HDD running at 100%, with high response time

[Betterjakers]

System Specs: i7 4710HQ, 8gb ram, gtx 980m, 1TB toshiba HDD, Windows 10, (Alienware 17 r2)

Problem: My HDD is running at 100% almost all the time, and the response time is usually above 500ms, and goes above 1000ms a lot. Programs on my computer take really long to load, and I think the HDD might be causing this. The read/write speed is usually in the KB, and rarely goes above a few MB.

What I’ve tried:
- Disabling superfetch and windows search.
- Restarting multiple times
- Disabling Norton
- Reducing startup processes
- Scan for viruses
- Run S.M.A.R.T. with result OK

I was wondering whether it is an issue that I can fix, or whether he HDD is failing. Thanks for anyone that can help me!

 

[Mark RM]

Why not test it with Toshiba's own tools?
http://www.mytoshiba.com.au/support/items/faq/596

 

[SkyNetRising]

I was wondering whether it is an issue that I can fix, or whether he HDD is failing. Thanks for anyone that can help me!

Check Drive health. Use Hdtune health, post screenshot.
Also check Disk Usage with Resource Monitor. Post screenshot from that too.

Spoiler

It should look similar to this, just order by column total and expand file name column to be fully visible.

 

[Betterjakers]

I was wondering whether it is an issue that I can fix, or whether he HDD is failing. Thanks for anyone that can help me!

Check Drive health. Use Hdtune health, post screenshot.
Also check Disk Usage with Resource Monitor. Post screenshot from that too.

Spoiler

It should look similar to this, just order by column total and expand file name column to be fully visible.

I don't really want to download HDTune right now, so I don't have a picture for that. However, here is my Resource Monitor (Disk Defragmenter is cancelling right now). Task Manager is still showing a high response time (usually above 100ms), and 100% active time):

 

[SkyNetRising]

Did you see my example screenshot of Resource Monitor?
Disk Activity section is the important one there. You have it hidden away.

 

[Betterjakers]

Did you see my example screenshot of Resource Monitor?
Disk Activity section is the important one there. You have it hidden away.

Sorry about that. Here you go:

 

[SkyNetRising]

Almost good. Now need to order Disk Activity section by column total (descending order).

 

[Betterjakers]

Almost good. Now need to order Disk Activity section by column total (descending order).

OK, here you go:

 

[SkyNetRising]

There are excessive disk reads/writes to virtual memory.
Your system is low on ram. You may need to install additional ram.
How much ram is there btw?

Also it looks like some windows component is installing and system restore point is being generated.

 

[Betterjakers]

There are excessive disk reads/writes to virtual memory.
Your system is low on ram. You may need to install additional ram.
How much ram is there btw?

Also it looks like some windows component is installing and system restore point is being generated.

I have 8gb of ram. If I got an SSD for the OS (I can't get more ram right now), would that speed things up?

 

[SkyNetRising]

SSD would help, yes. Windows updates would install much faster.
System boot-up time and general responsiveness of the system would be much improved also.
But it would not fix the issue with insufficient amount of ram.