Disk at 100% when running applications (games,firefox, etc.)

[malachidunbaugh]

Hello,
I have just recently been having this issue with my Disk jumping up to 100 on boot-up, when running games, or even some simple tasks. Although it doesn't constantly run at 100, it will jump up there from time to time, but running any games are impossible, which suck because I could run most games at high fps. I have tried most things I have found on the internet but none have worked. Many people have been saying its an OS issue, which i believe it is because I have had no issue until a couple days ago (and have had this pc for almost a year now.) Please help me out if you can.

Specs -
Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050ti
Intel Skylake i3-6100k @ 3.7 gHz
Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB 5400 rpm
8GB of G Skill ddr3 RAM
Gigabyte GA BB150M mobo

 

[Ralston18]

Run the Western Digital diagnostic software on your hard drive.

See if the diagnostic software identifies any problems.

Overall, I suspect that the HDD has become a bottleneck in your system: e.g.,1TB, 5400 rpm.....

How full is the drive?

May have been okay up to date but now has reached some limit or threshold value that is now slowing performance down.

Back up all important data. Verify the backups, then do some housecleaning/file deletions on the drive.

A defrag may help depending on circumstances.

 

[malachidunbaugh]

Run the Western Digital diagnostic software on your hard drive.

See if the diagnostic software identifies any problems.

Overall, I suspect that the HDD has become a bottleneck in your system: e.g.,1TB, 5400 rpm.....

How full is the drive?

May have been okay up to date but now has reached some limit or threshold value that is now slowing performance down.

Back up all important data. Verify the backups, then do some housecleaning/file deletions on the drive.

A defrag may help depending on circumstances.

Hey Ralston18, sorry for the late response, have been busy lately.
The WD drive software I ran said it had no issues.
The drive is only about halfway full.
I did some malware scans with Malwarebytes and removed the existing malware on the drive.
It still goes up to 100 when running games, but then I found some other issues aswell. My processor AND my memory are getting pretty high digits in task manager. I checked my system information to make sure that maybe one of my RAM sticks didn't pop out, and it didn't, but with 8GB it says that the available physical memory is at 3.85 GB...?! I am thinking I might need to update the BIOS or something because I have never had these issues before.
I might just reset my Windows. That will most likely fix the issue.
Please help me out. Much appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

Go slow and delve into the details.

Use the available sorts in Task Manager (click the column headers). Try to identify everything that is running and then if it should be running....

Resource Monitor (Memory tab) should show you what is taking up memory. Look and watch.

Check the Startup tab. App history.

Resetting Windows is a last resort - and may be meaningless without some idea of what the problem is. May just come back.

 

[malachidunbaugh]

Go slow and delve into the details.

Use the available sorts in Task Manager (click the column headers). Try to identify everything that is running and then if it should be running....

Resource Monitor (Memory tab) should show you what is taking up memory. Look and watch.

Check the Startup tab. App history.

Resetting Windows is a last resort - and may be meaningless without some idea of what the problem is. May just come back.

There isn't much running. Just some Windows processes and maybe a few background programs (Steam, Discord, Blizzard, etc.)

 

[Ralston18]

Disable the background programs and leave the Windows processes alone.

Ensure that the background programs are disabled within startup. A program could (and can) launch, access the drive, do whatever it needs to, and return to low CPU use. But due to some bug, keep a hold on the drive....

Reboot and check the drive %. If down, then slowly add the background programs one by one to determine if one particular program grabs and holds the disk drive usage (E.g. 100%).

If none of the background programs are the culprit then the Windows Processes will need to be looked at. Much trickier and great care will be needed.