[SOLVED] Disk Usage Spikes

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MrPooGu

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Aug 15, 2016
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I recently installed a new hard drive for games. I've started experiencing this issue where the drive will spike to 100% for 2-3 seconds while gaming and CPU and GPU drop usage to what they use when not playing games.


Different games act differently with it. Raft (which is on the drive that's spiking) gives a freeze for the 2-3 seconds. Cold War seems to get affected, but it's not on the hard drive but it's freezes are not as big as Raft, it drops about 20 frames for a split second and goes back to normal. These seem to be the only games that are affected by this, others might have minor freezes so often.

PC

MSI X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI
CPU - 3600x
GPU - EVGA RTX 3070
SSD - Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB
HDD 1 - WDC 1TB 7200RPM
HDD 2 - Seagate Green 2TB 7200 GB

HDD 2 is the one with the issues, it also didn't have issues at first when I first started using it. I don't exactly know what went down.
 
Solution
M
Alright, so I figured out the issue. I messed about with a couple of things to see if it was just my drive, which I determine it was. I don't exactly understand why it doesn't take effect on my first HDD but who knows. Technology can be annoying at times.

I turned off my Anti-Virus software and it instantly fixed in the games I was playing. I think it might have been such a big issue with Insurgency (I game I didn't list before) and Raft is because they both use the disk to obtain information for the game to use frequently compared to another game I tried on the drive. I'm assuming whenever it hit higher usage points while Anti-Virus was running it just caused the drive to freak and not send information to RAM, CPU, etc.
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I assume you have your games installed on that 2 TB HDD. Why? For performance better is OS and games stored on SSD (or each on separate smaller SSD). And left HDD for long term storage. Now HDD is bottlenecking during resource file access from game.
 
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Krotow said:
I assume you have your games installed on that 2 TB HDD. Why? For performance better is OS and games stored on SSD (or each on separate smaller SSD). And left HDD for long term storage. Now HDD is bottlenecking during resource file access from game.
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I've never had an issue with the 1st hard drive. That is the drive that Cold War is on. The 2nd hard drive I just got and I only have maybe two games on it. I haven't done much with it.
 
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MrPooGu said:
I've never had an issue with the 1st hard drive. That is the drive that Cold War is on. The 2nd hard drive I just got and I only have maybe two games on it. I haven't done much with it.
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Maybe put game on your first hard drive then. I still have a feeling that stuttering is caused because of second HDD. Also you can try to connect second HDD to different SATA port. Though as first check how old BIOS version your motherboard have. Stock BIOS-es for X570 had few weird quirks.

My recommendation about games on SSD are still in effect.
 
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Krotow said:
Maybe put game on your first hard drive then. I still have a feeling that stuttering is caused because of second HDD. Also you can try to connect second HDD to different SATA port. Though as first check how old BIOS version your motherboard have. Stock BIOS-es for X570 had few weird quirks.

My recommendation about games on SSD are still in effect.
Click to expand...
I updated my BIOS to the newest there is for my motherboard, still having the issues, I'll try installing the game onto the first HDD to see if I have the issue there. I have no space on my SSD as it's my OS and only 250GB. I did check where my which port my drive was in on my motherboard and it's in port 4 while the two others are in 1 and 2, do you think that could take an effect?

In any case, I was thinking of getting another SSD that is M.2 so I might end up rolling with that for the future.
 
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MrPooGu said:
I did check where my which port my drive was in on my motherboard and it's in port 4 while the two others are in 1 and 2, do you think that could take an effect?
Click to expand...
It is manufacturer dependent to support full 6 SATA ports or share some of them with M.2. In your motherboard specification nothing is said about port sharing and I assume that all SATA ports are free to use. It does not matter in which port SATA drives are connected as well. Just for experiment you can disconnect first HDD and install few more demanding games on second HDD, with connecting it instead of first drive. Would be interesting to know are hiccups still appear in such configuration.
MrPooGu said:
In any case, I was thinking of getting another SSD that is M.2 so I might end up rolling with that for the future.
Click to expand...
For frequently used drives it seems the best choice. HDD drives are still good for large long term storage. But access times make them too slow for use as system drives and other work drives with many small often accessed files.
 
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So I changed the hard drive the game was on. No issues running, no freezes at all. So it's that hard drive or something going on with the connection of the files of the drive to the cpu or something. I don't know a solution past purchasing a SSD.
 
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Krotow said:
Seems your second HDD now gained long-term-storage-only award.
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I think that I actually might have found the issue. I started messing around with different things, and I found the culprit I believe. It was... Anti-Virus Software! I'm gonna try reinstalling the other game I was having issues with again on to the HDD and see if it gives the issues.
 
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Krotow said:
Some decent AV software definitely cause delays with unnecessary file with known extension checks. Maybe you are right. Then put exclusion on game directory.
Click to expand...
I just might try that. I'll figure that out and just do that in general for my drives. If it is the culprit. Thanks for the help and suggestions so far.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Alright, so I figured out the issue. I messed about with a couple of things to see if it was just my drive, which I determine it was. I don't exactly understand why it doesn't take effect on my first HDD but who knows. Technology can be annoying at times.

I turned off my Anti-Virus software and it instantly fixed in the games I was playing. I think it might have been such a big issue with Insurgency (I game I didn't list before) and Raft is because they both use the disk to obtain information for the game to use frequently compared to another game I tried on the drive. I'm assuming whenever it hit higher usage points while Anti-Virus was running it just caused the drive to freak and not send information to RAM, CPU, etc.
 
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Solution
Glad you sorted this out. Except AV such behavior definitely look like disk related problem. But decent AVs often take their job too seriously. Because I usually work and play games in Linux (Windows games under Steam Play/Proton) then already forgot about that too diligent AVs still exist :)
 
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