Disabled Idle Time Optimizer but Norton is still running defrag on my SSD!

I've set scheduled defragmentation to "off" and run defrag manually for the two hard disks in my system.  I have also disabled Norton Internet Security's Idle Time Optimizer.  I have no other defragmentation programs installed besides the Windows defragmenter.

 

In addition, Intel SSD toolbox also says that my system configuration settings are "optimal" for SSD.

 

[B]But when I checked today, Windows defrag says that the last defrag run on my SSD (c drive) was on 5/6[/B]. This was strange, since scheduled defragmentation was disabled long before then. I also haven't run the TRIM utility since 5/2 (see screenshot), so why would Windows show a defrag run on the SSD on 5/6? Does anybody know what's going on here?

 

It didn't defrag, it just analyzed.

If it actually ran your drive would not be so heavily fragmented.

 

Is it standard Norton behavior to still run the disk analysis when you disable Idle Time Optimization?  Do you have a source?

 

Thanks!

I've set scheduled defragmentation to "off" and run defrag manually for the two hard disks in my system.  I have also disabled Norton Internet Security's Idle Time Optimizer.  I have no other defragmentation programs installed besides the Windows defragmenter.

 

In addition, Intel SSD toolbox also says that my system configuration settings are "optimal" for SSD.

 

[B]But when I checked today, Windows defrag says that the last defrag run on my SSD (c drive) was on 5/6[/B]. This was strange, since scheduled defragmentation was disabled long before then. I also haven't run the TRIM utility since 5/2 (see screenshot), so why would Windows show a defrag run on the SSD on 5/6? Does anybody know what's going on here?

 

Hi 996gt2,

 

Can you check in Norton Tasks to verify that the Idle TIme Optimizer ran at the time of the defrag entry you are seeing?  If it did and was responsible for initiating the defrag analysis I would advise that you uninstall and reinstall Norton and then immediately go in and disable the Optimizer.  I'm not sure about the particulars of your situation, but once the Optimizer has begun a defrag operation it will continue to run in idle time until the defrag is complete, even if you turn off the option at some point.  When the defrag is complete the Optimizer should then not run again once it is disabled.  The only way to assure that the Optimizer never runs is to disable it immediately upon installation to prevent it from starting a task.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled NIS 2011, and disabled Idle Time Optimizer right after it was installed.

 

I've also set the startup options for the defragmentation service to "disabled."

 

That should prevent defrags from being run on my SSD, correct?  I play to manually enable the service once in a while to run defrag on my secondary drive (a 1TB hard drive).

 

What did you find in Norton Tasks?  DId Norton lauch the defragger?

This is what I see in Norton Tasks after I reinstalled NIS 2011 and disabled idle time optimizer.

Tasks.JPG

 

Bump

Hi 996gt2,

 

If you presently have the Optimizer disabled after reinstalling Norton, it should not start again, ever.  I think I may have found an explanation for your issue, however.  The information I have pertains specifically to the Norton 2012 Beta, but it may also apply to NIS 2011 - I'll have to do some research to verify this.  In Norton 2012 the Optimizer actually detects when an ssd is present and it will not run on ssd's.  However, when the Optimizer launches and checks for this, you very well might get something in the defrag logs.  This would support what DaveH was saying about a defrag not actually having run, despite your log entry.  See Tim Lopez' post here that talks about this situation:

 

http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&docurl=20110117112405EN&ln=en_US

 

I suggest you read that entire thread, as there are many other points brought up about the Optimizer's behavior with ssd's that are not readily apparent to the user:

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/Idle-Time-Optimizer-SSD/m-p/434160/message-uid/434160/highlight/true#U434160

 

I will try to get an answer regarding NIS 2011.

 

Like I said it didn't run.  If it did your drive would not be 9% fragmented.

In addition to Norton disabling the "optimizer" for SSD drives, the optimizer really uses Windows defrag and windows turns that off for SSD drives as well.

Your using windows 7 and it supports the "trim" command for SSD's.  Every time the trim command runs, windows will query the drive and ask it how fast it is spinning.  If the drive reports to windows that it's speed is 0, windows knows it is a SSD drive and it disables defrag,

 

You also say you set the defrag service to disabled.

 

So you have the defrag turned off in 3 places:

Norton, Windows, and the actual service.

If you want to take it one step farther I imagine you could bypass windows file protection and remove the defrag entirely or replace it with a non-working file.

 

However, to tell you the absolute truth.

In my personal opinion I think the whole ordeal about people saying it's going to hurt there drive is extreamly overblown.

It may have had some basis in truth when the very first SSD drives came out but now days your not going to "kill" or damage a SSD drive by using it.  And thats really all a defrag is doing, using the drive.

 

You have one of the top of the line Intel drives.

I haven't looked in a long time, but a year or so ago I looked up the Intel specs on product life on one of the 32GB drives.

Intel basically gaurenteed that the 32GB drive could write an absolute minimum of 20GB per day for AT LEAST 5 years.

I have also seen testing done for the use of SSD's in corporate server enviroments that state that Intel specks are very conservative and every test done by companies far exceed those specs.

 

Your drive is much larger so it would be safe to assume the minimum writes could be 40GB per day for 5 years.

So that means if your drive is half full you wouldn't want to defrag your system more than once a day, every day, for 5 years straight. ;)

 

But thats just my personal opinion.  If I spent that much on a nice drive I would want to use like I normally use a hard drive and not worry about "wearing it out".  That would be like buying a real fast sports car and keeping it in the garage everyday.

Five years from now you won't have that drive anyway, you will have moved on to something better before then.

 

Dave