Defragging an Optane Drive

[SDode1]

I have a laptop with a hard disk and Optane enabled. BIOS says it is Non-RAID, AHCI, SATA. Intel RST is running. I wanted to defrag the drive, but Windows recognizes it as an SSD and has disabled defragging. I have come to learn that this is done on purpose. Before I found that out, I downloaded Auslogics and defragged the drive with Optane enabled.

I have several questions:

1) Why is defragging disabled in Windows? Since I defragged it anyway, could I have damaged something? Is it safe to use Auslogics?

2) If I shouldn't defrag the drive, will it eventually get very fragmented?

[BHarr8]

Defrag does nothing for a SSD. What does help for NAND based SSDs (Optane is not one) is writing 0s to the cells that have been designated as having deleted data, this is called 'trimming'.

Optane does not work like NAND and gains nothing from defragmenting and nothing from trimming.

The only thing forcing defragging and trimming would do is reduce the lifespan of the drive although this will be by a negligible amount.

As far as the HDD part of the setup goes, I would not force a defrag around Windows and Optane preventing this.

You could once a year disable Optane and perform a complete system cleanup and then turn it back on but that sounds like a big PITA to be honest.

[SDode1]

Thanks for the reply...seems odd to not defrag a 1Tb disk because it is linked to a 16 Gb SSD cache. Would love to hear from an Intel engineer.

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello SDode1, Thank you for having contacted Intel Technical Support. We have not heard from you since our last communication and we would like to know if you need further assistance or if we can close this case? Important note: Should further assistance or clarification be required, we will greatly appreciate if you reply to this post instead of writing a new one unless your inquiry is completely unrelated. This way we will prevent generating a duplicate post and we will not lose the train of thought. We will be looking forward to your reply. Best regards, Josh B. Intel® Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[SDode1]

I have never heard back from Intel...another customer replied. I am looking forward to an Intel engineer answering all my questions above.

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello SDode1, Thank you for your reply. The recommendation provided by BHarr8 of disabling the Optane first in order to be able to run the defragging process and to re-enable the Optane acceleration after is correct. Please take into consideration the information available on the Frequently Asked Questions for Intel® Optane™ Memory (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000024018/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html?_ga=2.99699422.1103044760.1537285373-1716436649.1536075640) -I typically run defrag on my HDD to optimize performance. Can I still defragment once it's accelerated with Intel® Optane™ memory? Once you enable Intel® Optane™ memory, both Intel® Optane™ memory and the accelerated SATA drive appear as one SSD volume to the operating system. As a result, the options for defragging aren't available. To answer your questions -Since I defragged it anyway, could I have damaged something? Is it safe to use Auslogics? If your system is working properly the possibility that you have damaged something on your drive is really low. Using 3rd party tools is not recommended. -If I shouldn't defrag the drive, will it eventually get very fragmented? We do not recommend you to run the defragging process but feel free to follow the recommendation provided by BHarr8 if you want to do the defrag process anyway. We hope you find this information helpful. If you need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again Best regards, Josh B. Intel® Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello SDode1, Thank you for having contacted Intel® Technical Support. I was reviewing your community post and we would like to know if you need further assistance or if we can close this case. We will be looking forward to your reply. Best regards, Josh B. Intel® Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[SDode1]

You can close the case. Thanks.

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello SDode1, Thank you for your reply. It has been a pleasure to assist you through this process and as per your consent, this case is now close if you need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again. Best regards, Josh B. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation