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HDD Read/Write Requests Spiking?


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#1
BlazeHeatnix

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Hello,

I'm looking for some help in diagnosing a problem I appear to be having with my hard drive. Within just the past week, my laptop has been running slow, as in there are moments where it nearly freezes for 5-10 seconds, and things take an exceptional amount of time to load. This only happens when the hard drive is experiencing a read/write request, but this happens 2-3 times every minute - even when just sitting idle with no apps running.

For what it's worth, my laptop is a Dell Inspiron 5559 and about 5 years old. I'm on Windows 10, i5 @ 2.3ghz, 8gb ram, and the fan seems to be operating normally. I hope the pictures taken from Task Manager show some insight. Is my hard drive on its way out, or is something else going on?
 

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#2
phillpower2

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Hello BlazeHeatnix,

 

Couple of things for you to do so we can check the health of the HDD and your notebook in general;

 

Download and run CrystalDisk info standard edition from here

 

Run the program, grab any screenshots and attach to your next reply for us.

 

Download then run Speccy (free) and post the resultant url for us, details here, this will provide us with information about your computer hardware + any software that you have installed that may explain the present issue/s. 

 

To publish a Speccy profile to the Web:

  1. In Speccy, click File, and then click Publish Snapshot.
  2. In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.
  3. Speccy publishes the profile and displays a second Publish Snapshot. You can open the URL in your default browser, copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box.

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#3
BlazeHeatnix

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Thank you for your help phillpower2. Just to clarify, uptime on Speccy shows 7 days, but I was experiencing this issue last weekend and tried shutting down, and restarting, and that made no change.

http://speccy.pirifo...WbWPqFMUXXiI5ky

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#4
phillpower2

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No apparent problems with the HDD but Speccy is flagging up a couple of things.

 

You are getting low on free storage space on the HDD, see explanation below as to why this is bad.

 

Windows is out of date.

 

Windows looks to be having problems with installing updates, possibly because of the amount of free storage space on the HDD.

 

You have numerous printer options set up.

 

For Windows to be able to run efficiently and to be able to update, on a mechanical HDD you need to have between 20 and 25% of the partition or drive available as free storage space at all times and on an SSD between 10 and 20%, if you don`t you risk Windows becoming corrupt or not being able to update which also puts you at risk of malware attack.
 
Data only storage devices should not be allowed to get any lower than 10% of free storage space of the full capacity of the drive/partition on the drive, this also to avoid data corruption.
 
Please note that storage devices can physically fail if the amount of free storage space is allowed to drop below the required 10 or 20/25% minimum. 

 

 
Suggest that you try and free up enough storage space to be able to upgrade to version 20H2 of Windows 10, 30% free should be enough, post back when you have done this and we will help you tidy up the HDD and hopefully speed up boot times in the process.
 
You are welcome btw  :)

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#5
Kemasa

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Some of the error rates on the disk are a concern to me. Perhaps that program shows things differently, but the read error rate, reallocated sector count and the UltraDMA CRC error count seem to be higher than it should be and to me are a warning sign. That isn't to say that there are not other issues.

 

I would run the Toshiba disk diagnostic as that might be a better indicator as to the health of the disk drive as it is more specific to the drive than a general program. Just make sure that you don't run a destructive test which erases data on the disk.

 

As a general reminder, this is a good time to also mention that you should have a good backup of all your data on the disk.


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#6
BlazeHeatnix

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Ok, I cleared up some disk space and installed all updates. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have changed anything as I'm still experiencing the same issue.

http://speccy.pirifo...Se1tgm8jvWJ3xVK

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  • HDD.png
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#7
phillpower2

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The only updates that are shown to have been installed are for Windows Defender, can you check for Windows 10 updates today to make sure that version 20H2 has installed correctly and that it is able to update, if Windows is updating ok the next step is for you to try a clean boot, see Dell guide here


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#8
phillpower2

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Not heard back from you BlazeHeatnix, do you still require assistance or is the issue now resolved, an update would be appreciated.


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#9
BlazeHeatnix

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Sorry, I've been busy with work this week. All updates are definitely installed now - still having the same issue. I haven't tried a clean boot yet, but will try at some point this weekend. I'll also add that I have dual boot set up and went into Ubuntu one day to see if I would have the same issue and I did not, so this seems to be a Windows 10/software issue moreso than a hardware one.


Edited by BlazeHeatnix, 13 March 2021 - 04:41 AM.

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#10
phillpower2

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No problem, always like to check that a thread has not been abandoned when it has gone quiet.

 

 

 I'll also add that I have dual boot set up and went into Ubuntu one day to see if I would have the same issue and I did not

 

 

There is no evidence of any second partition or HDD on your computer so not sure how you are dual booting Ubuntu tbh.

 

As an asides, your HDD is a rather slow as molasses 5400rpm type 8MB of cache 12 year old drive so it could just be getting tired, you will soon know when you try the Dell clean boot steps.


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#11
BlazeHeatnix

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I never really boot into it, and it's been so long since I installed it, but if I remember right it's not really a "true" dual boot as it's just installed on the same HDD/partition. I just tap F12 upon start up and select it from the list to boot into it. Probably not the ideal way to have it set up but it works for me lol.

Anyway, I haven't touched my laptop much over the past week except to make sure all updates were installed. Over the past 1-2 days I've been using Ubuntu without issues. I restarted and went back to Windows 10 earlier this afternoon and everything seems to be running smooth now. Seems odd, but it could have been an issue between not having all updates installed and not enough free disk space like you mentioned.

I have not tried a clean boot yet, but if I start having this issue again I'll definitely try it. I really appreciate your time and help. Is there anything else you'd like for me to do at this point?


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#12
phillpower2

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Nothing more we can do here now other to say be sure to create regular back ups and be sure to create a new system restore point before updating anything.


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#13
BlazeHeatnix

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Update: I'm still having the same issue - even under clean boot conditions. What else can you suggest? I'm to the point of just doing a clean install :mellow:


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