How to Boost HDD Performance in Windows 10/11 Easily

Is There a Way to Improve HDD Performance?

HDDs (hard disk drives) are one of the most commonly used types of computer storage. People use them as a medium for storing files, media, documents, and other types of data. However, as you use them for a long period, you may find that your hard disk lags when running programs, starting games, or accessing files.

Why would this happen? How to boost HDD performance on Windows 10 or 11? In this guide, we will show you the common reasons for HDD latency and effective techniques to speed up your HDD performance.

Why is HDD Running Slow on Windows 10/11?

It's a fact that the performance of the hard drives will degrade with the wear and tear from lots of reading and writing. This can lead to PC slow startup, programs running slow, or occasional system crashes. Some common reasons for this slowdown include:

• Fragmentation of data on HDD leads to slow read/write speeds.
• There are bad sectors on the hard drive.
• Lots of temporary files and other data take up disk space.
• Viruses or malware damage your hard drive, causing your computer to behave erratically.

How to Boost HDD Performance in Windows 10/11 in 6 Methods

In the following, six solutions about how to speed up HDD on Windows 11/10 with be introduced with full guides.

Option 1. Defrag HDD on Windows 10/11

Defragmenting your hard drive is a fundamental step in boosting its performance. When you use your hard drive for a long time, files on your disk become fragmented and scattered in various locations. This can slow down its read and write operations. Defragmentation rearranges these files, making them organized into contiguous blocks for faster access. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Press Win + S to open the search bar. Type "defrag" and open the Defragment and Optimize Drives app.

2. Select the disk drive you want to optimize.

3. Click on the Optimize button to defragment and optimize your hard drive.

Option 2. Remove Temporary Files

Deleting temporary files is a simple yet effective way about how to boost HDD performance in Windows 10. This is because browsers apps will download lots of temporary files, which can occupy the hard drive space and also slow it down. To remove temporary files:

1. Open the Run menu by pressing "Windows + R", type "temp” and press Enter.

2. Press Ctrl + A to select all the temporary files in the Temp folder and press Shift + Delete to delete them.

You can also run the Windows Disk Cleanup tool to free up space on Windows by typing cleanmgr in Windows search box, opening the tool, choosing the drive you want to clean up, and select files to delete.

Option 3. Enable Write Caching for HDD

You can improve the hard drive speed by enabling write caching on Windows. This feature allows the physical memory and RAM to collect write command, which is then sent to the storage device like a hard drive. Enabling the write caching feature can cause data loss or corruption. How to improve HDD performance in Windows 10 by turning on write caching? Here is what to do:

1. Type Device Management into the Windows search box to access Device Manager.

2. Locate the target hard drive under Disk Drivers. Right-click it to choose Properties.

3. Go to the Policies tab, tick Enable write caching on the device, and click OK.

Option 4. Run a Disk Scan

Running a disk scan with Check Disk is an essential practice for maintaining a healthy hard drive. How to increase HDD speed in Windows 10 using this tool? Follow the steps below:

1. Open File Explorer, right-click on the drive you want to check, and click on Properties.

2. Navigate to Tools and select Check under Error checking. Then, click OK and Apply to save the changes.

3. Click Scan drive to proceed with the scan and wait for it to complete.

Option 5. Minimize Page File

Disabling the Page File can improve the hard drive performance if your hard drive is slow and on low disk space. Follow the given steps to disable the virtual memory/ paging files.

1. Open Settings on your Windows, go to System > About > Advanced system settings from the left side panel.

2. Click on the Advanced tab, and under the performance section, click on Settings.

3. Again, click on the Advanced tab, and under Virtual Memory, click on the Change option.

4. From the new window, disable the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives; now click on the No paging file option and click OK.

5. Select Apply, then press the OK button.

Option 6. Best Software to Clone HDD to SSD without Boot Issue

Essentially speaking, it is impossible for how to make HDD faster like SSD, as a hard disk drive can get measurably slower with age, mechanical wear, and other factors. If you have installed your system on an HDD and your PC boot-up time is long, it is highly recommended to upgrade to SSD with the professional disk cloning software - AOMEI Backupper.

Compared with HDDs, SSDs provide a better user experience due to their faster speeds, quieter operation, cooler temperature, lower power consumption, and longer durability. With this tool, you can easily use SSD for OS and HDD for storage.It is widely compatible with Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista.

• Flexible cloning options - It offers Disk Clone, System Clone (clone only operating system), and Partition Clone.
• Intelligent cloning - It only copies the used sectors by default, which is very convenient to clone to smaller SSD. It also provides Sector By Sector Clone to copy all the sectors if your target SSD has sufficient space.
• SSD Alignment - It offers SSD Alignment to improve the speed of reading and writing as well as prolong the service life of SSDs, as SSDs usually have different structures compared with HDDs.

To clone HDD to SSD, please connect or install the SSD to your computer first, then go on with the following guidelines.

1. Run the AOMEI Backupper software. Navigate to Clone and select Disk Clone.

2. Choose your HDD as the source drive.

3. Specify the connected SSD as the destination disk.

Note: After cloning, all data on the destination SSD will be overwritten. If there are important files on it, please create a backup before proceeding.

4. Check SSD Alignment to accelerate the reading and writing speed of the SSD disk. Then, click on Start Clone to clone hard drive to SSD.

Conclusion

On this page, we have covered 6 solutions for how to boost HDD performance in Windows 10 and 11. Once and for all, you can upgrade from HDD to SSD using the reliable cloning tool, AOMEI Backupper. Almost all SSD brands are supported, like Toshiba, Samsung, SanDisk, Seagate, etc. You can use it to clone to a larger or smaller SSD, as well as clone only OS.

In addition, it has other useful features such as backup, recovery, synchronization, bootable media creation and more, providing you with a comprehensive data protection solution.