Steam HDD problem

[karlo904 #SAVETF2]

I don't know if this problem was previously mentioned anywhere if it was i could not find it. Recently my games started to have heavy stuttering randomly and it was my hdd (or i think it is). It would bounce from 100% usage here and there. Now i know this is a tech question but i think it's heavily connected to steam that is my assumption, since a couple of weeks even steam slowed down and the startup login screen and the library stopped responding for a couple of seconds. Now i know it isn't that slow but it shouldn't be that slow at all in the first place it all worked normally a couple of weeks ago. So i tried seeing my performance on task manager and for some reason every steam startup would use 100% of my HDD. It's a Seagate Baracuda if i am not wrong and the RPM is quite solid. I tried everything but nothing worked so i decided to reformat my disk and it worked no more 100% usage on anything related to it until i installed Steam again. Please help if you have any advice. Thanks in advance.

[Hinsonator]

If you're expecting an answer that's as simple as "install Steam on a flash based drive NAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" then i'm sorry to disappoint.

It's probably something to do with the way the data is represented on the drive, namely shingled magnetic recording. What this means is the way the data is represented on the magnetic disk is the bytes are stored closer together allowing for a logically larger drive in the same space with the cost being read from and write to speed, mostly write to though.

That or the drive is spinning too slow, this one might not matter as much but i thought i'd note it anyway.

[karlo904 #SAVETF2]

Should i just you know ♥♥♥♥ it and buy an SSD for a replacement, and keep this for storage?

[Nx Machina]

I have Steam installed on an hdd, plus all the games and do not have the issue you are describing.

Have you run any checks on your hdd to see it there are any issues?

Have full is the hdd?

Do you defrag your hdd?


My hdd is not full, i always leave 25% free.

I defrag the drive at least once a week, plus after uninstalling a game and before installing a game (helps with disk allocation).

Note: i do not have any game installed on my ssd.

[karlo904 #SAVETF2]

As i previously mentioned i reformatted my HDD and it seemed to fix the issue but since i downloaded steam it reappeared. I ran multiple checks with tools and even Seagates tools for the disk and they all came without any problems. The disk is 1T and there is 860 GB left so the space is not a problem. Yes i did defrag my HDD.

[Azure Fang]

Some general troubleshooting before you look into buying a new drive (list assumes you're on a Windows/NTFS system):

• Check space usage on the drive. You should try to keep 20% of the drive's space free at all times, 10% bare minimum, for read/write operations. Anything lower will cause performance to suffer, especially if it's your system drive.
  
• Run a health check on the drive using a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo.
  
• Ensure that the drive maintenance service is active and set to automatic. If you don't generally leave your computer on overnight, run a manual defrag.
  
• Scan for malware and remove unnecessary software that may be running constantly.
  
• Check your pagefile for "permanent" size bloat (can occur if a memory-intensive application with a memory leak - common with games - runs too long with a system managed pagefile, abnormal sizes are generally around 5x system RAM or larger). You can reset a pagefile size safely by manually setting it to a large size (10x system RAM, to be safe), rebooting, then setting it back to system managed and rebooting again; Windows will automatically resize the pagefile again as necessary.

If you do a drive health check and things pop up abnormal, it might be prudent to get a new drive. If you have less than 20% of your drive free and can't part with any installs, it would be prudent to get a second drive dedicated to game storage.

EDIT: Missed the ongoing convo while typing. Please disregard topics already covered.

[karlo904 #SAVETF2]

I will try out your suggestions thanks alot. Will tell my progress.

[karlo904 #SAVETF2]

Tried all of your suggestions and crystal says disk is healty. Disk space 80% free. Pagefile already set. Manual defrag already done. Situation is the same

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Benny Harvey RIP:

Tried all of your suggestions and crystal says disk is healty. Disk space 80% free. Pagefile already set. Manual defrag already done. Situation is the same

note: deleted previous post in error, so repeated here.

Is your antivirus interfering by doing a "realtime" scan?

Have you added Steam to it's exclude list and or run a malware, virus scan?

Have you run sfc /scannow from an admin command prompt to see if there are any issues with Windows itself as Windows updates can cause various issues.

Windows indexing off? - i noticed on one of my drives i was having random stutters and indexing was on for some unknown reason (always turn it off) and the random stutters stopped.

[Crazy Tiger]

When you have the 100% usage, what process(es) is(are) taking up the resources?

Also keep in mind that this could be a sign that the HDD is failing. When my HDD died a few years back, the only issue I ran into was Chrome freezing the computer regularly with 100% disk usage, which slowly happened more often until the HDD died.

[karlo904 #SAVETF2]

Ok thanks to all of you for your help i was really getting annoyed with this however it seems the solution was turning off the real time protection from windows protection. I checked the processes and the real time protection was up there thanks once again.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Benny Harvey RIP:

Ok thanks to all of you for your help i was really getting annoyed with this however it seems the solution was turning off the real time protection from windows protection. I checked the processes and the real time protection was up there thanks once again.

If something like this happens again, feel free to see this support page, as it has other examples of programs that might be an issue with Steam or games, or both :

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1F39-DCB4-FF28-5748

Security software is a big one, as you seem to see.

[karlo904 #SAVETF2]

And i spoke too soon. The problem must be steam itself or my HDD but every single test on my HDD is in good health or no bad sectors. So i really don't know what to do anymore.

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Benny Harvey RIP:

And i spoke too soon. The problem must be steam itself or my HDD but every single test on my HDD is in good health or no bad sectors. So i really don't know what to do anymore.

As stated not having an issue with my hdd or Steam.

NOTE: an hdd can pass all tests and still fail.


1) Turn off windows indexing if it is not off already and test.

2) try this:

NOTE: Run ALL from AN admin command prompt and in this order.

sfc /scannow

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.

[Iceira]

Dont forget Mortherboard and controller and its Driver even BIOS and Chipset drivers.

just because they other focus on Disk dont mean they are wrong, but its seen before the thing its attach to can be part of the problem. and if Laptop in Balance mode and battry mode just pile even more on top of Slow I/O writes, and what if this is was multi partions and was both a Boot disk and game slave disk, more slowness added

but now we are over in Build pc and its setup and should i said worst case senarios from the past.

as i said i might see diffrent on the topic, but that dont mean i disagree with the other's here.
call it lack of information from OP or missing. ( and we cant see what you have or build or on the setup you did.)

call it missing hands on , most tech person spot in a sec.

[karlo904 #SAVETF2]

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

Originally posted by Benny Harvey RIP:

And i spoke too soon. The problem must be steam itself or my HDD but every single test on my HDD is in good health or no bad sectors. So i really don't know what to do anymore.

As stated not having an issue with my hdd or Steam.

NOTE: an hdd can pass all tests and still fail.


1) Turn off windows indexing if it is not off already and test.

2) try this:

NOTE: Run ALL from AN admin command prompt and in this order.

sfc /scannow

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.

I already did that scannow check and i tried your DISM this pops up.
The restorehealth. option is not recognized in this context.
For more information, refer to the help.