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strange issue.. HDD activity stuck at 100% with high response time randomly, unless I'm running a scan

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Jul 1, 2017
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I'm facing a weird issue... my hard drive active time gets stuck at 100% for a while and I/O speed drops from MB to KB making my pc slow.. this problem goes away if i ran any type of scan.. at this time I/O speed remains at MB, high response time process goes away and pc runs fine.. what could be the problem?

things i've tried:

1- scanned my pc with anti-virus and anti-malware
2- run a CHKSDK for bad sectors
3- re-installed my GPU driver with a new one
4-used CCleaner to remove pc trashes

My PC specs: Windows 7 Ultimate - 8G Ram 4 x 2 - intel i5-3470 - Nividia GTX 1060 3GB - WD 1TB Blue - Gigabyte H61m-S2p - HEXA+ 500W PSU.
 
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How much free disk space is on this drive?

What security software are you using?
 
Also, what were the results of your scans?
 
Also, Task Manager can show you disk activity by process(es)...
 
How much free disk space is on this drive?

What security software are you using?
95 free GB free out of 685 GB.. i was using avira and i uninstall it.. used avast also for scan, no sign of viruses in C.. Disk process are the normal stuff but they get a really high response time with stick 100% active time
 
Disk process are the normal stuff but they get a really high response time with stick 100% active time
That is on Performance tab? did you check Processes tab and Disk column? It should show which process is loading the drive.
 
That's 13 % free space ... is a wee bit short of the recommended.

Open task manager clock "Processes tab" .... click "View on Menu bar / Select columns in box below, I only use the ones checked, but if you curious, could check all in the red box.

<Windows 7 Pro Image>
Process IO.jpg



You could also use "Process Explorer from Sysinternals

Download the app and save to say X:\Utilities\Process Explorer
In Windows Explorer, navigate to X:\Utilities\Process Explorer and dble click procexp.exe
Select View > Select Columns from the Menu Bar.
Switch to the Process I/O tab.
Enable Read Bytes and Write Bytes by checking the options.
Click on OK to complete view I/O loadings by process
 
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yes.. all the I/O reads and right are normal, the problem is the response time.. for example firefox or chrome when it gets the stuck response time goes up to 1000+.. after a while it goes down to lower response like 50, etc..
 
That's 13 % free space ... is a wee bit short of the recommended.

Open task manager clock "Processes tab" .... click "View on Menu bar / Select columns in box below, I only use the ones checked, but if you curious, could check all in the red box.

<Windows 7 Pro Image>
View attachment 175112


You could also use "Process Explorer from Sysinternals

Download the app and save to say X:\Utilities\Process Explorer
In Windows Explorer, navigate to X:\Utilities\Process Explorer and dble click procexp.exe
Select View > Select Columns from the Menu Bar.
Switch to the Process I/O tab.
Enable Read Bytes and Write Bytes by checking the options.
Click on OK to complete view I/O loadings by process
In that Process column select doesnt have anything like drive activity? To show if a process is hog-ing the drive?
Ah... Its 5 years ago using Win7 and I cant remember anything...

yes.. all the I/O reads and right are normal, the problem is the response time.. for example firefox or chrome when it gets the stuck response time goes up to 1000+.. after a while it goes down to lower response like 50, etc..
But except response time you also see 100% activity?
 
when it stuck at 100% activity that's the time when response rates go high.. that happens when I'm surfing internet opening tabs and watching videos.. but i found a trick to prevent that from happening as i mentioned by performing any type of scan.. whats the mean of this??, could it be an OS issue? I'm downloading windows 10 now, i didn't want to upgrade but i ran out of most solutions
 
Out of the top of my head, some background process keep disk at high activity, but pauses when the scan is activated.

Could be some kind of a virus? ...don't know
 
95 free GB free out of 685 GB.. i was using avira and i uninstall it.. used avast also for scan, no sign of viruses in C.. Disk process are the normal stuff but they get a really high response time with stick 100% active time
Having 2 AV programs can cause problems. I suggest uninstalling both, with their respective uninstaller tools if available. Reboot and see if that helps.

I don't see a tool for Avira, you might want to use Revo Uninstaller for it. https://www.revouninstaller.com/revo-uninstaller-free-download/ You can always re-install later
 
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That's 13 % free space ... is a wee bit short of the recommended.
There is no recommendation based on technical information from any reliable source that specifies how much is needed. 95GB is a huge amount of free disk space, regardless the total capacity of the drive. Suggestions that a certain percentage of the total capacity are widely presented but are woefully outdated, and always arbitrary.

If one were to give it a little thought, it really makes no sense for a bigger drive to need more disk free disk space.

Do Windows, Word, and other program files take up more space if the disk is bigger? Nope.​
Does Windows open up more temp files if the disk is bigger? Nope.​
Does Windows need a bigger Page File and therefore increase the size of the Page File if the disk is bigger? Nope.​
Does Windows save more cookies and other temporary files if the disk is bigger? Nope.​
Are Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, or YouTubes videos larger files if the disk is bigger? Nope.​

Defragging is often used as the excuse for having more free disk space for larger drives but even that makes no sense. The defragging programs still only defrag one file at a time. As long as there is enough space to shuffle that file's segments about, why should the total size of the disk mater? It doesn't.

So how much free disk space is needed on a hard drive? The right answer is "it depends". Every computer and computer user is different. But my arbitrary rule of thumb is at least 30GB, regardless if the drive is 100GB or 10TB.

What about SSDs? How much free space is needed there. Technically, at least on modern SSDs, "over provisioning" is built in so very little free space is needed - just enough for temp files and the PF. But to maximize the life expectancy of the SSD, the more free space the better so that wear leveling can do its thing.

my hard drive active time gets stuck at 100% for a while...
this problem goes away if i ran any type of scan..
When did the problem start and how long has it been going on? What happens if you just walk away and leave it alone? You say the problem goes away if you run a scan. That could be because what ever process is consuming those resources steps aside and moves to the background when you initiate a higher priority task, like scanning. In other words, as Zach_01 suggests, maybe this is some background task that you keep interrupting and won't let finish - like indexing or scheduled defragging (both of which are enabled by default - as they should be.

Unless you see evidence of malware, I think you should just let it run and see if the problem (if it really is a "problem") resolves itself.

Edit comment: Fixed typo
 
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it happend week ago.. before that i used to play a game called "football manager 2020" its not a very CPU,GPU intensive game, but i used to keep the game interface open all day
i suspect it had something to do with my problem..

if i just walked away and leave it alone usually return pc to normal again with no 100% active time.. but once i start to open few tabs & watching youtube, etc.. the I/O speed decreases to KBs and active disk time gets stuck at 100%.. running a pc scan makes I/O goes up to MBs and response time decreases..

i disabled windows search index, superfetch.. scanned my pc by malewarebytes...

also windows update doesn't allow me to install all the updates.. always give me "failed to install update"..tried all fixes but not working
 
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i didn't have 2 av programs at one.. i once had avira and i uninstalled it to see if the problem goes away.. then i installed avast recently, scanned my pc and uninstalled it again.
I see, some of the 3rd party AV's are hard to completely get rid of. Sometimes, using their own uninstaller leaves behind pieces that can cause issues. Not all of them are bad and I'm not telling you what to use as you're free to re-install them. I was just looking at it from a troubleshooting point of view. Using my suggestions to uninstall them and reboot to see if the issue goes away was one way to simply troubleshoot.

Bill's suggestion to "leave it alone" is sound. As it could be a process like Windows Update and once it finishes, your use will likely go back down.

Again, these are just suggestions.
 
Is there any way to pinpoint that "process"?
It's been a long time for me since I used Win7 and I cant help...
 
Is there any way to pinpoint that "process"?
It's been a long time for me since I used Win7 and I cant help...
i think i found out the problem.. it's my firefox and google chrome.. I'm opening 7 tabs on internet explorer browser for a while, and i can tell there is a difference when I'm using internet explorer.. the problem still persist but noticably decreased.

i usually use firefox, although i updated google chrome and cleaned history,etc.. the problem happends in both chrome and firefox.
 
Dont know man... I'm always running Chrome with 20+ tabs and even if all is loaded I dont see such drive activity, although my OS drive is SSD NVMe (PCI-E 3.0) and not HDD.
 
Try DPC Latency monitor and report back.
 
anyway i scanned my hdd with a software called HDD Regenerator and it repaired 829 bad sectors, now my HD health went from 51% fair to to 80% good.. and I'm not facing any lag anymore until now problem is gone.. dunno if its a temporally fix or not.
 
You better replace that HDD as soon as you can.
 
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