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How to disable automatic defragmentation in Windows 10? It is scanning my 2 TB HDD for 2 hours already and lags too much.

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4 Answers 4

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In addition to the method geotavros described, another method for turning off automatic defrag/optimization can be accomplished by doing the following....

  1. Click on the Start Menu
  2. Start typing Defrag and you'll see an option come up called Defragment and Optimize Drives. Select that.
  3. Make sure the drive you want to turn off defrag/optimize is highlighted and then click on Change Settings.
  4. Uncheck the box that says Run on a schedule
  5. Click on OK and you're done.

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    Seems like defrag will be turned off for all drives instead of just the selected drive, same for turning it on. Have W10 Home V1709 Apr 19, 2018 at 18:50
  • How did you create this gif ? @n8te Sep 28, 2018 at 3:56
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    @ChamindaBandara - I used a program called Peek. It's only available for Linux. I made a remote desktop connection from my Linux PC to a Windows laptop and recorded the Windows desktop from my Linux PC using Peek.
    – n8te
    Sep 28, 2018 at 4:03
  • @ChamindaBandara Use ScreenToGif.
    – Biswapriyo
    Sep 28, 2018 at 10:15
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Open an administrative cmd prompt (or Powershell, up to you) and execute:

schtasks /Change /DISABLE /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ScheduledDefrag"

This command disables the task, just as the original question asks and is a faster, cmd line-based solution that functions identically to the top GUI answer from n8te.

This doesn't delete the task, which means that if you decide you need it enabled again at a later date, simply change DISABLE to ENABLE and run again in an elevated admin prompt:

schtasks /Change /ENABLE /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ScheduledDefrag"
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Alternative process with Command Prompt::

  • Run Command Prompt as administrator and run the command schtasks /Delete /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ScheduledDefrag" /F

delete scheduled defragmentation with cmd

  • /TN option specifies the path\name of the task to delete.

  • /F option forcefully deletes the task and suppresses warnings if the specified task is currently running.

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  • How can I defrag specific drive like C, D ? Sep 28, 2018 at 4:46
  • @ChamindaBandara Command as admin: defrag C: /U /V.
    – Biswapriyo
    Sep 28, 2018 at 6:16
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You can disable it via the Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Defrag > then disable the "ScheduledDefrag".

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