Why is Windows defragging my SSD?

Evade: Avoid giving a direct answer to (a question).

I have gone over dozens of threads at Microsoft Community and TechNet and not one poster has received an answer to a question similar to this one from Microsoft. Many simply stated that Windows does not defrag SSDs period, which included Scott Hanselman until he changed his tune a couple of years ago. This was the official line from Microsoft. The vast majority never received any answers from Microsoft employees who simply ignored the questions.

He (Hanselman) stated in his blog that SSDs get "intelligently" defragmented but gives no explanation of that. In the comments he stated "Certainly it doesn't Defrag them the same way" but gives no explanation of that. Again later in the comments he stated "I didn't mean to imply an SSD-special defrag." So why did he imply that in the first place?

If Microsoft wasn't evading the question they would have gone much further and posted an article explaining this to the vast amount of people who asked and are still asking this very question. They have never bothered and likely never will.

The reason I'd like someone here to answer this question is that with the amount of knowledge and experience that many of the posters here have with Windows who would know better?

Hello @bumboola, :)

Usually, Windows 10 will TRIM a SSD if TRIM support is enabled.

TRIM support is enabled by default in Windows 10, but you might verify using the method in the tutorial below to rule that out as a possible reason why defrag instead of TRIM is being used on the SSD.

Enable or Disable TRIM Support for Solid State Drives in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Hardware Drivers Tutorials

If you like as a test, try the PowerShell command in step 4 of Option Three below to see if shows the SSD as being Trimmed in PowerShell.

Optimize and Defrag Drives in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

I'm not sure any optimization/defragmenting is needed with any disks/partitions with a letter even with HDDs.

prikker said:

As I understood it correctly, it does not defrag the SSD, but optimizing it:

There are some important optimizations, but Windows performs them all automatically. If you used an SSD with Windows XP or Vista, you needed to manually enable TRIM, which ensures your SSD can clean up deleted files and stay speedy. However, ever since Windows 7, Windows has automatically enabled TRIM for any drive it detects as solid-state.

There's also Garbage Collection that makes cells with deleted data (data never actually get deleted from SSDs until than) available for normal writing. Leaving SSD on overnight or some longer time every now and than (doesn't even have to be booted to OS) is enough although it does happen in very short time.

That Scott H blog is disengenous. In order to get the issues he was talking about, you have to do an astronomical amount of file writing - far beyond the average or even way above average user. In the real world IT NEVER HAPPENS.

Simple terms: You do not need to defrag an SSD only trim it - end of story.

You're more likely to upgrade your computer in that time.

swarfega said:

You're more likely to upgrade your computer in that time.

Right, one of my SSDs is on third and other one on it's second computer.