My 1 TB SSD has started spiking to 100% usage during startup, game downloads, and when I save video clips. The system sometimes freezes completely while I'm gaming or watching videos. The drive is about a year old, and its health check reports that it's in good condition. I'm unsure whether this is caused by a failing SSD, malware, a background process, or something else. I'm running Windows 11 with 32 GB of RAM and can't currently afford to replace the drive. What should I check first?
3 Answers
I’m on Windows 11 with 32 GB of RAM. I’ll check Resource Monitor and the individual SMART readings instead of assuming the drive is fine based only on the health summary.
Since the spikes happen during downloads and video clipping, watch for the game launcher, antivirus, indexing, cloud-sync software, or recording software doing heavy writes in the background. Temporarily pause those services one at a time and see whether the freezes stop. Run a full malware scan as well, but first identify the process using the disk so you’re not guessing.
Run a detailed health check with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo and look at the SMART values, not just the overall status. Also make sure the SSD has plenty of free space and that its firmware and motherboard storage drivers are current. A drive can report “Good” while another issue, such as a controller or software problem, is still causing poor performance.
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