SSD usage is regularly maxed out... By nothing at all?

Posted by TwixelTixel@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 24 comments

So, I've got a pretty decent build that's served me well for the last couple years. No notes on how it runs on regards to graphics, memory, CPU, the works. Runs most new release like MH Wilds like a dream, with one small issue that's cropped up in the last year:

For some reason, at random intervals throughout the day, my disk space usage completely maxes out from no apparent source, and it slows my PC to being completely unusable. It reads as 100% usage from both Task Manager and Resource Monitor, but nothing's actually using up that disk space. I'm not even close to running out of storage - I've been trying to keep at least 100 GB free all the time - and I've tried everything I can to make Windows 11 run more smoothly and reduce disk space usage otherwise.

I can't completely rule out that it's malware, but several full PC scans from multiple anti viruses and no signs of even a single suspicious background task has me reasonably sure it's not it. Is it possible my SSD is just having hardware issues?

As another strange piece of the puzzle, I've noticed that the maxed usage of disk space happens less regularly and causes less problems when I'm doing something that the PC has a harder time running; playing games with high requirements like Cyberpunk or MH Wilds makes my PC more stable than when they aren't running, and closing them causes my disk usage to spike and make my PC basically unusable for several minutes after the fact.

My SSD is a JS600 2TB, and I can share the rest of my specs if anyone thinks it's really necessary. I'm all but certain they aren't the issue, though.

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heliosfa@reddit

my disk space usage completely maxes out from no apparent source, and it slows my PC to being completely unusable. It reads as 100% usage from both Task Manager and Resource Monitor, but nothing's actually using up that disk space

This isn't disk space usage, but disk access. Both reading and writing activity contribute to this. How much of your disk is used space wise does not impact this stat.

If you sort task manager by disk on the processes tab (you may have to add a column), which process is listed as using most of the disk when this happens?

I've been trying to keep at least 100 GB free all the time

100GB free on a 2TB drive is less than 5% free space. Because of how SSDs work, that is seriously going to impact your performance during write operations.

JS600 2TB

This is a DRAM-less SATA SSD using pretty slow flash. In the grand scheme of things it's not that much faster than spinning rust. Your experienced behaviour is pretty normal for an SSD with these specs and that full.

I can share the rest of my specs if anyone thinks it's really necessary. I'm all but certain they aren't the issue, though.

Always a good idea to share full specs.

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TwixelTixel@reddit (OP)

I got the two terms mixed up, my bad. But for your question, it varies. Usually it's just the system, which reads as using anywhere from accessing 0 MB/s, and usually peaks at 10 MB/s.

As for the second point, I've noticed this issue when more space is freed but felt it was redundant to include, given that's not my current circumstance. Right after posting this I just cleared another few hundred GB, but it's not making any major differences yet.

That said, knowing this is pretty standard for such a drive is a little demoralizing, but I already knew it would be time for an upgrade sooner or later. As for my full specs, I have...

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600G GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 3060 Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac

I can't actually check my PSU at the moment, but I did replace it for unrelated reasons some time after this problem started, so I'm reasonably certain that isn't it.

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bobsim1@reddit

That is certainly not normal. Maybe your drive is bad. How much RAM do you use? Is the 4600G iGPU disabled in Bios?

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bobsim1@reddit

Thats overexaggerated. All my ssds dont behave like that with less free space. Its better to check ressource monitor as admin for disk usage. Any ssd is far from spinning rust and that is not tobe expected. Id look for page file usage.

Kaserblade@reddit

I would run WinDirStat to see exactly what is taking up space on your drive

AggressiveToaster@reddit

WizTree is a similar program but scans your drives wayyyyyyy faster.

memes-forever@reddit

Just found out that Spotify fucks up your SSD usage if you download music to listen offline, thanks

Spwntrooper@reddit

Yep it's not even remotely close

ALLAHUZACHBAR@reddit

This is the answer, OP!

Over_Ring_3525@reddit

Another thought, this sounds like you could be seeing big downloads in the background that are maxing out your disk activity (not disk space). If you have Steam (or BNet, Gog, Epic, etc) running all the time a lot of them will auto-update games when patches come out. They also have settings to pause the updates while playing a game.

If the massive disk activity is random but it stops when playing a game, it's quite possible it's a big download and it's being paused.

Side note: The JS600 is a pretty mediocre drive. About the only thing going for it is price. It runs out of cache very quickly when doing file transfers and slows down massively. So sustained transfer rates are pretty poor. It's like using an 870QVO in your system. Better than a HDD but not great.

1ce_dragon@reddit

From my experience, the 100% usage in task manager does not mean that the disk space is running out. Instead, it means that the system is either reading or writing it at max bandwidth. Is the 100% usage scenario just several seconds or last like a minute or more? If it is the latter, you may try to show tasks by disk usage during that time so you may see which program is actively writing or reading your disk.

Absolutely. Task manager is monitoring disk activity, not space.

Z3r0sama2017@reddit

I had this problem too once upon a time. Turned out my large amount of ram was the culprit. It meant the pagefile and hiberfile.sys were using over 100gb. Volume shadow copy was also being a pita until I limited it's use.

Scarl_Strife@reddit

There's a ton of confusing advice in this thread. I had this happen to me two times.

Once a rogue windows service was writing/reading on my ssd like crazy for no apparent reason, it took me days of browsing the net to find it. It was one of the svhost things, apparently one of the windows updates introduced a bug that made it go highwire. Use task manager to see what is causing high disk usage and look for services that could be connected. Good luck it's a wild goose chase.

Another time it was malware. I caught some kind of crypto miner that was using disk write operations, something niche and weird, identified it in task manager and nuked manually as anti malware soft could not detect it. A few batch files that had the directory clues and a few dll and exe files. It was also in autostart and running duplicates when force closed or deleted. I needed to copy the paths and file names into notepad, run pc in safe mode and meticulously delete everything, that included running search in regedit with the file names that I knew were connected. This time to operate the task manager easier and have some interface smoothness I run Winamp in background, disk access made the malware let go of resources. It also could not operate in safe mode. Scary stuff.

Both times the behaviour was the same as yours, pc too slow and unresponsive unless I run heavy tasks on it . It is possible that you're experiencing something similar. Can't say with certainty. If you do find out, please post your solution for posterity. Good luck to you, buddy.

If your HDD or SSD is being thrashed but you can't find what's doing it in task manager, try opening Resource Monitor. It gives a lot more information and it's easier to track what the cause of disk activity is there.

For the OP. If you're seeing high disk activity it's also worth checking your antivirus software. See if it's actually running and scanning the game you're loading, or doing a full PC scan or something.

Oh, and are you running a torrent app? Could be smashing your drive moving files around as they complete.