Help! 100% Disk Usage + PC incredibly slow

[sheeepie2]

Hello. I have a 6 month old mid-spec gaming PC, and I use it pretty much everyday for playing games like CS:GO and Rocket League, with the occasional Battlefield 1 game. Usually I have 0 problems, the computer is quick and the FPS is far above 60 in most games.

However, over the last few days of CS:GO, I have noticed an increase in stuttering, brief freezes, and more recently complete freezes when loading into a map. At first it was little more than a minor annoyance, but now the problem is preventing me from playing games.

I noticed that today by PC booted far slower than usual. I then noticed that the PC is using 100% of the disk, and has remained that way since startup. I googled a few causes and fixes, but nothing worked. I'm not exactly the most hardware-knowledgable person, but I think it might be a problem with the hard drive?

I'm currently running a malwarebytes scan, but so far nothing has been detected - and I predict it will stay that way as I9 don't often visit sketchy sites.

Applications take noticably longer to launch - particularly steam and CS:GO. CS took around 10 minutes to launch into the menu, and when it eventually freezes it forces me to log off and back in.

I would really appreciate it if anybody could suggest what is causing this, or even better, knows a fix.

Thank you guys. Here are my specs that I know of:

Intel Core i3-6100 skylake
GTX 960 2GB
8GB RAM
Windows 10 Home

[mimizukari]

First, I recommend scanning with malwarebytes anti-malware, rogue killer and kaspersky, and getting rid of all viruses they detect through their preferred means, then I'd try defragging, if that doesn't solve the issue, there's a bunch of people who can help you over at Bleeping Computer Forums[www.bleepingcomputer.com]. It sounds like your computer is either infected with malware, or you haven't defragged, ever{it should be automatic once in a while but it's possible something turned it off}.


edit: further reading looks like you did do a malwarebytes scan; even if you don't visit sketchy sites, it's possible something is still installed onto your computer without your knowledge, even using the safest consumer browser like google chrome with ublock origin isn't enough.

[sheeepie2]

Originally posted by Shiki Ryougi:

First, I recommend scanning with malwarebytes anti-malware, roguekiller and kaspersky, and getting rid of all viruses they detect through their preferred means, then I'd try defragging, if that doesn't solve the issue, there's a bunch of people who can help you over at Bleeping Computer Forums[www.bleepingcomputer.com]. It sounds like your computer is either infected with malware, or you haven't defragged, ever.

You're right, I haven't defragged - manually anyway. I won't lose anything from doing that though, right?

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Sheeepie2:

Originally posted by Shiki Ryougi:

First, I recommend scanning with malwarebytes anti-malware, roguekiller and kaspersky, and getting rid of all viruses they detect through their preferred means, then I'd try defragging, if that doesn't solve the issue, there's a bunch of people who can help you over at Bleeping Computer Forums[www.bleepingcomputer.com]. It sounds like your computer is either infected with malware, or you haven't defragged, ever.

You're right, I haven't defragged - manually anyway. I won't lose anything from doing that though, right?

correct, and infact, you'd be surprised how much better your computer will run afterwards if that was the issue... I recommend the third party tool Defraggler for defragging, (made by piriform, same company as CCleaner) Make sure to untick anything if it asks you to install a toolbar (not sure if it does, but haven't updated in a while)

[Seven7]

before defrag, make full scan filesystem

and use portable builds piriform utils - there no installers and no toolbars

[sheeepie2]

Update:

Malwarebytes didn't find anything

We haven't defragged, but we found that windows update had kinda glitched - it's looping and is stuck at 0% downloading updates.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Sheeepie2:

Update:

Malwarebytes didn't find anything

We haven't defragged, but we found that windows update had kinda glitched - it's looping and is stuck at 0% downloading updates.

I'd also recommend the scanning applications rogue killer, and kaspersky (free), they'll pick up what malwarebytes missed.

[sheeepie2]

I /think/ it's fixed - disk is 5% for now at least anyway. We managed to kill windows update and then stopped superfetch (which is apparently supposed to increase performance lol) and it dropped instantly

Thanks for the help guys - hopefully csgo works alright now.

I will still consider defragging though, I just don't really have the time atm. Besides, my HDD still has 200GB left of 1TB space, so I'm not sure it is required just yet.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Sheeepie2:

I /think/ it's fixed - disk is 5% for now at least anyway. We managed to kill windows update and then stopped superfetch (which is apparently supposed to increase performance lol) and it dropped instantly

Thanks for the help guys - hopefully csgo works alright now.

I will still consider defragging though, I just don't really have the time atm. Besides, my HDD still has 200GB left of 1TB space, so I'm not sure it is required just yet.

You DEFINITELY need a defrag if you've never defragged and used 800 gb, it will make it so much easier for your system to find/locate files it needs.

[sheeepie2]

Originally posted by Shiki Ryougi:

Originally posted by Sheeepie2:

I /think/ it's fixed - disk is 5% for now at least anyway. We managed to kill windows update and then stopped superfetch (which is apparently supposed to increase performance lol) and it dropped instantly

Thanks for the help guys - hopefully csgo works alright now.

I will still consider defragging though, I just don't really have the time atm. Besides, my HDD still has 200GB left of 1TB space, so I'm not sure it is required just yet.

You DEFINITELY need a defrag if you've never defragged and used 800 gb, it will make it so much easier for your system to find/locate files it needs.

How long would you imagine it would take?

[Forcen]

Defrag could take a good while(hours), you should do it unless you use an SSD.

You could also benchmark your PC and see if any of your components are slower then general with this thing: http://www.userbenchmark.com/ If you do be sure to close every single thing in the background you can.
It will upload the results to a page that you can link here like this: http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/2650730

If you wanted to you could run this thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/TronScript/wiki/index
This is a huge script that will scan your PC for malware, defrag, clean up unneeded files.
If you do use this be aware that it will take a long time but it will be automated. It will also do stuff like delete your browsing history, uninstall some programs you might want like onedrive.
Still it will try to fix anything that might be causing problems on your PC. Just read the readme file before running it.

[Seven7]

T.R.O.N. is GODZILLA, in most cases standart windows utils (console commands) + avz + hijackthis + frst + adwarecleaner and some utils from sysinternals suite and nirsoft tools is enough (tron used most of this utils)
before defrrag you will analize with deffragler and windirstat
and make strategy how defrag, 800gb data that never defragged it take few days to defrag
stratege help split it on small parts and run defrag when you not use your PC
you will make an .cmd to stop some services and apps when run defrag, and other for start after

the problem can not be delayed, otherwise would be too late:
or it runs out of space to maneuver, when free space on disk / partition with NTFS smaller than 10% you get heavy fragmented system files and lost performance after that you cant defrag, only format partition fixed it
or drive surface get broken - if it's hardware problem
or data will be encrypted / destroyed if it "сriptoloсker", virus - cryptographer

[Forcen]

Sure, if you wanna do it manually and figure out how stuff works then do that. It might be more fun.
Tron is the set it-forget it solution.

This thing also exists, it's kinda interesting... http://www.windows-repair-toolbox.com/
Tiny exe that downloads and runs all kinds of stuff, really handy.
Might seem a bit scary since it is an executable with no source code, still lots of the tools mentioned previously are also that.

[Seven7]

i quickly looked in definitions - it use known utils (most) from cpuid, nirsoft, sysinternals, piriform, malwarebytes, etc. it dl it like filehippo app manager

but some utils dl from thrid party sites instead official - very suspicious

[Forcen]

Yep, still it's convenient. Tiny file to get what you need if you need it.
Also some automated stuff if you want kind of like tron.

[Diff_1]

Also run a defrag as others have said, 800Gb of stuff has to be majorly fragmented. Just use the windows defrag that will be good enough and don't downloadany program you are not familiar with do do searches to know it is legit.

If you're worried about how long it will take just set it to defrag when you go to bed. It will do it's thing and then after it is done your computer can go to sleep as it normally would.

Also as others have said never defrag a SSD drive, but I'd think I am safe to assume your drive is not a SSD seeing it is 1TB and those themselves run from $250 to $800