Try opening computer, and right click on the external, tools, and from there, defrag/optimize.
My optimization program opens when I do that, rather than using the windows tools. Worth a shot.
I use Advanced System Care Ultimate, and choosing the tool as if I were going to use the native windows tool, opens ASC for the job.
Yeah, I have Smart Defrag and Advanced System Care Ultimate set as my default system tools, but they still recognise my HDDs as SSD drives and will not perform some maintenance tasks.... same with Ccleaner, which will empty the recycle bins for both the SSD and HDDs, but will not wipe the free space due to all drives being deemed SSD andnot requiring it. Thing is, I like to wipe the free space on platter drives every 3 months or so because it helps them to remain fresh and at optimum performance/capacity.
Mark, after checking online, it seems that you may benefit from running WinSAT. (Windows Experience Index) to force the PC into seeing each drive as what it is.
Since Windows 8 and up have no WEI scoring method, you might try the program I am linking to below.
ChrisPC WEI tool. I use it.
Well I did that and no luck tbere, either. Ccleaner and ASC still see the drives as SSDs. Oh well, it was worth a shot.... and I now know the WEI for this little number is 4.9, which isn't so bad for a tablet-come-laptop. The lowest score was for gaming graphics, which is irrelevant as I don't do games on here anyhow.
Also, you could go to Disk Management, and under tools, choose to rescan disks.
That was one of the first things I tried when I opened up Administrative Tools/Disc Management. I even went through Device Management, HDD Properties and System Configuration hoping to find an answer, all without luck and why I ended up here.
It has occurred to me that maybe a system file is either missing or corrupt, and that maybe setting the machine back to factory settings could remedy the problem. I did perform a sfc /scannow, not that it came back with any errors to speak of, though a factory reset may just be the answer. I really don't want to resort to that after setting everything up just as I want it, so I'm hoping there is another way It would be somewhat time consuming and something I'd rather not have to do if it can be avoided.