Slow / Low disk usage during game / content update

[ForestGremlin]

I have been working on this issue for about a year now and have not found another post that truly addresses the main problem I was having (the Disk Usage speed). The following is the only way I have found to fully fix the issue.

First the description of the issue(s):

1. ) When updating games or their content the “Disk Usage” will rise up to and run at full speed for few seconds and then slope off to 0. It will then stay at 0 for some time (anywhere between 2 and 90 minutes) before jumping back up and sloping back down again.
   
2. ) Also with this the “Network Usage” speed would run good for a bit and then as the disk usage maxes out and just before it starts to slowdown the network usage will drop off and stay off for a disk usage spike or three before downloading more.
   
3. ) Across multiple computers on the same network this happened on only one. Changing network cables, routers, and specific hard drives did not correct the issue nor improve the problem.

Now for the steps taken to correct the issue:

(focusing on the specific computer changes and not the network attempts)

1. ) As mentioned in the last marker above; the hard drive was changed out. Here I went from a standard HD to a SSD.
   Result: No Effect noticed.
   
2. ) Repair the Steam Library folder.
   • ) Open Steam App
     
   • ) From the “Steam” menu select “Settings”
     
   • ) Go to “Downloads” and click “Steam Library Folders” button under the "Content Libraries" section
     
   • ) From here I ensured that all the correct library locations were listed and right clicked on each one and selected “Repair Library Folder”
   Result: No Effect noticed.
   
3. ) Checked and Replaced all hard drive power and data cords (in this case all SATA)
   Result: No Effect on Steam, operating system did speed up though.
   
4. ) Next step (on a whim) was to check the drive settings.
   This was done by opening the folder “This PC” (windows 10), right clicking on the drive onto which steam maintains the games library, and selecting “Properties”. Here I found that at some point the designated drive had been set with “Compress this drive to save disk space” as enabled.
   • ) If this is enabled then decompressing the drive will significantly increase drive space usage; so make sure that there is at least space for the storage needs to be doubled.
     
   • ) While decompressing the drive ensure that the computer does not go to sleep and that the “Properties” window does not close. If you do it through the “Disk Management” controls then the “Disk Management” window will need to be maintained as opened to ensure that the “Properties” window does not close. (For me this process took about 40 hours but I had near a TB of compressed storage on the drive.)
   Result: Improved the disk usage speed such that it did not slope off to 0 immediately but still did after a much longer time of running at a stable / normal rate. This did not however change the network starts and stops, though they did run longer as the disk usage ran at stable speeds longer.
   
5. ) Repeat #2
   Result: Updates sped up and ran correctly (similar to speed and stability of the other computers running Steam). Disk Usage and Network Usage working correctly.

[microscott]

I'm having the same issue but my drives aren't set to compress

[Steven]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.