This isn't normal disk usage right?

[Daniel Fernandes]

So I've observed that my laptop's disk usage shows up to be pretty high. But this doesn't make sense - I've seen programs use the disk at more than 100 MB/s, but sometimes it shows a much higher % value (48% in the screenshot below) even when programs are running at only about 1 MB/s in total!

I normally wouldn't be concerned about this, but the problem is that the disk usage occasionally jumps to 100% or 99% with only 0.2 MB/s of total usage, making the system unnecessarily slow for a while.

Is this normal? Are there other factors than read/write speed that account for disk usage? Has this happened to anyone else? Are there any fixes I can try? Thanks!

 

[mikedt]

Is it a normal spinning hard drive, or is it an SSD. If it's a normal hard drive, perhaps it needs defragging? Also take a close listen to it, is there excessive or abnormal head chatter, or clicking sounds(click of death)? Which might mean it's failing.

 

[Davdi]

If it's an SSD, DO NOT attempt to defrag it, as I believe defragging can harm, or at least dramatically shorten its working life. an SSD by it's action of intensive reading / writing and rewriting in very rapid succession.
this page explains why very well: https://helpdeskgeek.com/help-desk/should-you-defrag-an-ssd/

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

Thanks for your replies! It's a normal spinning hard drive. It doesn't sound abnormal right now, but I remember it once made some sounds that got me a little scared, but that was a long time ago and might have happened because it was supposed to...

I've enabled automatic defragmentation, but I'll manually analyze it and let you know!

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

Yeah it says that it's 1% fragmented so defragging is probably not what it needs... Thanks for the suggestion tho!

 

[Davdi]

Have a look at the disk's SMART status, here's a useful link: https://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying/

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

Thank you! I just tried the CMD way, and it seems like it is OK, but I'll try CrystalDiskInfo as well...

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

I ran it and it doesn't seem to be good... I wonder what these cautions mean...

But thanks, at least now I know it isn't normal!

 

[mikedt]

I ran it and it doesn't seem to be good... I wonder what these cautions mean...

But thanks, at least now I know it isn't normal!

View attachment 142800

That on its own looks aright to me, only 2 relocated with 6 pending. Think that's just normal use. But keep an eye on it, and if it constantly has to relocate sectors, and starts to climb. That's when it's time for a new HDD.

The HDD can only relocate bad sectors a certain number of times, until the relocated sector area is full. I'm sure that's something SMART will indicate, when the HDD can no longer relocate bad sectors.

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

That on its own looks aright to me, only 2 relocated with 6 pending. Think that's just normal use.

That's a relief! Thanks for the advice - I'll keep checking periodically.

Do you think the incorrect disk usage shown on Task Manager could be due to a software bug? I'm hoping for that because then it'll be relatively cheaper to fix.

 

[Daniel Fernandes]

Update: So I figured out that this was a software problem indeed! I checked task manager and looked for services that load up during bootup (which means that these services turn on when the laptop starts, without me doing anything).

There were things like browser update services, and services from apps I don't think need to be there right when I turn my laptop on. All of this wasn't helping me (I don't like auto updates) and slowed my laptop down. There were some Microsoft services too that I didn't need like "Print Spooler", "Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service", and Microsoft's Xbox stuff. There was some Asus bloatware as well (as it's an Asus laptop).

I went to "Services" in Windows and looked for these services that I didn't want to be loaded during boot. Then I changed their startup type to "Manual". Since the next boot I haven't noticed the high disk usage problem anymore so I probably have stopped the faulty service from starting during boot. This also dramatically reduced my bootup time!

I hope this helps someone! Here are some things I noticed - there were a few programs that got their startup type changed on their own. I don't know how that happens but that means that not all software can be kept from starting during boot, I ended up uninstalling some of them. Some programs aren't affected by the startup setting either, like Google Update. Some programs can be stopped from starting during boot using the "Startup" tab in Task Manager, but this doesn't list all programs actually.