I've been using my C drive for about 6 years without issues, but recently it's been hitting 100% usage with zero read/write activity for a few seconds every five minutes. This has really slowed down my system, and today it resulted in my computer freezing for 2 or 3 minutes before force shutting down. I haven't noticed anything unusual before the freezes and I'm worried it might just be time for a new drive. Any thoughts or suggestions?
5 Answers
You might want to pull the drive and try accessing it on a different machine with a USB adapter. It could help you recover your important data before making any changes.
What type of drive are you using, HDD or SSD? Knowing that could help narrow down the issue better.
It sounds like you may need to check your system files for errors. You can run a few commands in an admin command prompt: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth followed by sfc /scannow. That might help fix any underlying issues if your drive is still somewhat functional.
I actually tried that yesterday, but unfortunately, it didn’t change anything.
From what you've described, it really does sound like your drive might be reaching the end of its life. The 100% disk usage and the CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED error are common signs. Backup any important data as soon as you can! You're likely dealing with a failing drive based on the symptoms.
First off, have you checked which critical process might be failing? Sometimes the blue screen just throws the error without much detail. It’s a good idea to be cautious about booting up repeatedly if you have important data on that drive, especially if it's struggling. I'd recommend checking the Event Viewer for more clues, but if nothing stands out, data recovery might be worth considering.
Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about too. I haven't found anything specific in the Event Viewer, but I definitely don't want to risk losing important files.
It's a solid-state drive.