expanding the partition back to 250GB did not change the fragmentation. Conclusion: the partition was defragged (file by file copy) when it was shrunk and restored.

Now, here are the results when I restored the partition without resizing it:
Attachment 195416

So....the behavior Bree posted is correct. Restoring the partition without resizing is a sector by sector restore, not file by file, and no defragging occurs. So if you want to defrag during your restore, you have to shrink the partition when you restore it - then you can expand the restored partition back to it's original size after the restore is complete.

Hi there

OK but when I do a restore I usually delete any partitions on the target drive first and reformat just in case there's hidden malware or whatever that caused me to want to restore the image in the first place so perhaps it's working like you say "altering partition size" first -- anyway it works just fine in my case.

Cheers
jimbo

CountMike said:

Whenever I start MBAM (free) I see some internet activity and I'm wondering if it checks for some updates first before starting. That would cause a delay.

You could check what it might be. MBAM Free is not eligible for "Automatic Protection Updates." It could be sending "Usage and Threat Statistics" if you have not turned it off in settings. It could be an "Application Update" check if you have not turned it off in settings. If it's neither of these, I'm guessing it could be a simple license check (Trial version or Free.)

However, if not set to start with Windows, it still has to start the service, launch tray application and perform whatever other initialization it has to before bringing up the main program window. This startup process is what needs to be optimized. I'm sure they're looking into it.