Question 100% disk usage all of a sudden??

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Allisonmo22

Allisonmo22

Mar 17, 2025
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[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!
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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
 
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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.
 
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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:
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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?
 
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