HDD 100% Usage

**richs** · 05-04-2022, 08:50 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Add more memory if you can.

**mojorolla** · 05-04-2022, 09:09 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Originally posted by BillyCarpenter

Yesterday I had 2 laptops come in for repair. These were inexpensive laptops. One was HP. The other was Dell. Both had HDD's and not SSD's.

The customers complained that the it was taking forever to open a program or document. I ran a quick performance test and it showed 100% disk usage. I did a deep scan on the hard drive and it passed...no problem. I turned off all the start up programs that I could and same for processes. I changed the power setting to high performance. I won't go thru the long laundry list of what I did but none of it corrected the problem to my satisfaction. It helped, but not enough.

I'm gonna replace with HDD with a SSD.

Any input is welcomed. Thanks.

If they are showing 100% usage, they are on their way out. I recently had this on my laptop, replaced with a SSD, holy crap is that thing fast. It literally took 5 minutes to re-install Windows.

**tsbservice** · 05-04-2022, 09:32 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Originally posted by BillyCarpenter

Yesterday I had 2 laptops come in for repair. These were inexpensive laptops. One was HP. The other was Dell. Both had HDD's and not SSD's.

The customers complained that the it was taking forever to open a program or document. I ran a quick performance test and it showed 100% disk usage. I did a deep scan on the hard drive and it passed...no problem. I turned off all the start up programs that I could and same for processes. I changed the power setting to high performance. I won't go thru the long laundry list of what I did but none of it corrected the problem to my satisfaction. It helped, but not enough.

I'm gonna replace with HDD with a SSD.

Any input is welcomed. Thanks.

It's going to be a lot better. We are reviving old/slow machines(PC/laptop) that way.

**BillyCarpenter** · 05-04-2022, 09:39 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Sometimes I'm terrible at explaining things. Here's what I'm trying to ask:

I know that a SSD will resolve the issue. The thing is that these are inexpensive laptops that cost around $300. The customer can get upside down on these really fast.

I'm gonna have to create a system image of the old hard drive and replace the old drive with the new one. I'll charge about $65 for the SSD and and 1 hour labor. That's a total 165 + tax.

I was wondering if there was a fix that didn't involve replacing the drive but I think mojo is right....when it starts showing 100% usage...it's on its way out.

**tsbservice** · 05-04-2022, 09:53 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Originally posted by BillyCarpenter

Sometimes I'm terrible at explaining things. Here's what I'm trying to ask:

I know that a HDD will resolve the issue. The thing is that these are inexpensive laptops that cost around $300. The customer can get upside down on these really fast.

I'm gonna have to create a system image of the old hard drive and replace the old drive with the new one. I'll charge about $65 for the SSD and and 1 hour labor. That's a total 165 + tax.

I was wondering if there was a fix that didn't involve replacing the drive but I think mojo is right....when it starts showing 100% usage...it's on its way out.

Just explain customers that. Laptops will still be slow but will show some juice.

**KenB** · 05-04-2022, 10:45 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

What would the otherwise identical laptop cost with an SSD (the same size as you are proposing) cost?

Anything over $465 would put them money ahead to go ahead with your services.

**slimslob** · 05-05-2022, 12:16 AM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Originally posted by BillyCarpenter

Yesterday I had 2 laptops come in for repair. These were inexpensive laptops. One was HP. The other was Dell. Both had HDD's and not SSD's.

The customers complained that the it was taking forever to open a program or document. I ran a quick performance test and it showed 100% disk usage. I did a deep scan on the hard drive and it passed...no problem. I turned off all the start up programs that I could and same for processes. I changed the power setting to high performance. I won't go thru the long laundry list of what I did but none of it corrected the problem to my satisfaction. It helped, but not enough.

I'm gonna replace with HDD with a SSD.

Any input is welcomed. Thanks.

Low end HP and Dell laptops are notorious for being loaded with bloat ware. If you were using Windows Task Manager to see the disk usage you can click on the Disk column to see all the running tasks sorted in either ascending or descending order. More often than not the high users are apps that you don't actually need. The same can be done for memory usage. Occasionally you can have something running in the background that is not need and consumes a lot memory to the ppoint where there is a lot of swapping to and from virtual memory, swap space of the HDD. Eliminating that memory usage can also reduce disk usage.

**mojorolla** · 05-05-2022, 01:39 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Before I repaired my now 6-year-old laptop, it was in need of a new drive and a power cord. I looked at pricing on the new devices and the decent ones started at 500-600 bucks. For 125, I was able to repair my current laptop and it runs smoother and faster than it has ever before. If your customer is on a budget, the repair is probably their best bet.
Another thing particular to our industry is a lot of the new laptop are wifi only, no network port. Make troubleshooting network issues that much more "fun".

**GeneOR95** · 05-05-2022, 01:56 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

This is an extract from a help file I created a while back for various WIN 10 issues. Its worth trying as they are free solutions. You should be able to download it from this link. It is just a basic windows help file that should open when you double click the downloaded file.

FixHundredPerCentError.chm - FileFactory

Hope it helps.

**blackcat4866** · 05-05-2022, 01:56 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

I noticed that. My last Toshiba Satellite cost extra with both a network port & a CD player. A lot of the laptops did not have those features. =^..^=

**tonerhead** · 05-05-2022, 02:24 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Curious, if the hdd is 100%, what is the memory usage? What is the processor? How much ram? Lately with W10/11 they are barely chugging with 4Gig. My work laptop has 16G and shows a 30% memory usage at idle. This is 4.8G being used at idle. Of course we have endpoint security and a few things that have to be running, but still 30% at idle. As mentioned, maybe it's time for them to upgrade. I have a 10 year old HP with a 1st gen I5 with 4 gig and ssd. It's running Lubuntu and is extremely quick. It really is my go to at home. I also have a 6yr old Dell with a 5 gen I3 with 8 G running W10 with ssd. This is surprisingly fast also. But it has a fresh reload of W10 and nothing else. Memory upgrade, ssd, and fresh W10 is about all you can do for older pc's now other than a lighter OS like Lubuntu or equivalent.

**Gift** · 05-05-2022, 02:37 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

I made the experience that HDD access times and general performance degrades A LOT over time so the I/O output is very low compare to a brand new HDD. It's also good to have at least 8GB RAM because with 4GB the OS has to work a lot with the paging file - especially for an old style HDD this is a lot of additional accesses to handle. Swapping against a SSD is a good idea - I revived a lot of older computers from friends and family like that and they were impressed how fast they perform just by installing the SSD (some vendors even gives you free tools to migrate an exiting OS). With a SSD you can stick with 4GB RAM IF the demands are very low.

**BillyCarpenter** · 05-05-2022, 04:55 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Originally posted by tonerhead

Curious, if the hdd is 100%, what is the memory usage? What is the processor? How much ram? Lately with W10/11 they are barely chugging with 4Gig. My work laptop has 16G and shows a 30% memory usage at idle. This is 4.8G being used at idle. Of course we have endpoint security and a few things that have to be running, but still 30% at idle. As mentioned, maybe it's time for them to upgrade. I have a 10 year old HP with a 1st gen I5 with 4 gig and ssd. It's running Lubuntu and is extremely quick. It really is my go to at home. I also have a 6yr old Dell with a 5 gen I3 with 8 G running W10 with ssd. This is surprisingly fast also. But it has a fresh reload of W10 and nothing else. Memory upgrade, ssd, and fresh W10 is about all you can do for older pc's now other than a lighter OS like Lubuntu or equivalent.

The laptop has 8GB of ram. All the other performance readings are fine. I just replaced the 1TB HDD with a 1TB SSD and it's loading the system image as we speak. Probably gonna take a couple of hours to load. I'll update ASAP.

Oh, thanks for all of the responses. I always learn something.

**BillyCarpenter** · 05-05-2022, 05:01 PM

Re: HDD 100% Usage

Just a quick comment. I wouldn't buy a Walmart/Best Buy laptop. They look good on the outside and the price low but they're crap. I'd much rather go with a business laptop. I usually buy used off EBAY. It's worked out great for me.

HDD 100% Usage

HDD 100% Usage

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