Question Hard drive spiking causes system to be unresponsive

[Swampthing]

Having an odd issue that just started in the last couple weeks. I had to completely reinstall windows after I had a problem with the MS store, since reinstalling that time i've been having this problem where my hard drive usage spikes. I see the HDD light come on and the system goes completely unresponsive for 2-3 seconds. It's insanely annoying.

I tried windows performance analyzer and could see the spike "i think". I say i think because I had to let it run for like an hour and the performance analyzer doesn't show the actual time it just shows elapsed time and i saw no way to change that. Frustrating. The processes were a mix or a few things. One looked like nvidia share one looked like a part of windows update.

Things i've tried so far:

• Disabled windows update
• Disabled windows search
• disabled defender
• disabled nvidia share
• disabled BITS
• done a repair installation of windows

All the main drives are Solid state.

Any ideas on how to better track down this problem or what may be causing it? I don't believe this is a hardware problem as the system was fine until i had to reinstall windows. I have process tamer running now to see if that shows anything but I don't think the CPU is spiking during these events, just disk usage.

 

[Steltek]

Since this is a secondary hard drive, check to see if the system is spinning the drive down and putting it to sleep between uses. It usually takes a couple of seconds for a hard drive in that state to power on and spin up for use. You can check for this (and prevent it) in the power plan Windows is applying to your build.

It also probably wouldn't hurt to download the hard disk utility software for your particular hard drive and run a drive diagnostic to be sure the drive isn't in the process of failing.

You didn't mention the components in your system. If you have a motherboard with SATA ports provided by multiple chipsets (i.e. Intel ports and Asmedia ports, for example), make sure the chipset drivers are installed for the non-Intel ports (or, better yet, make sure the hard drive is plugged into an Intel SATA port).

Finally, even though this is a new Windows install, run SFC /scannow from an elevated command prompt. Win10 2003 and Win10 20H2 both have shown an annoying tendency to create some system file corruption during or right after installation.

 

[Campy]

Last time something similar happened to me it was my main SSD dying. I guess you could try reinstalling windows again but if this is consistently happening on a fresh windows install I would assume it's hardware related.

 

[Swampthing]

All drives but one are SSD drives. The main windows drive is in an M2 slot on the motherboard and that drive is only maybe 5 months old. I ran WDC diags on it today and all smart tests passed.

I did another repair installation of windows yesterday and the problem is occurring again today.

The motherboard is:
Z370 GAMING PRO CARBON AC

 

[Steltek]

In addition to checking the drive sleep settings, you might try to move the SATA cable for the hard drive over to another SATA port in case you just have a bad port. If that doesn't help, try totally swapping the SATA cable out on the hard drive for a new one.

Does a SMART test on the hard drive provide you with any error codes?

 

[Swampthing]

In addition to checking the drive sleep settings, you might try to move the SATA cable for the hard drive over to another SATA port in case you just have a bad port. If that doesn't help, try totally swapping the SATA cable out on the hard drive for a new one.

Does a SMART test on the hard drive provide you with any error codes?

The drive i believe is causing the problem is the C drive which is a NAND drive in an M2 slot.

 

[UsandThem]

I tried windows performance analyzer and could see the spike "i think". I say i think because I had to let it run for like an hour and the performance analyzer doesn't show the actual time it just shows elapsed time and i saw no way to change that. Frustrating. The processes were a mix or a few things. One looked like nvidia share one looked like a part of windows update.

The drive i believe is causing the problem is the C drive which is a NAND drive in an M2 slot.

When I had a Windows 10 update bug a couple years back that caused my SSD to constantly be at 97 - 99% usage, I could see it in Task Manger and/or Resource Monitor.

You said the problem didn't happen until after you did a Windows 10 reinstall due a problem with the Microsoft Store, so it sounds like it likely is some kind of software / OS issue/bug/setting.

It's not really the "spikes" you want to see, but at what percentage the disk activity is at when you experience system freezes. That said, if one of your drives have issues (other than the one you have the OS on), it can cause the freezes you are describing. You should start by removing all drives besides the OS one, and then adding them back one at a time to see if you can find a drive with issues.

 

[Swampthing]

Cloned and replaced the Main C drive and the problem still happened.

 

[Swampthing]

Appear to have fixed it by reverting the IDE ATA controller driver back to the standard windows driver rather than the Intel driver. Made the switch last night and it hasn't repeated the problem at all today that i've noticed.

 

[UsandThem]

Appear to have fixed it by reverting the IDE ATA controller driver back to the standard windows driver rather than the Intel driver. Made the switch last night and it hasn't repeated the problem at all today that i've noticed.

It should be AHCI driver for Sata SSDs I believe, but yeah the Intel driver version sucks compared to the generic Microsoft driver.

I used to install the Intel drivers, but it cut the performance of my 850 EVO drives around 50%.