C Drive stuck at 100% Performance Tab

[wpdenham]

Hey Guys,

I'm experiencing some issues with my C drive and wanted to see if anyone here might have some insight, tips or fixes.

For about the past month or so I have been having some trouble with the C drive being pegged at 100% for at least the first 30-45 minutes of use on the computer and sometimes indefinitely throughout the day. I've searched a bit through the Microsoft docs/forums and tried some of the solutions there like turning off SuperFetch and things like that but still having the issue. I've also run a health check on the drive itself and it appears to be running fine according to the results from Seagates software. I've also run multiple Malware and Virus scans with no issues. Also tried defragging and running CCcleaner just to cross those off the list as well. I'm out of ideas as this is about the extent of my knowledge on getting around Windows guts.

I've included some screenshots of the issue and as you can see the performance tab is pegged at 100%, while the process tabs remains at 35% or less on any given day, all day. The most intense software I am using would be the Adobe suite, however its no more than Illustrator, Photoshop and Bridge open at the same time.

Just for reference, here are the specs on my build as well:

Windows 10 Home 64bit
Intel Core i7-4790
32GB DDR3
Seagate BarraCuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
MSI MSI Gaming Z97 GAMING 5 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
EVGA 02G-P4-3753-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti Superclocked 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

 

[shknawe]

Get rid of the avast virus checker. That thing screwed up my computer the same way and I tra ked it down to its system tray. It comes on runs at 100% and stays there locking up your computer.
Erase it and find a better one like I did and you should be good to go.

 

[wpdenham]

Get rid of the avast virus checker. That thing screwed up my computer the same way and I tra ked it down to its system tray. It comes on runs at 100% and stays there locking up your computer.
Erase it and find a better one like I did and you should be good to go.

I've been suspecting Avast as well for a bit after reading other articles. Any suggestions on a better free virus software?

 

[mgallo848]

I have Avast installed in 4 home PC's without any issues at all. It's possible you have a corrupt install but looking at your taskmgr screenshot Avast is using 0% of your HDD.

Open taskmgr again and click on the word "Disk" just below the 33% usage and place the HDD workload from most to fewest to see what's hogging up the HDD.

 

[shknawe]

yeah avast is weird it drops in whenever it feels like it and dosnt show up right away as the system tray but trust me it runs at 100% and locks up the puter for no reason. Go to cnet and use one if their rcommended ones. I dont know if it matters but my cpu is the 4790k also.

 

[stdragon]

"Seagate BarraCuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive"

Figured it was an HDD after reading about your problem. I'm 99% sure that your HDD is on the way out. It's a symptom of a much larger issue in all cases that I've seen.

If you haven't already done so, be sure to backup your data first. Once done, proceed to run a diagnostic with SeaTools from Seagate. This will stress the drive a bit, so it's best to be sure you backup your data just in case it pushes the drive to failure. It won't kill the drive if it's already in a healthy state, so better safe than sorry.

https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

 

[wpdenham]

"Seagate BarraCuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive"

Figured it was an HDD after reading about your problem. I'm 99% sure that your HDD is on the way out. It's a symptom of a much larger issue in all cases that I've seen.

If you haven't already done so, be sure to backup your data first. Once done, proceed to run a diagnostic with SeaTools from Seagate. This will stress the drive a bit, so it's best to be sure you backup your data just in case it pushes the drive to failure. It won't kill the drive if it's already in a healthy state, so better safe than sorry.

https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

Thanks for the info. I was leery of this as well and did perform a backup about 2 weeks ago just to be safe. I've also used the SeaTools diagnostic test and according this the results everything checks out fine. No errors found, no fragmentation and the drive was at a healthy percentage in the 90's.

I've been considering switching over to SSD's now that the prices have been continually dropping. My only concern is trying to move Windows to the SSD from the HDD. Will Windows remember that it is a registered copy or do I have to start with a fresh purchased copy?

 

[mgallo848]

Open taskmgr again and click on the word "Disk" just below the 33% usage and place the HDD workload from most to fewest to see what's hogging up the HDD.

 

[stdragon]

Will Windows remember that it is a registered copy or do I have to start with a fresh purchased copy?

No, you should be fine. I've cloned HDDs to SSDs plenty of times. Personally, I use Acronis True Image and boot from USB media with the utility. Then proceed to clone the drives.

You could also just backup the drive to another source (external USB HDD for example) using Windows Backup to create a system image, swap the HDD for SSD, boot from a Windows 10 USB installation media, then proceed to restore from you backup set located on the USB HDD.

If you run into any trouble with either method, you might need to repair minor errors on the NTFS volume. From an elevated command prompt, run the following below. You will have to reboot the system when prompted for it to proceed further.

chkdsk c: /f

 

[wpdenham]

Will Windows remember that it is a registered copy or do I have to start with a fresh purchased copy?

No, you should be fine. I've cloned HDDs to SSDs plenty of times. Personally, I use Acronis True Image and boot from USB media with the utility. Then proceed to clone the drives.

You could also just backup the drive to another source (external USB HDD for example) using Windows Backup to create a system image, swap the HDD for SSD, boot from a Windows 10 USB installation media, then proceed to restore from you backup set located on the USB HDD.

If you run into any trouble with either method, you might need to repair minor errors on the NTFS volume. From an elevated command prompt, run the following below. You will have to reboot the system when prompted for it to proceed further.

chkdsk c: /f

Wealth of information. Thank you!