I've been dealing with an annoying problem where my disk usage stays at 100% all the time. My PC takes ages to boot up—sometimes up to 15 minutes—and it's nearly impossible to run any applications. Here are my specs:
- Windows 11
- Intel Core i3 8130U CPU 2.20 GHz
- 4GB RAM
- 1TB Toshiba HDD (MQ04ABF100)
- Intel UHD Graphics
I even tried reinstalling the OS, but the issue still hasn't gone away. Any suggestions on how to fix this?
5 Answers
With just 4GB of RAM and an HDD, this performance is somewhat expected. If you can, adding more RAM and switching to an SSD would really help alleviate the issues you’re experiencing.
It sounds like your HDD might be on its last legs. Make sure you've backed up your important data if you haven’t already. An SSD upgrade could be a game changer for you, or even considering a whole new computer. Your current setup is a bit sluggish with just 4GB of RAM and an HDD.
If you just did a fresh install, it might be working through updates, which can take a lot of disk resources. Try disconnecting from the internet temporarily to see if usage goes down. Also, check your power settings—there's a section for HDD settings that might help.
Just a heads up, if you suspect the HDD is failing, definitely consider switching to an SSD for better performance; they’re way faster! You might also want to stop or disable the Windows Indexing service, as that can tax your disk heavily right after logging in.
You might want to run CrystalDiskInfo to get the SMART data on your HDD. Sometimes it could be a driver issue. If you notice any disk activity in Task Manager, something could be causing the disk to be overloaded. Any weird sounds coming from the HDD? Also, try booting into Safe Mode with Networking to see if it’s any better.
My PC is so slow that I can't even search anything in my browser, let alone install CrystalDiskInfo. No errors popped up when I reinstalled Windows, and the disk seems to read fine, but I see something called Splendid Startup running in terminal during boot.
I reset my PC while reinstalling the OS, so I don’t have anything important saved. I do have an external 1TB SSD—can I do something with that?