[SOLVED] PC slowing down when D: Drive goes to 100%

[destinywarlock55]

Hello,

Preface:
I am currently typing this on my laptop as my main PC has become nearly unusable. My PC has 4 drives: C: (system drive SSD), D: (HDD), E: (SSD), and F: (HDD). All my drives have at least 50GB + available storage left so it cant be something related to available storage. The drive in particular is the D: drive; it is an old Toshiba 500GB hard drive that USED to be my old system drive but changed when I got my first SSD.

Problem:
When I'm doing day to day tasks such as browsing the internet or gaming, the drive would randomly kick up to 100%. This would then lead to any windows based tasks freezing. Right clicking on the desktop would now take ages to do anything, windows explorer will freeze, snipping tool doesn't respond, and some other applications (even if they're installed on another drive) will slow down a lot. I suspect its either the drive failing, or something with windows. I did some exploring and found out that there are a lot of system files still on the old HDD and I'm unsure if windows is using those files for some reasons. I did also check my BIOS and have the correct load order with m y C: first on the list. I have uploaded some pictures of the listed files on each of the two drives and my BIOS boot order. I am alright with formatting my D: drive but I am worried that if windows is using those system files, it may break my PC. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Pictures of the files on my C: and D: drives:

https://imgur.com/a/M91ZAb7

View: https://imgur.com/a/M91ZAb7



Thank you for your help in advance!

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

can be malware on the drive causing both the disk usage and the OS slowdown.
or it can be something like the OS page file being located on a failing disk affecting the system.
have you run Chkdsk scans on the disk in question?

found out that there are a lot of system files still on the old HDD

you can check the dates of the files located on your D: drive.
anything from before the new OS installation can be deleted.

if you aren't storing any personal files there, i would probably just format the drive.
even if you are, you can just move them elsewhere beforehand.

 

[destinywarlock55]

can be malware on the drive causing both the disk usage and the OS slowdown.
or it can be something like the OS page file being located on a failing disk affecting the system.
have you run Chkdsk scans on the disk in question?

you can check the dates of the files located on your D: drive.
anything from before the new OS installation can be deleted.

if you aren't storing any personal files there, i would probably just format the drive.
even if you are, you can just move them elsewhere beforehand.

I ran a security check earlier and found nothing. I also checked the drive with "chkdsk" and it said it found nothing. I'll try formatting the drive entirely to see if that fixes things.

 

[destinywarlock55]

I ran a security check earlier and found nothing. I also checked the drive with "chkdsk" and it said it found nothing. I'll try formatting the drive entirely to see if that fixes things.

Actually I'm unsure if I should format it. I was checking for any files that I wanted to keep and noticed "System64" files are on the D: drive. I checked the C: drive but couldnt find that folder. Should I still format the drive or do something else?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

that is not a folder related to Windows 10.
did you have a different OS on there?

one easy way to determine if the OS is actually dependent on anything located on the D: drive is to power down and disconnect it.
if the system loads the OS without the D: drive connected, than no.

 

[destinywarlock55]

that is not a folder related to Windows 10.
did you have a different OS on there?

one easy way to determine if the OS drive is actually dependent on anything located on the D: drive is to power down and disconnect it.
if the system loads the OS without the D: drive connected, than no.

Ok I see, I'll try formatting it then.

 

[destinywarlock55]

Formatting the drive seemed to have worked, thanks!