I've got two identical SSDs, but I've run into a problem recently. One has my Windows OS on it, and I've been using this set-up without issues for years. However, a few weeks ago, my computer started stuttering, and I noticed that disk usage on the OS SSD would hit 100%, even while playing games off the other drive. I ran some benchmarks and both drives are healthy, but one SSD has a write speed of only 50 MB/s, while the other is at 500 MB/s. I also checked resource monitor during those 100% disk spikes and saw that Microsoft processes, mainly Defender and Office, were running intensive tasks and using the page file instead of RAM, making the slow write speed really noticeable. Any idea why this is happening now, especially since the SSDs are identical? I recently updated my AMD drivers and I know there have been issues with that too.
3 Answers
The difference in performance could be due to the fact that one SSD runs the OS. When it runs out of cache under heavy load, it will slow down significantly. And not all slow SSDs are dying; some just have poorer performance under load. However, you pointed out that it's happened recently, so there's definitely something up.
It sounds like that SSD might be dying. Even if they're the same model, wear and tear can affect them differently, especially when one is handling the OS while the other isn't. Keep an eye on the other SSD too, just in case!
From what I've seen, when an SSD is showing 100% utilization with light usage, that can often mean it's on its way out. I'd recommend backing up any important data you have on it just to be safe!
Totally get that. It’s frustrating seeing brand new tech fail when older drives still work fine. SSDs get a lot of hype, but they don't always live up to the promise.
Yeah, it was working fine before the recent AMD driver update. It just seems odd that it would slow down so suddenly.