Game downloads occasionally spike my computer's disk to 100% and freezes everything

[Spookypizza]

This has happened before with another game when i had to download an update for it but i'm not sure why. I don't think it's a problem with the games' update itself, it seems more like a steam issue. Most of my game downloads always download normally with no issues, except for my game Powerwash Simulator. Since the game would always automatically download and that was when it started freezing my computer, everytime i opened steam it would freeze my computer, so i was forced to delete the game from file explorer and then uninstall it from steam once steam let me in without freezing my pc. (Btw, i usually let the game update automatically and it has never done this before while it was updating)

[Satoru]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1082209554

Steam updates are based on delta patches

1) steam downloads a small delta file
2) steam reads the delta file
3) steam calculates how the original file and teh delta file to recreate the new file
4) steam writes out the new file
5) once all files are updated, they are replaed in the game directory

Steam updates are both CPU and disk IO intensive. This is why, by default, steam does not download updates in the background while you're playing a game. Because it can spike your CPU and disk IO which can have negative impacts while playing a game

If your system is freezing, that's more likely due to your anti-virus holding files causing issues. You should add whitelisting in your anti-virus