New HDD constant 100% disk usage and random freezes

[Damdue]

My old Hard Drive recently was about to fail, so I got another Hard Drive (Toshiba 1TB 5400RPM 8MB Cache). After re installing Windows 8.1 and some other apps, the disk was always running at 100%. So I decided to do a disk defragment. After the defragment there were multiple window updates. Having 100% disk usage at start up is normal, but I don't get why it randomly is happening when I do not have anything open. With this apps randomly freeze. Chrome would stutter and freeze where i have the loading icon, or teamspeak would do the same thing. A lot of the times I'm still able to move my mouse. There are times thanks for the defrag I'm assuming that my disk goes down to <10%. After a few seconds I'm able to do everything again? Do you guys think that this is because of a bad installation of software or the hardware itself could be faulty?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hi Damdue. This could be due to a lot of reasons, so it's important to backup your data, just in case it turns out to be a hardware issue. After that I'd suggest that download the manufacturer's diagnostic tool (or a 3rd party HDD diagnostic tool if the manufacturer doesn't offer one) and test the drive with it, to see if any errors or bad sectors pop-up. You might as well try switching the SATA cables, because this could be due to a faulty connection as well.

Hope that helps. Let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Damdue]

I dont know where I could find the Toshiba diagnostic tool and could you recommend any other 3rd party diagnostic tolls?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

You could take a look at some of the offered HDD diagnostic utilities from this thread here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
And you could take a look at this article here as well for an option (including brand specific): http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/tophddiag.htm

Both links have pretty good options.