BIOS defragging when it should'nt be be.

[Phrixos]

Hello,

I've an Asus Z97-P mainboard running Windows 10 Pro x64 on a Samsung SSD system dedicated drive. (Also note, I'm still trying to get used to the new style "UEFI" BIOS.)

All of that said, on about every ten restarts the BIOS is automatically defragging. (Not good for an SSD, I hear.) I can find no setting in the UEFI BIOS to stop this. Am I missing something?

 

[Trouble]

Do you have any third party utilities installed (including any that may have came with the motherboard disk) that may account for this boot time defrag?
I'm not aware of anything native to Windows 10 nor normally in a typical BIOS configuration that might be responsible for this feature / function.
I remember way back in the day, when I used to use Disk Keeper on my NT machines, you could configure a boot time defragmentation.

 

[Phrixos]

("Noob Whisperer." Very witty! Thanks, btw, for replying.) I've been doing battle with Windows for over twenty years now—I even build my own, personal use, machines—and I still don't seem to be able to get beyond "noob." I think that says a lot about Windows.)

To answer your question: Yes: Advanced System Care—but I have its SSD "Optimization" facility disabled. (I know; many users say not to use such programs, but I've been using ASC for years and I like it. )

I use Avira Antivirus, which has its own "System Speedup" facility. As this seems to run all by itself in the background I have no idea how to change its settings—or if, indeed they are changeable. Nor do I know if it is conflicting with ASC, which, I suppose, it might.

There is also Samsung's Magician software; but I hardly think this would wrongly defrag its own SSD.

That's all I can see to suspect in Windows "Programs and Features."

 

[Tim Locke]

W10 recognizes SSDs and sets TRIM on which should tell other programs not to defrag the drive ( I think, not sure).

I would turn off Avira for a while and run Defender and see if it still tries to defrag .

 

[BigFeet]

Your bios isn't on your ssd or hdd. Your bios is a chip on your motherboard. "IF" it was actually on your ssd, Windows 10 knows how to optimize it instead of defragging. No idea whey your bios keeps wanting to defrag. You may need to visit ASUS support.

 

[gijoetech]

W10 recognizes SSDs and sets TRIM on which should tell other programs not to defrag the drive ( I think, not sure).

I would turn off Avira for a while and run Defender and see if it still tries to defrag .

its optimize the ssd drive

 

[Phrixos]

First off, and to get something extraneous out of the way, I know the BIOS is a chip on the mainboard. Never thought otherwise. What I've never been completely certain of on that is any capacity of installed software to interfere with it. (I guess not. Dead issue.)

As for the mysterious defrag, ASC has an "Optimize" facility for defragging the BIOS, which can be enabled or disabled. And as I said, I turned it off. As of yesterday I discovered that something has automatically turned it on again! Thus, I disabled it—again. This morning I find it is again enabled. So the issue has changed into my finding out what is doing that. As that is a separate issue and may take some time and experimenting I'm going to consider the original question answered. Thanks, all, for the input.

 

[Saltgrass]

Are you seeing a Defrag or a Chkdsk during boot? I have seen systems which have multiple OS drives where the system will do a chkdsk if the system has been "interrupted" in some manner such as booting to another OS. The Bios doesn't do this or a Defrag.

 

[gijoetech]

i thing every 10 boot up i remember that the bios use to defrag automatic but since the ssd drive came in to the picture i dont thing its a good idea not sure but its similar to defrag

 

[Trouble]

i thing every 10 boot up i remember that the bios use to defrag automatic but since the ssd drive came in to the picture i dont thing its a good idea not sure but its similar to defrag

Since Windows 10 was first offered in preview, back somewhere around October of 2014 I have done literally dozens of installs and not one of those have ever exhibited this problem.
I can say with a fair degree of certainty that Windows 10 is not responsible for this behavior, however.....
One of the third party programs you have mention may not be wholly compatible with Windows 10 and as a result may be at issue.
I'm pretty sure it's not Samsung Magician as I run it everyday on one of my Windows 10 machines
So I would start with the others by uninstalling them and testing by rebooting multiple times to see what the results might be and then add them back one at a time, again rebooting multiple times after each reinstall of the individual programs to test if the problem returned..
It could be a problem disk, but as Saltgrass mentions above.... I would expect that if the disk were the problem, that Windows 10 would perform a Check Disk and not a defrag.

AS what you are describing is a boot time defragmentation, I don't suppose that anything that you see during this is branded in anyway that might suggest exactly what program is performing the function?
How long does it take? I would expect a defrag of an SSD to be pretty fast?

 

[Phrixos]

(Hello Saltgrass: not Chkdsk, but Defrag.)
(Hello gijotech): I've never actually counted (I commonly go into sleep mode instead of a daily shutdown; but my estimate of auto BOIS defrags during startups does seem about 1 in every 10. (P.S "gijo...": are you ex-military?)

As for Trouble ( the "Noob Whisperer") I've probably done several hundred in my time (don't ask why) and I too have never come across this before. For reasons already stated, I seriously doubt Samsung is the culprit. (The offending boot defrag takes about 10-to 15 seconds.)

Accordingly, my plan is to not do anything different except to give it time, watch the "offending tick box" in ASC to make sure it stays un-ticked, and see, again, over time, if there are any more defrags. If none in the next twenty or so restarts, then ASC (or the some-other-program that is hijacking ASC's setting) will have proved the problem--which will then invite another separate type of approach.

An interesting aside (?): I read an article recently--if I recall correctly it was in my PCPitstop newsletter, but I could be wrong there--arguing that the whole whoo-haa over defragging SSDs isn't worth worrying about. The conclusion there seemed to be that unless you are worrying about the life of your SSD dropping from THIRTY YEARS (!) down to something like five-to-ten, then just forget it. (The thinking being: who, these days keeps the same drive going for five years? I can see their point there.) I wonder.