Intermittent high disk activity on SSD - pagefile issue?


  1. TenneR
    Posts : 76
    win 10
       New #1

    Intermittent high disk activity on SSD - pagefile issue?


    Not sure if I should post in this section or Anti-virus / security, but feel it's unlikely to be a virus issue so will try in here.

    I've recently noticed that the hard disk activity light is always busy, so I took a look under task manager to discover disk usage to be around the 90% mark and memory around 3.1 of 3.7gb used (4gb installed).

    I'm running Windows 10 on a 120gb SSD which only has around 1.3gb free. Funny thing is, the high disk activity / memory usage doesn't happen daily - just every few days. This pagefile sits at around 6.5gb on the root of drive C. When my system gets itself into this mode, it could take around 5 hours to sort itself out.

    I am however able to browse the internet and perform other tasks, but as you'd imagine, even starting up calculator could take time. Firing up Firefox could take 5 seconds.

    Viewing Disk details under resource monitor - with Total (B/sec) column in descending order, the 'image' culprits seems to be the following (with C:\pagefile.sys (Page File) under File column for each):

    svchost.exe (wsappx -p)
    Memory Compression
    svchost.exe (netsvcs -p)
    perfmon.exe
    MsMpEng.exe

    Does this just look like a space issue on the drive with windows trying to compress and manage resources? Takes a long time though.

    Disk activity is high whilst disconnected to the internet and no browser open, but I did notice a couple of weeks ago that the high disk activity only occurred when I had Firefox opened but not connected to the net.

    Any ideas?
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  3. dalchina
    Posts : 42,985
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       New #2

    1.3Gb is far too small an amount of free space. Try
    Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10

    And in particular use e.g. Wiztree (free) to look for, say, .wer, dmp, tmp files taking a lot of space after you've done some routine cleaning as per that tutorial.
    Intermittent high disk activity on SSD - pagefile issue?-1.png

    I have no idea what your PC is- no specs given (click 'My Computers' below my post) - if you have a second disk, consider storing e.g. personal data on that.

    Look for larger programs you don't need you can uninstall.

    A 120Gb is somewhat small- these days there's not a great price differential between 120Gb & 256Gb disks.

    Note that any Win 10 upgrade (every 6 months typically) requires around 25-30Gb free.

    Memory compression is related to paging but not equivalent to it.
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  4. Megahertz
    Posts : 6,319
    Windows 11 Pro - Windows 7 HP - Lubuntu
       New #3

    Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you
    System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

    I suppose you have a laptop. Do you have a CD / DVD ODD?
    If you do, you can replace the ODD with a HDD caddy and use the SSD for Windows and programs and the HDD for data only.
    HDD Universal CD/DVD Caddy
    That is what I have on my desktop and laptop. It is a way to have the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD at low cost.
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  6. TenneR
    Posts : 76
    win 10
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    Thank you both for your replies.

    It's just an aging i3 3320 desktop machine which I fire up for daily web browsing etc. Has 120gb SSD and 4gb of DDR3.

    So it's safe to assume this level of activity is unlike to be virus related?

    I had to shut it down last night after the pagefile / compression (?) activity continued for 10+ hours. On starting it back up today, it seemed to have continued where it left off, but seemed to have settled to normal disk usage after 30 minutes or so.

    The high disk / mem activity is guaranteed to restart in the new 72 hours. I'd have thought if windows is managing the low space issue, I would see high disk / memory usage daily?
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  7. Paul Black
    Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       New #5

    Hello @TenneR,

    You could run the following to test that the computer hasn't got any file corruptions etc for example . . .

     SFC and RestoreHealth

    [1] Press the Win + X keys together > Command Prompt (Admin).
    [2] Highlight ALL the commands below.

    IMPORTANT:

    • It is recommended when running SFC that Fast Startup is turned OFF [ Turn it back ON when finished ] => How to Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10

    • If SFC finds any ERRORS that it can NOT repair, run SFC again upto 3 more times, Restarting after each to allow any pending actions to be implemented.

    • DISM will initially try and Repair ANY Corrupted or Missing files using the Component Store.
      If this is NOT possible, DISM will use Windows Update. Therefore, Internet access is required.
      If you are NOT connected to the Internet, you will receive a Error: 0x800f081f.

    [3] Press the Ctrl + C keys together.
    [4] Right-click inside the Administrator: Command Prompt Window > Paste.
    [5] Press Enter.

    Code:
    
sfc /scannow
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

    • When the above has finished processing . . .

    [6] Right-click on the title bar of the Administrator: Command Prompt Window > Edit > Select All.
    [7] Right-click on the title bar of the Administrator: Command Prompt Window again > Edit > Copy.

    • Paste the results into your post using the [CODE] tags . . .

    [8] In your post, click the Hashtag icon #.
    [9] Click INSIDE the [CODE]Here[CODE] tags and press the Ctrl + V keys together.

    • In your post it will look like this . . .

    Code:
    
<<< Results here >>>

     SFC Error Report

    However, if there are STILL SFC ERRORS . . .

    [1] Press the Win + X keys together > Command Prompt (Admin).
    [2] Highlight the command below.

    NOTE:

    If you have a Relocated Desktop, then change the %UserProfile% part of the Command below to the actual path of the Relocated Desktop folder.

    [3] Press the Ctrl + C keys together.
    [4] Right-click inside the Administrator: Command Prompt Window > Paste.
    [5] Press Enter.

    Code:
    
findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log > "%UserProfile%\Desktop\SFC_Details.log"

    • This will create a SFC_Details.log file on the Desktop.

    EITHER:

    Copy & Paste the results into your post using the [CODE] tags . . .

    [1] Open the SFC_Details.log file in Notepad.
    [2] Press the Ctrl + A keys together.
    [3] Press the Ctrl + C keys together.
    [4] In your post, click the Hashtag icon #.
    [5] Click INSIDE the [CODE]Here[CODE] tags and press the Ctrl + V keys together.

    • In your post it will look like this . . .

    Code:
    
<<< Results Here >>>

    OR:

    UPLOAD the file => How to Upload and Post Screenshots and Files at Ten Forums.


    I hope this helps.
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  8. dalchina
    Posts : 42,985
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       New #6

    It's very simple- you need to make MORE SPACE on your disk.

    You do not have enough free space. I have given ways to recover some.

    Post a screenshot of your task manager when your PC is running slowly similar to this:
    Intermittent high disk activity on SSD - pagefile issue?-1.png
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  9. Megahertz
    Posts : 6,319
    Windows 11 Pro - Windows 7 HP - Lubuntu
       New #7

    Don't you have a healthy HDD to install on the desktop?
    With a HDD you can move some data from the SSD to the HDD.

    Clean your drive

    Delete Temporary Files in Windows 10

    Open and Use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10

    How to Delete Windows.old and $Windows.~BT folders

    How to Delete $Windows.~WS folder in Windows 10

    To gain 4G of space, you can disable hibernation. Will make a big difference.
    Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 10
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  10. TenneR
    Posts : 76
    win 10
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    Thanks everyone for your further suggestions. Very useful information and I'll try Paul Black's suggestion as I believe it is also a file corruption issue (as well as a space issue!).

    Just thankful none of this activity points towards it being a virus.
      My Computer
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