Question 100% disk usage all of a sudden??

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Allisonmo22

Allisonmo22

Mar 17, 2025
21
0
10
[Moderator edit to break up solid paragraph of text.]

Older (spec'd) gaming pc (the actual pc itself is only a year old more or less). Core i7-4790, win10, 32gb ddr3, gtx1660s, 1tb sata ssd. only used for Forza Horizon 4 and 5.

For months I have had 0 issues playing either game. Over past week now my disk usage has spiked to 100% while playing causing textures to completely stop loading and the game to crash. GPU drivers updated, windows updated.

So far I have re-installed both games, reinstalled windows, created a sep partition in my ssd to move the games to, tried turning off all background processes, turned off windows defender (to test only), run checkdisk and other tools that all return no issues with drive itself, set frame rates to cap at 60fps on nvidia control panel, didsabled all startup apps, and probably a bunch of other ideas i've found on the web.

The most baffling part is the fact that everything worked fine for so long then out of nowhere it failed. No new programs downloaded, no new hardware, didn't happen after a windows update. My cpu usage varies while playing from 60-80%, memory never goes above 20%, and gpu hovers around 50-70% mostly while playing.

I have not touched the SATA cable at all to loosen it or anything like that. I guess the ask is, how do I definitively figure out what happened or what is causing this all of a sudden? I don't want to throw $$ at an older set up, and I'm not really in the position to drop a couple grand on a new set up.

Another odd issue, maybe related, maybe not, is with Horizon 4. When I am loading the game, as the loading screen is playing the animation, it will spike the disk usage to 100% and it causes my pc itself to reboot. Horizon 5 will load fine and play for a while until the disk spikes and then it may freeze the game, but never reboots my pc.

I'll take any ideas or thoughts you guys may have. I'm at a loss at this point of where to turn next. At this point I just have a colorful paperweight since the only thing I need the pc for is those 2 games. Everything else works fine. All programs and apps run great. Thank you!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

If you're not doing anything when the disk usage spikes up to 100% and you're on Windows 8.1 or 10 or 11, then you have what's known as a memoryleak, your only option is to reinstall the OS, after recreating the bootable USB installer for the OS.

Now would be a good idea to see if your BIOS on your motherboard is on the latest version.

Older (spec'd) gaming pc (the actual pc itself is only a year old more or less). Core i7-4790, win10, 32gb ddr3, gtx1660s, 1tb sata ssd. only used for Forza Horizon 4 and 5.
When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Lutfij said:
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

If you're not doing anything when the disk usage spikes up to 100% and you're on Windows 8.1 or 10 or 11, then you have what's known as a memoryleak, your only option is to reinstall the OS, after recreating the bootable USB installer for the OS.

Now would be a good idea to see if your BIOS on your motherboard is on the latest version.

Older (spec'd) gaming pc (the actual pc itself is only a year old more or less). Core i7-4790, win10, 32gb ddr3, gtx1660s, 1tb sata ssd. only used for Forza Horizon 4 and 5.
When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the quick reply! I'm at work still so I'll reply shortly with those specs in the format you requested.


As to the os, I just reinstalled windows last night with no difference in disk usage. And my spike to 100% disk usage is only while running either of those 2 games. When pc is idle, I am at 0%-2%. Until last week, my pc had 0 issues running those 2 games. Literally 40-50 hours a week, every week for months. It "feels like" something else is starting and running simultaneously, but there are no tasks or processes showing any appreciable usage.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allisonmo22 said:
It "feels like" something else is starting and running simultaneously, but there are no tasks or processes showing any appreciable usage.
Click to expand...
Use Resource Monitor - Disk tab/Disk Activity section
to find, what process is causing disk activity.
Post screenshot from Resource Monitor (upload to imgur.com and post link).
Order Disk Activity section by column "Total" before making the screenshot.
Also extend "File" column in Disk Activity section, so file names are fully readable.

Screenshot would look similar to this.
Just don't forget about ordering by column "Total". This is necessary, so processes with most activity are at the top of the list.

windows-resource-monitor-disk-tab-hard-disk-show-read-write-speed-win7
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allisonmo22 said:
[Moderator edit to break up solid paragraph of text.]

Older (spec'd) gaming pc (the actual pc itself is only a year old more or less). Core i7-4790, win10, 32gb ddr3, gtx1660s, 1tb sata ssd. only used for Forza Horizon 4 and 5.

For months I have had 0 issues playing either game. Over past week now my disk usage has spiked to 100% while playing causing textures to completely stop loading and the game to crash. GPU drivers updated, windows updated.

So far I have re-installed both games, reinstalled windows, created a sep partition in my ssd to move the games to, tried turning off all background processes, turned off windows defender (to test only), run checkdisk and other tools that all return no issues with drive itself, set frame rates to cap at 60fps on nvidia control panel, didsabled all startup apps, and probably a bunch of other ideas i've found on the web.

The most baffling part is the fact that everything worked fine for so long then out of nowhere it failed. No new programs downloaded, no new hardware, didn't happen after a windows update. My cpu usage varies while playing from 60-80%, memory never goes above 20%, and gpu hovers around 50-70% mostly while playing.

I have not touched the SATA cable at all to loosen it or anything like that. I guess the ask is, how do I definitively figure out what happened or what is causing this all of a sudden? I don't want to throw $$ at an older set up, and I'm not really in the position to drop a couple grand on a new set up.

Another odd issue, maybe related, maybe not, is with Horizon 4. When I am loading the game, as the loading screen is playing the animation, it will spike the disk usage to 100% and it causes my pc itself to reboot. Horizon 5 will load fine and play for a while until the disk spikes and then it may freeze the game, but never reboots my pc.

I'll take any ideas or thoughts you guys may have. I'm at a loss at this point of where to turn next. At this point I just have a colorful paperweight since the only thing I need the pc for is those 2 games. Everything else works fine. All programs and apps run great. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Post a screenshot from crystal disk info.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
SkyNetRising said:
Use Resource Monitor - Disk tab/Disk Activity section
to find, what process is causing disk activity.
Post screenshot from Resource Monitor (upload to imgur.com and post link).
Order Disk Activity section by column "Total" before making the screenshot.
Also extend "File" column in Disk Activity section, so file names are fully readable.

Screenshot would look similar to this.
Just don't forget about ordering by column "Total". This is necessary, so processes with most activity are at the top of the list.

windows-resource-monitor-disk-tab-hard-disk-show-read-write-speed-win7
Click to expand...
https://imgur.com/a/inp52N3
View: https://imgur.com/a/inp52N3
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allisonmo22 said:
And what is going on with office here?? I don't have anything running that I was aware of....
Click to expand...
In those first 1+3 screenshots basically nothing is happening. Disk usage only 1%-2%.
I can see game launching and windows defender updating definitions.

Last screenshot - SDXhelper.exe seems to be doing MS Office updates. And disk usage at 74%.
Wait until MS Office updates finish.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It seems as though when I play, everything is fine. Runs smoothly, 0 issues. As soon as I start streaming it spikes my cpu and disk usage to 100%. My streaming software is pulling 40% of cpu alone. I just don't get it. I have been using this setup to do exactly this for months, why all of a sudden?

Everything is functioning fine. Fh4 runs no problem. Obs runs no problem. But out of nowhere I'm just running out of resources while using both simultaneously. How has this never been an issue before? Something new must be running that I am just not seeing.

I feel like my next course of action may be to get another SSD just to store the games, but CPU upgrade isn't in the cards. That would require new everything. Honestly, I don't know what to do anymore....
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allisonmo22 said:
This was just a few min ago. I have disabled windows defender and am using avg, and I have as much turned off as I can in avg.
Click to expand...
In last screenshot - Disk Activity section is not ordered by column total.
Anyway - Forza Horizon4 seems to be doing most activity.

Allisonmo22 said:
I feel like my next course of action may be to get another SSD just to store the games
Click to expand...
BTW - what model SSD are you using?
Can you show screenshot from Device Manager - disk drives and storage controllers sections expanded?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
SkyNetRising said:
In last screenshot - Disk Activity section is not ordered by column total.
Anyway - Forza Horizon4 seems to be doing most activity.


BTW - what model SSD are you using?
Can you show screenshot from Device Manager - disk drives and storage controllers sections expanded?
Click to expand...
https://imgur.com/a/yN3zVbc
View: https://imgur.com/a/yN3zVbc



does this look like a 128gb drive formatted to 1tb?? is that possible? or am i just seeing generic info, not storage specific with that MZ7TY128HDHP-000L1
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allisonmo22 said:
does this look like a 128gb drive formatted to 1tb?? is that possible? or am i just seeing generic info, not storage specific with that MZ7TY128HDHP-000L1
Click to expand...
Connect drive to a different sata port.
MZ7TY128HDHP is indeed model name for a 128GB drive.
If you upgraded your drive from 128GB model to 1TB model, then information of the old drive may have remained in registry.
Allisonmo22 said:
Seems like these numbers should be much higher? Like 500mb/s for a sata drive?
disregard. trimmed drive, much better
Click to expand...
Can you show a screenshot from Drive Dashboard in Samsung Magician?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
@Allisonmo22

Regarding: "Gotta be honest, this is a bit overwhelming. All I can see for sorting is alphabetically."

Agree.

If you click the column headers (CPU, Private Bytes, Working Set, etc..... ) you should be able to see a very small upward or downward arrow indicating the sort order. Appears just above the column name.

Clicking the column header should reverse the displayed sort order. For the most part only the first dozen or so entries ( sorted high to low) matter. Then again some seeming small, insignificant process could be the culprit.

Your screenshot shows System Idle at 66% and FH4 at 18%...

Take another look in Process Explorer with the sort on Description and then looki at the listed AVG processes.

Are there spikes when AVG processes run? Test by disabling AVG to determine if performance improves.

[For the most part all that is needed is Windows Defender/Security and perhaps Malwarebytes free as another means to scan for malware, etc..]

It takes a bit of trial and error to get a sense of how to navigate and understand Process Explorer.

Watch for spikes in the graphical views and match to processes and %'s. Disk usage....

= = = =

Open the Disk Management window Expand so all can be seen and clearly read.

Take a screenshot and post that screenshot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Allisonmo22
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ralston18 said:
@Allisonmo22

Regarding: "Gotta be honest, this is a bit overwhelming. All I can see for sorting is alphabetically."

Agree.

If you click the column headers (CPU, Private Bytes, Working Set, etc..... ) you should be able to see a very small upward or downward arrow indicating the sort order. Appears just above the column name.

Clicking the column header should reverse the displayed sort order. For the most part only the first dozen or so entries ( sorted high to low) matter. Then again some seeming small, insignificant process could be the culprit.

Your screenshot shows System Idle at 66% and FH4 at 18%...

Take another look in Process Explorer with the sort on Description and then looki at the listed AVG processes.

Are there spikes when AVG processes run? Test by disabling AVG to determine if performance improves.

[For the most part all that is needed is Windows Defender/Security and perhaps Malwarebytes free as another means to scan for malware, etc..]

It takes a bit of trial and error to get a sense of how to navigate and understand Process Explorer.

Watch for spikes in the graphical views and match to processes and %'s. Disk usage....

= = = =

Open the Disk Management window Expand so all can be seen and clearly read.

Take a screenshot and post that screenshot.
Click to expand...
I deleted avg entirely and have as much as I am comfortable turning off, off. This is everything I can find while trying to replicate the issue. I am playing Horizon 4, Streaming with OBS and may or may not have had Chrome on depending on the shot, and Paint for screenshots. That's all. Hopefully this is helpful.


https://imgur.com/a/RIK9jqO
View: https://imgur.com/a/RIK9jqO
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom