Hard Drives are crucial component of any PC and have a major stake in PC Performance. And hence, it is really important to take measures to maintain and improve hard drive performance in order to speed up the PC.

While a lot of people do try and take care of their PC’s RAM in order to maintain PC Performance, a very few people actually pay any attention to their Hard Drive health. Here are the 7 Tips to maintain your SSD and Hard Drive Performance:

Tips to Maintain Drive Performance and Improve HDD Read Write Speed:

1. Be Mindful:

A lot of people, especially youngsters, clutter their PC with the programs they don’t really need or they don’t rely on. Many of these unpopular software or program may offer/promise to offer a lot of useful features but do more harm than good. Many of these software come in packages, bundled with a few other small software. That’s how only a few useless programs may quickly accumulated and take a lot of your Hard Drive space without your knowledge which in turn slows down your PC.

In order to deal with this and maintain hard drive performance, users should be mindful of the programs they install and also the source of the program they are installing on their PC. If you are dealing with a slow PC right now, head to the control panel and watch the list of apps that you have installed on your PC and mindfully delete the programs that you don’t use anymore. This will give an instant boost to your hard drive performance and speed up the HDD Read write speed.

2. Watch out for Duplicates:

Nothing hurts the hard drive performance more than the mindlessly filled storage. Duplicate Files are one of the few most bothering things there are for a Hard drive performance. Duplicate Files are unjustified use of space. Duplicate Files can quickly pile up on your hard drive without you even being aware of them and can hamper your PC’s and Hard drive performance.

In order to deal with the situation, you will need to identify and remove duplicates from your system. However, this is easier said then done. First things first, you will have to identify the files that have duplicates on your system and then search for them. Searching part is easy once you know you have duplicate of that file. In most cases, users aren’t aware of the files that actually have duplicates and it is irrational and impossible to start with file 1. Hence, users have to use a specialized software that can search for duplicates automatically in just a couple of clicks. Don’t worry, we have got you covered. We have just the right software for you. (More on it in the end)

3. Keep Temporary actually temporary

Temporary files on the system play a very crucial role for unhindered work experience. Temporary files store the data of the ongoing task. For example: while working on an excel document, until you save the progress, all the progress you have made is saved in temporary files to protect the data in case of sudden system crash. But as soon as you save the progress, those temporary files are logically useless.

Although the system is programmed to delete those temporary files automatically, it isn’t the case most of the time. Most of the time temporary files stay present on your hard drive for a long time. Though these files are incredibly tiny in size, the sheer number of them makes them considerable. Temporary files can quickly pile up and hamper PC and Hard drive performance. Hence, in order to speed up the disk and HDD read write speed, users should take measures to get rid of these files every now and then.

In order to delete the temporary files manually:

Step 1: Right click on the Windows Icon on the bottom left corner of the screen and Click on Run. Users can also use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + R to open the Run Command dialog box.

Step 2: In the Run Command Dialog Box, type command: %temp%. This command will open the folder with all the temporary files on the system.

Step 3: Select all the files in the folder and delete them all to simply get rid of the temporary files.

Note: Users should save all the running programs in order to prevent any data loss.

4. Fragmented Space:

Traditional Hard drives consist of small sectors on the storage disk. These small sectors of space are used to hold files on your system. When you store a file of 1 GB, it isn’t stored in a box of 1 GB capacity, rather that 1 GB data is stored on hundreds of small sectors. Over time these sectors get disorganized due to continuous deletion and updation of the files on the hard drive and it negatively affects the hard drive performance and HDD read write speed.

In order to declutter and organize the files on the hard drive, users should timely Defragment their hard drive. Defragmentation gives an instant boost to HDD Read write speed and improves PC performance.

In order to defragment your hard drive, follow the steps given below:

Step 1: Right click on the drive you want to defragment and Click on Properties.

Step 2: Go to Tools and click Optimize.

Step 3: In the next dialog box, choose the drive you want to optimize again and click Optimize.

This is how you can simply optimize your hard drive. Also, users can schedule the process to optimize your system’s drive automatically after the said period of time. This is a very important feature as it reduces the user’s involvement and saves time.

5. Bad Sectors:

Bad sectors are the blocks/chunks of storage space on the HDD or SSD that is rendered useless by the system because it can’t read and write data from/in that space any longer. Such sectors/blocks/chunks of space are marked Bad Sectors by the system and are ignored for reading and writing the data that time onwards. Bad Sectors on the drive may occur because of both external and internal issues. Bad Sectors can quickly accumulate, if left unattended, and cause you to lose big chunks of data and may even crash the whole drive in the long run.

Though the bad sectors created because of the external wear and tear aren’t reparable, we can keep the bad sectors created because of internal issues in check. Keeping bad sectors in check is an important measure to keep the storage drive performance and HDD read write speed in check.

In order to check and removed Bad sectors manually, follow the steps given below:

Step 1: Right click on the drive you want to search for bad sectors and click on Properties.

Step 2: Go to Tools and Click on Check.

Step 3: Click Scan in the next Dialog box to scan for Bad sectors in the drive. Users can repeat this process for all the drives present on the system.

Note: This method isn’t fool proof and there can still be bad sectors present on the drive after performing the scan and fixing the errors.

6. It’s not all about the inside:

All the steps that we have discussed yet focus mainly on what’s inside the drive, but physical wellbeing of the drive is also very important in order to maintain the hard drive performance. Especially the traditional Hard drives are a bit frugal and can get completely useless if the disk or head of the Hard drive is affected.

For the internal Hard Drive and SSDs, it isn’t feasible to open the PC and clean them every now and then. So, rather than cleaning the internal drives, users should keep their PC cabinets and/or laptops away from dirt and debris. And for external drives, users should store the drives in a dirt-free environment and should also clean them regularly.

Though this method doesn’t give an instant boost to the drive performance, it surely lengthens the life of the hard drive and also speeds up the disk read and write speed in the long run.

Also Read: How To Upgrade/Change Your PS4 Hard Drive

7. Don’t sweat your Drives:

You may enjoy a sunny day, but your hard drive and SSDs don’t. Storage Drives, like all other PC components, can get quickly roasted with PC heat and need to be kept cool. Though most PCs come equipped with a reasonable cooling system, if you have upgraded some of the components of your PC that may be producing more heat, it can cause problems with your storage drive and other PC components. Storage Drives do not function as smooth as they should under extra ordinarily warm conditions. Also, it can reduce the life span of storage devices considerably.

Hence, in order to protect your Storage drives and other components, you should keep your PC temperature in check. Users can do so by investing in a good cooling system. If you are using a high end or gaming PC, an air cooler might not work and you may need to invest in a liquid cooling system. Also, try and keep your PC cabinet or Laptop at a reasonably cool place.

These were all the tips that can come in handy to improve the drive performance, improve HDD read writes speed, and also increase the lifespan of your hard drive in the long run.

Though these steps look easy to perform when read one at a time in isolation, but can get pretty strenuous when you have to perform all the tasks manually every few days in order to keep the drive health in check. Hence, we recommend using an automatic software to do all the internal care of the drive for you and improve the drive performance and life span without bothering you. Systweak Disk SpeedUp is one such tool.

 Systweak Disk SpeedUp:

Systweak Disk SpeedUp is an amazing tool and is a one stop solution for all your Storage drive maintenance needs. It has a lot of useful features that can substantially reduce user involvement in the disk maintenance tasks to minimum. Let’s discuss some of the Disk SpeedUp features in brief:

⮚      Auto Defrag:

This software can automatically defrag the drives for you and fix the fragmented areas and improve hard drive performance significantly. Auto Defragmentation means that you no longer need to go to drive properties again and again every time you want to defrag you drive.

⮚      Clean Bad Sectors Automatically:

As we discussed the importance of keeping the bad sectors on your drive in check, Disk SpeedUp can do this for you. We also discussed that the Windows built-in tool isn’t a fool proof solution to keep the bad sectors in check. Disk SpeedUp, on the other hand, is an advanced software solution that can surely deep scan for Bad sectors on the drive and repair them for you.

⮚      Scan for Duplicates Automatically:

Scanning for duplicate files on the system is one of the most difficult tasks in drive maintenance, especially if you don’t know where to start. But Disk SpeedUp can do so for you without you worrying about it. You can scan for duplicates in just a couple of clicks and the software will do the rest for you. In just a couple of minutes, you will be seeing all the duplicates that were hogging on your drive space and you can get rid of them in a go.

⮚      Clean Junk files:

Getting rid of junk temporary files can’t be easier than this. With Disk SpeedUp you can get rid of all the junk temporary files on the system in just a couple of clicks and voila, you have your smooth-running PC there for you.

With all the above given features and more, Disk SpeedUp is an amazing tool to improve drive performance and boost HDD read write speed instantly.

Download Disk Speed Up Defragmenter Software by Systweak For Your Windows PC

So, these were all the tips that can help you improve hard drive performance, improve hard disk speed, improve read write speed, and increase the lifespan of the drive in the long run. Do let us know you liked the post; we love hearing from you.

Next Read

How To Recover Files From The Hard Drive Of A Dead Laptop?