HDD at 100% sometimes

[Jofesin]

Hi, my name is Ignacio, i'm from Argentina.
Before telling you my problem, i'd like to tell you a Little bit about the components of my pc.

Mobo: msi z97 gaming 5
Micro: Intel i7 4790k.
Ram: Gskill 8 gb x 2 (16gb total) 2666 GHz.
Ssd: Samsung 850 Evo 250 gb.
Hdd: Seagate Barracuda 2000 gb.
Psu: Thermaltake Smart 650w 80 Plus Bronze
GPU: Msi Nvidia Geforce gtx 970

I have the ssd destined for the operating system and some light features only while the hdd has 2 partitions: d:/ (with 1300 gb aprox) used for storage purposes and h:/ (with 600 gb. aprox) for installing some heavy programs and games.

I was running Windows 8.1 with normality when i noticed certain delay in some common functions as opening Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, some games and the files explorer itself... I execute the task manager in order to investigate a Little bit about what was going on and i found that the Hdd was running at 100% of its usable capability, but the ssd was running normal (0% to 4%).
But this is not all the time, for example:
With everything running normal (both discs at 0% / 10%) i try to execute adobe Illustrator (installed on d:/) and automatically the hdd goes from 0% to 100% and everything gets stuck until the computer manages to open the program, then all goes back to normality until I try to open a file in illustrator, then again to 100%, etc.
Is like every process that you run that has something to do with the hdd is causing trouble.

This issue appeared once before when i tried to migrate the Dropbox folder from c:/ to d:/, then i restored the folder and everything went back to normal.

The last thing i was doing was downloading photos from a cammera via USB.

I really hope that you guys can help me. I've already tried a lot of the suggestions posted in different fórums of the web but nothing worked out so far.

Thanks in advance
Cheers
Nacho

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, Nacho!

I'd strongly recommend you to run some malware/antivirus scans on your system and see if anything pops up there. Another thing you should do is run a cleaning software that will rid you of all the redundant temp files in your system that could be causing these spikes as well.
If the issue is visible only when you have the Adobe apps running, I guess you could try re-installing them.
Another thing you could try to lower the HDD usage is to disable some Windows Services. Try this:

press Windows+R
Write services.msc
Disable
1-Super fetch
2-Windows Search
3-Background Intelligent Transfer Service

Hope these help. Keep me posted!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Jofesin]

Hi! thank you very much for your answer.
Well, i couldn't solve it yet.
I performed all the steps that you pointed at me and the problem persists.
Disabled all the three services, passed CCleaner and scanned the whole pc with AVG Antivirus.
Everything was ok!
So i formatted the pc, back to Windows 8.1. Deleted the whole hdd (deleted both partitions and re-created them, formatted each one with the slow method and performed a defrag in each partition separately).
The problem is still out there...
Is not only with the Adobe applications, is with every activity that i perform within that disc: opening a program, a game, a file, etc.
So i tested the hard drive in another pc with Windows 7 and everything works just fine!
I don't know what else to do...

My ears are opened for any suggestion...

 

[Jofesin]

I have updates.
Performed an analisys to the with the manufacturer's tool ando all the test were ok (S.M.A.R.T. and other one that i can't remember the name).

This is getting really annoying...

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hi again, Jofesin!

Good thing that you thought of the diagnostic utility to test the HDD's health and SMART status. However, if the HDD is running just fine in the other computer, then the source of the problem is somewhere else in your PC configuration. I'd suggest you to check for any SATA/chipset driver updates for your model on the motherboard manufacturer's website.
I'd also consider resetting BIOS and see if that will do any good. Just make sure you know how to re-configure your BIOS settings afterwards, because the reset will get them back to factory default. ( http://www.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS )

Hope this helps. Keep me posted though.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Jofesin]

Hi SuperSoph... Found the problem... Sadly it had the worst possible ending...
Despite that the Seagate's diagnostic utility indicated that the SMART disk status was ok, it wasn't...
I rescanned the disk with HD Tune pro, HDD regenerator (used the SMART monitor only at first) and another one with a chinese anime type chick in the background, and the three agreed that the disk is failing...
The errors are:
Status : Inminent Fail
Rellocated sectors count : 6440 -> 6448 [84=84>10] -> [83=83>10]
End to end Error : 3[97=97<99]
Current pending sector count : 416 -> 472 [98>89>0]
Uncorrectable sector count : 416 -> 472 [98>89>0]

So my guess is that when I tried it in the other pc... either i didn't tried it hard enough, or maybe didn't tried it long enough... i don't know... the case is that all this diagnose utilities are telling me that the disk is broken...

If you don't mind I'd like to ask you a few more questions...
What does the blue sun type symbol reference in the hdd regenerator SMART panel means?
cause i have one in the "temperature difference from 100" indicator on my SSD. The value of this item is 32 [68>54>0]
All the other items in this SSD are ok (with no references or symbols).

Do the HDDs / SDDs need to be refrigerated?
I have a Thermaltake Urban T31 case with a 120 mm fan right in front of both disks. Is this enough?

Anyway, i'm buying a Western Digital Black Edition WD2003fzex
What do you think about this HDD?

Thank you very much for all your help!

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again!

I'm sorry that your drive is failing, I hope you have the data backed up elsewhere!
What does the blue sun type symbol reference in the hdd regenerator SMART panel means?
cause i have one in the "temperature difference from 100" indicator on my SSD. The value of this item is 32 [68>54>0]
Unfortunately, as an official WD representative I cannot discuss third-party utilities but since these results concern your SSD, I'd suggest you to run an SSD-specific diagnostic tool instead. The HDD testing utilities are not really designed for solid-state drives. Here's a thread that can give you some suggestions about that: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1926483/ssd-diagnostic-tools.html

Do the HDDs / SDDs need to be refrigerated?
Definitely NOT. This freezer trick is considered to be done as the very last resort in attempt to recover the data from a failed HDD by yourself. This rarely works and if the data on that drive is irreplaceable, you should never go down this road. In such cases, I'd simply suggest you to turn to a professional data recovery company, though costly they would be your best chance at getting any data back from a dead HDD. I don't think it would work with the solid-state drives, they function differently and their internal architecture is totally different as well. Your system specs should be enough for the storage drives to perform properly without running hot. If they do, then either the HDD or some other hardware component is heating things up in the system.

Anyway, i'm buying a Western Digital Black Edition WD2003fzex
What do you think about this HDD?
Definitely a good HDD choice, especially if you are looking for high-end performance in your PC. This is our performance drive and it's designed to deliver exactly on that - gaming or using other demanding software (like video/photo editing, etc.). The WD Black comes in various capacities and the valuable 5-year limited warranty. It also features a dual-core processor that offers twice the processing capability and it maximizes the drive performance for faster read/write speeds. You can check for more details about this HDD here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=8YYSza

Hope I was able to help out and answer all your questions!
Feel free to keep me posted if you need further assistance!

Cheers,
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Jofesin]

Hi again! Thank yo very much for taking the time to answer all my questions!

Affortunately i could recover all the important data from the broken hdd...

When i said "refrigerate" i meant to cool the disk inside the pc case. With an extra cooler or fan or something else. I was saying that i have the two disks located in front of a 120 mm. Fan inside the pc cabinet.
I guess that was a fail in my english that made you confused about what i was trying to say... hahaha sorry about that...
I read something about freezing the disks but i didn't take it as a good advice since it sounded too absurd.

Again thank you for your time and your recomendations.

Cheers!
Nacho.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

LOL! I see! Well, yes, it should be enough to 'refrigerate' the HDDs. 😀

I'm glad I was able to help you out, Nacho!
Best of luck!

SuperSoph_WD