Question Why do my HDD run at 100% and high response time when i have windows on my SSD and a bunch of free space, this causes me to be unable to load in?

[Smk1234]

Hi, I need help with my computer as i cant find anything like this specifically. I was gone from my computer for about a week and now that i came back, suddenly my HDD doesn't work properly. Suddenly it runs at 100 percent usage with up to about 1000 ms response time as soon as i start a game. I have my OS on my SSD and other related things like NVIDIA drivers and so on. I have lots of free space on both my HDD and my SSD so that's not what is causing it. Because of this i can't load into some games like Starwars Battlefront 2 or get into matches on Smite which never happened before, it takes about 10 minutes just to start up smite. I've read many forums but couldn't find any help for this. My HDD is pretty old but I don't think that is what is causing it as it worked perfectly fine before i came back from my vacation. If it is any help i use my computer on a daily basis usually. I have overclocked my processor and it has been running stable for 2 years now.

My specs:
AMD Ryzen 1600
GeForce Gtx 1070 Ti
HDD: WDC WD10EARS-00Y5B1
( It has Disk D: and E:, D: is some sort of backup I think)
SSD: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB - Disk C:
ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING
2 CORSAIR VENGANCE 8 Gb each that are overclockable, haven't done it tho.

Many thanks if someone can help!

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

there could be malware on the disk that is constantly running.
or the drive could have malfunctioned at any time.

have ScanDisk check for errors and repair. if you're not familiar with it, google the instructions.

if you only have a couple games on there, i would just format the entire disk and reinstall them later after diagnosing and\or repairing the drive.

 

[Vyrvelata]

If it's too old and overused it can affect the performance... dramatically. Maybe it's time for a new one.... But yes... you can start with checking for viruses.

 

[Smk1234]

Thanks but yeah I did 1 hour ago, the problem was that I only did a quick scan before posting instead of a full which did find a virus i could just delete.

 

[Smk1234]

Hi, im following up on this thread again because im getting this problem on a weekly basis now on my hdd, it fixes after a while and sometimes when I do a full virus scan but no new viruses pop up very often but sometimes, can it be something hidden or is it my harddrive getting to old?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

no new viruses pop up very often but sometimes, can it be something hidden

if your anti-malware software is repeatedly detecting;
than you are either reinfecting yourself with some software you have downloaded, from visiting some particular site, or because the root of it is installed somewhere else that is not being properly scanned.

options to stop this from happening;
totally wipe every disk you have, stop visiting shady sites, and do not download anything unless you are 100% sure it is safe and coming from a 100% reliable source.

 

[mdd1963]

I've seen a few spinning hard drives failing in such a way that file indexing and inventory took several orders of magnitude longer than normal, with boot up of NVME systems slowed to a crawl even for an empty spinning disk whenever the failing SATA spinning drive was attached, even after quick formatting and with it being completely empty. (The first hint that the drive was certainly failing was a quick format taking 20 seconds to complete vice it's normal 1-2 seconds....)

 

[Smk1234]

Ok, I will try to wipe my harddrive but the problem isn't new virus detections, I just ran a full scan over night and it found nothing but my harddrive is just as slow while my ssd functions properly

 

[Smk1234]

wiping it didn't solve my problem as my hdd still isn't functioning correctly, I will probably just buy a new one at this point.