Question My Second HDD is running at 100% usage without reading or writing anything

[Ozen]

My PC was built from 2 years ago without any changes just the GPU changed it to a new one.
I have a m.2 for my windows and my second HDD is fire barracuda 2TB.
Recently, I backup most of the second harddrive with my external one the speeds are good without any problems going smoothly.
But when I try to transfer data from my external harddrive or my ssd to my second hdd it takes so much time More than a day or smth. So , I googled why my hdd does that tried to do many tests the HDD working fine passed the SMART test and used Seagate tools to make this test with others like Crystal disk mark , Hard disk sentinel telling me that the hdd is at 100% health without any bad sectors. Tried to defrag using the windows but took too much time without any significant progress it took 5 hours for it to get to 30% on Pass 1 .
I didn't try unplugging it or changing the power cable or Resetting the RAM Value , or reinstalling windows.
Any Idea Why my HDD is doing this ?

 

[Bob.B]

My PC was built from 2 years ago without any changes just the GPU changed it to a new one.
I have a m.2 for my windows and my second HDD is fire barracuda 2TB.
Recently, I backup most of the second harddrive with my external one the speeds are good without any problems going smoothly.
But when I try to transfer data from my external harddrive or my ssd to my second hdd it takes so much time More than a day or smth. So , I googled why my hdd does that tried to do many tests the HDD working fine passed the SMART test and used Seagate tools to make this test with others like Crystal disk mark , Hard disk sentinel telling me that the hdd is at 100% health without any bad sectors. Tried to defrag using the windows but took too much time without any significant progress it took 5 hours for it to get to 30% on Pass 1 .
I didn't try unplugging it or changing the power cable or Resetting the RAM Value , or reinstalling windows.
Any Idea Why my HDD is doing this ?

Run a pass of crystaldiskinfo on the seagate.
Post a screenshot of the results.

 

[Ozen]

Run a pass of crystaldiskinfo on the seagate.
Post a screenshot of the results.

https://imgur.com/a/BfTKPiM

View: https://imgur.com/a/BfTKPiM

 

[SkyNetRising]

Any Idea Why my HDD is doing this ?

That's SMR drive (Seagate Barracudas are all SMR). They have very inconsistent performance.
Any write to SMR drive also overwrites neighboring tracks. Those later have to be corrected in background.
The drive will be at high utilization until all tracks, that need corrections, have been fixed.

 

[Ozen]

That's SMR drive (Seagate Barracudas are all SMR). They have very inconsistent performance.
Any write to SMR drive also overwrites neighboring tracks. Those later have to be corrected in background.
The drive will be at high utilization until all tracks, that need corrections, have been fixed.

So you mean is I let the HDD do its thing without touching even if the transfer is saying it takes more than a day or so ?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yes. That's how SMR works.
You can't do anything about it (other than avoiding SMR drives in the first place).

 

[Ozen]

Yes. That's how SMR works.
You can't do anything about it (other than avoiding SMR drives in the first place).

Lmao I didn't know that what is SMR is Thank you
I didn't know it was this bad
So Should I go for WD Hard drives instead ?
Is this Normal for the HDD I am having

https://imgur.com/a/aPxLNR9

View: https://imgur.com/a/aPxLNR9

 

[SkyNetRising]

So Should I go for WD Hard drives instead ?

WD has SMR drives too.
You basically have to double-check every model, you intend to purchase.

Is this Normal for the HDD I am having

Probably normal. You said you did run defragmenting on the drive. That's one of worst possible things to do on SMR drive.
Let it run and fix itself.

 

[Ozen]

WD has SMR drives too.
You basically have to double-check every model, you intend to purchase.

Probably normal. You said you did run defragmenting on the drive. That's one of worst possible things to do on SMR drive.
Let it run and fix itself.

So I let the defrag runs even if it takes a day or two ?
SMH should have gone for SSDs

 

[SkyNetRising]

2TB SSD will be rather costly.

You just have to check before buying. Plenty of good options available.

Festplatten mit CMR und SMR | Seagate Deutschland

Liste unserer internen Festplatten mit dem jeweiligen Aufzeichnungsverfahren

www.seagate.com

https://hddscan.com/blog/2020/hdd-wd-smr.html

 

[Ozen]

2TB SSD will be rather costly.

You just have to check before buying. Plenty of good options available.

Festplatten mit CMR und SMR | Seagate Deutschland

Liste unserer internen Festplatten mit dem jeweiligen Aufzeichnungsverfahren

www.seagate.com

https://hddscan.com/blog/2020/hdd-wd-smr.html

It will be very costly I know ,but I don't have much free time to wait for the game/data to transfer in days or weeks just to play 4 hours or smth (
My hdd did this so suddenly that I didn't notice at all until today (2 years from using it ) like is there a limit for my hdd that can't go through without limiting the speed of it
The crystaldiskmark 16 gb test didn't finish at all anything 1 hour for 16 gb file
Is formatting the disk/ clearing anything on it will fix it ?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is formatting the disk/ clearing anything on it will fix it ?

If you clean it, it should stop all background writes.

Keep in mind - SMR drives are fine for archives, backups, mass storage of user data (music, videos).
It should not be used for anything, that requires a lot of writes to the drive - like windows OS drive or games drive.

 

[Ozen]

If you clean it, it should stop all background writes.

Keep in mind - SMR drives are fine for archives, backups, mass storage of user data (music, videos).
It should not be used for anything, that requires a lot of writes to the drive - like windows OS drive or games drive.

I want to tell you that 100% usage isn't background I want to transfer files from my external hdd to it but it takes Huge Time just to copy and paste.
It takes 10 mins just to transfer 2 gb file from my external hdd to my internal one .

 

[SkyNetRising]

I want to tell you that 100% usage isn't background I want to transfer files from my external hdd to it but it takes Huge Time just to copy and paste.

"Background" here means - it is hidden from user. Happens internally in the drive.
You don't see active processes doing anything. You just observe high drive utilization.
That is "background".

 

[Ozen]

"Background" here means - it is hidden from user. Happens internally in the drive.
You don't see active processes doing anything. You just observe high drive utilization.
That is "background".

Meaning it is already utilizing something but in the eyes of the pc it is 0% ?
But when I don't do anything to the drive its utilization is at 0% most of the time

 

[sylas]

Ay! Why does it say "Airflow Temperature 65" in the Crystal Disk Info? You might be throttling because of heat. Set that bad boy outside while xferring data.