HDD utilization seems to cause system-wide mass slowdown when OS is installed on SSD

Software & Operating Systems Windows
1

Hi guys, I’ve got a bit of weird question; I’ve never run into this problem with windows before.

I’ve got a system that has 3 drives on it:

C: has OS and small programs (SATA SSD)

D: long term storage of mainly pictures and some games (HDD)

F: fast drive for editing photos on (NVME SSD)

Recently I’ve had a problem where the HDD will slow to almost stopping with simple file transfers after editing photos. I’ve been waiting for hours just to get a 10GB transfer done. My thoughts are that the HDD is failing, and I need to get my data off ASAP, but the thing that’s weird is that it effects more than just the files located on the HDD. When I do the transfer, it will make my entire system freeze within about 2 mins of starting the transfer.

So I guess my question is, am I correct in my diagnosis of a failing HDD, and what would make it so the rest of the system basically crashes when that’s located on a different drive?

2

No idea if your hard drive is bad, but yes, one failing hard drive can absolutely lock up your entire system.

You said Windows… You could try disabling write caching on the drive by following these instructions:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/21904-enable-disable-disk-write-caching-windows-10-a.html

3

A failing HDD can definitely lock up or almost lock up a system, at least on windows.

Time to update your backup ASAP.