Windows 8.1 - !!WARNING!! - Defrags SSD drives by default

Arthur Hucksake · 31 Oct 2013 at 05:54

After getting strange error messages relating to the System Reserved partition in Win 8.1 , I did a little digging.

It appears that by removing WEI , Win 8.1 is not correctly configuring the OS environment for SSDs.

http://www.tweakhound.com/2012/11/14/windows-8-ssd-settings-etc/

Prefetch

As I had found earlier (Windows 8.1 RTM And SSDs) Windows 8.1 IS NOT optimizing itself for SSDs. This is a direct result of pulling WEI / Winsat assessment.
- All 4 machines SSDs were correctly identified as such (check defrag).
- All prefetch settings were:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
“EnableSuperfetch”=dword:00000003
“EnablePrefetcher”=dword:00000003
- ran winsat formal, rebooted. Prefetch settings changed to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
“EnablePrefetcher”=dword:00000003

The EnableSuperfetch value was removed.

- – - – - – - – - -

ReadyBoot

ReadyBoot is also disabled by running winsat formal. Key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger\ReadyBoot]
“Start”=dword:00000000

Start value changed from 1 to 0

- – - – - – - – - -

I recommend you run winsat formal.
Press the Windows + R keys and type winsat formal .
Now check the folder C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore for the scores.

Go to the above key ( press the Windows + R keys type regedit) and remove the EnableSuperfetch value and change ReadyBoot value.

Download registry file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/16v89rwm3o45mec/OptimizeWindows81SSD_v1.reg

Poor show Microsoft.

I looked a bit further and noticed that Windows have been defragging my SSD ....AND... Trimming it.

Event viewer "The storage optimiser successfully completed defragmentation on (C)"

Look under Application > Event ID 258 and check out the results. Windows 8.1 defrags your SSDs out of the box!!! :mad:

I found the following article on this topic.

http://www.outsidethebox.ms/why-windows-8-defragments-your-ssd-and-how-you-can-avoid-this/

I wonder how many SSD drives this is going to kill, this isn't exactly common knowledge to most. Pretty disappointing.

An extra note is that it will not allow me to optimise \ trim the system reserved partition whatsoever.

Arthur Hucksake · 31 Oct 2013 at 12:03

paradigm said:
They haven't pulled WinSAT though, just WEI.

You can still run a WinSAT assessment from CLI. Does doing so resolve the misconfiguration issue of the OS?

It does, it does change the superfetch options and such.

It is a nasty bug, because it does show "Optimise" correctly when you do a manual TRIM so you are none the wiser.

It was only when getting errors within event viewer I bothered to look.

The biggest issue is that auto scheduled optimise, also defrags your SSD.

Not cool Microsoft, not cool.

Arthur Hucksake · 31 Oct 2013 at 12:07

ukpete said:
What does this mean, I use a ssd and win8? i'm also thick

It means Windows 8.1 by default will thrash your SSD with a defrag without you even knowing.

Disable the schedule for optimise on your SSD and do it manually.

Arthur Hucksake · 31 Oct 2013 at 17:45

linktoinsanity said:
I've done more digging and this "appears" to be an issue with Windows 8 as well as 8.1.

Though is it not just wording? And it actually optimizes the SSD rather than defragments it like it seems to say?

Afraid not.

When it optimises, here is the description.

The storage optimiser successfully completed re-trim on (C : )

And the evil ones are...

The storage optimiser successfully completed defragmentation on (C : )

You can check in event viewer. Go to Windows > Application and look for Event ID 258.

Arthur Hucksake · 31 Oct 2013 at 17:47

linktoinsanity said:
I've checked my laptop's logs and the TRIM status and get the 0 reply. Does this only affect new installs or does it affect Win8 upgrades as well?

Yup. I updated from 8 to 8.1 , I was probably getting fragged for months on Win 8 and never knew.

SSD killer galore.

Arthur Hucksake · 1 Nov 2013 at 11:00

So we are saying it doesn't actually defrag? Just likes to tell us it does?

You know your OS has issues when the event viewer can't even decide what is actually going on.

Arthur Hucksake · 2 Nov 2013 at 08:04

jmc777 said:
Yeah, that seems to be the case. Action Center > Maintenance > Start Maintenance seems to kick off a proper defrag in my case...

I take it this is the "The volume System Reserved was not optimised because an error was encountered: The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)" error?

Yep, you got it. I am unable to trim the system reserve partition. Wonderful. :eek: