All of a sudden, 100% disk usage occurred?
All of a sudden, 100% disk usage occurred?
I was using an older gaming PC, about a year old. It has a Core i7-4790, Windows 10, 32GB DDR3, GTX1660s, and a 1TB SATA SSD. It’s mainly used for playing Forza Horizon 4 and 5.
For several months I’ve played without any problems. Recently, over the past week my disk usage reached 100% while running the games, which caused textures to freeze and the game to crash. I updated the GPU drivers and Windows, reinstalled both titles, created a separate partition on the SSD, turned off background processes, disabled Windows Defender (just for testing), ran checkdisk and other utilities—all came back clean. I set frame rates to 60fps in the NVIDIA control panel, disabled all startup apps, and used various tools to check the drive. I also adjusted settings on the PC and tried different approaches I found online.
The most puzzling thing is that everything worked well until suddenly it failed. No new software was installed, no hardware changes were made, and this happened after a Windows update. My CPU usage stayed between 60-80% during playback, memory never exceeded 20%, and the GPU remained around 50-70%. I haven’t touched the SATA cable to try anything unusual.
I’m unsure what exactly caused this sudden failure. I don’t want to waste money on a new system, and I’m not in a position to invest a lot for a fresh setup. Another strange point is with Horizon 4: when loading the game, the disk usage spikes to 100% during the animation, which forces the PC to restart. Horizon 5 loads normally until the disk usage increases then the game may freeze but doesn’t cause a reboot.
I’m open to any suggestions or insights you might have. I’m stuck at this stage and need guidance on what to do next. At the moment, my only requirement is to run those two games, and everything else functions properly. Thanks!
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
If you're not taking action when disk usage reaches 100% and you're using Windows 8.1, 10, or 11, you might be experiencing a memory leak. The best solution is to reinstall the operating system after creating a bootable USB installer for it.
It's wise to check if your motherboard's BIOS is running the latest version.
Your current setup includes an older gaming PC (about a year newer), a Core i7-4790, Windows 10, 32GB DDR3 RAM, GTX1660s graphics card, and a 1TB SATA SSD. It's mainly used for playing Forza Horizon 4 and 5.
When sharing troubleshooting threads, always provide your full system specifications. List them clearly as:
CPU, CPU cooler, Motherboard, RAM, SSD/HDD, GPU, PSU, Chassis, OS, Monitor,
including the age of the power supply unit along with its make and model, BIOS version for your board.
Thank you for your message. I just reinstalled Windows last night without any change in disk usage. My disk usage spikes to 100% only when those two games are running. When the PC is idle, it's between 0%-2%. Until last week, my PC had no problems with those games, which I play for about 40-50 hours each week for months. It seems like something else might be starting and running at the same time, but there are no tasks or processes showing significant activity.
Considering the system's age and the complete reinstallation of Windows, this might indicate a hardware problem such as a failing SSD or an issue with the SATA port/controller. Test with a different SATA cable and/or port to determine if the issue persists.
Use Resource Monitor - Disk tab/Disk Activity area to identify the process generating disk activity.
Take a screenshot from Resource Monitor (upload it to imgur.com and share the link).
Sort the Ordered Disk Activity section by the "Total" column first, ensuring processes with the highest activity appear at the top.
Also broaden the "File" column in the Disk Activity view so file names are completely visible.
The screenshot should resemble this format.
Remember to keep ordering by the "Total" column—it's essential for showing the most active processes.
Spoiler
Shared a screenshot from Resource Monitor as outlined in post #5.
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