CompTIA A+ Core 2 (220-1202)Software TroubleshootingMedium
A desktop with a traditional 5400 RPM mechanical hard drive has become noticeably sluggish over several months, especially when opening large files. Task Manager shows normal CPU and RAM usage, and a full antivirus scan finds no malware. Which action is MOST likely to improve performance?
- ADisable Windows Search indexing
- BRun Optimize Drives to defragment the hard disk
- CRun Disk Cleanup to remove temporary files
- DIncrease the paging file size
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Run Optimize Drives to defragment the hard disk
On mechanical drives, file fragmentation scattered across the platters increases seek time, especially noticeable with large files; running Optimize Drives (defragmentation) consolidates fragments and restores read/write speed. Disk Cleanup only frees space and won't fix fragmentation-related slowness.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Disabling indexing could slightly reduce background load but won't fix the described symptom pattern.
- C. Frees space but does not address fragmentation causing slow large-file access.
- D. Paging file size affects virtual memory, not disk fragmentation performance.
Disk Defragmentation (Optimize Drives)
A maintenance process that reorganizes fragmented data on mechanical hard drives so related file pieces sit contiguously, improving read/write speed.
- Only needed on HDDs, not SSDs
- Windows tool: Optimize Drives
- SSDs use TRIM instead of defrag
Memory trick: 'Defrag the Drag' on spinning disks.