Why does win10 use HDD 100% these days?

[KinsZA]

Too small, current win10 installation is already ballooned to 350GB without files that can be moved to storage.

Something very wrong with how you have things going on then, sitting at 120 gigs or so used on my OS+Software drive after a few years worth of not formatting.

 

[Johnatan56]

I did... it just says "System" PID=4

Can you open disk defrag window and screenshot last done?
And then can you post the actual specs of the example machine?
Then also what power profile are you on?

If this is a 5400rpm in a weak laptop with 4GB of RAM, nothing to be done, that's the system.

 

[Johnatan56]

Something very wrong with how you have things going on then, sitting at 120 gigs or so used on my OS+Software drive after a few years worth of not formatting.

/looks at own C drive SSD that's at 700GB usage due to software tools

That said, most users should be fine with a small SSD and HDD attached, just put all their personal files and stuff on the other drive.
Windows itself is not that large, and a 250GB SSD is big enough for most normal use cases and 500GB for most others until you start involving games and other non-streaming media stuff.

 

[rambo919]

/looks at own C drive SSD that's at 700GB usage due to software tools

That said, most users should be fine with a small SSD and HDD attached, just put all their personal files and stuff on the other drive.

You haven't met my "most users".....

Windows itself is not that large, and a 250GB SSD is big enough for most normal use cases and 500GB for most others until you start involving games and other non-streaming media stuff.

Theoretically 250GB can be enough.... however 500GB is the absolute minimum if I wanna buy now (with money I don't have) unless I wanna buy again in 5 years time.

I also have been trying to convince the boss at work to buy SSD's.... he just laughs or scowls at me.

 

[backstreetboy]

He's talking about the full install including user files.

Yeah but most of those can be offloaded to an external.

 

[Johnatan56]

You haven't met my "most users".....

Doesn't matter, give them less space and they will adapt if they're using that for personal stuff.

Theoretically 250GB can be enough.... however 500GB is the absolute minimum if I wanna buy now (with money I don't have) unless I wanna buy again in 5 years time.

I also have been trying to convince the boss at work to buy SSD's.... he just laughs or scowls at me.

So those machines are probably cheap, underpowered things then since doesn't even have an SSD that has been standard in midrange and up for a few years now.
You won't be able to solve the problem then, since it's just bad hardware.

Yeah but most of those can be offloaded to an external.

I know, rambo seems to not think that an option for some reason

 

[rambo919]

So those machines are probably cheap, underpowered things then since doesn't even have an SSD that has been standard in midrange and up for a few years now.

They worked perfectly fine till the late 1900 versions of win10 started rocking the boat.... and now with the 2000 versions they started performing as if they are p4's..... "underpowered" is relative.

You won't be able to solve the problem then, since it's just bad hardware.

The hardware is fine..... the software is the problem. The obvious bug caused by some genius forgetting HDD's still exist is the problem.

 

[Ares1000101]

I know some

Only one is a laptop, they are running an assortment of different AV's with only one running defender.... it also happens to be the slowest one.

The only common denominator is win10

Are you the IT guy maintaining these PCs?

Any software you install?

Muat be some other common denominator you're forgetting

 

[rambo919]

Yeah but most of those can be offloaded to an external.

Most of the files are not in user files or in program files.... it's win10 confiscating space.

I suspect system restore has a lot to do with that.... and if I move to SSD's I need to disable that anyway.

 

[rambo919]

I know some


Are you the IT guy maintaining these PCs?

Any software you install?

Muat be some other common denominator you're forgetting

Other than stuff like java and vc+.... nope.

I started noticing the same problem universally as they updated to newer win10 versions. Each feature update made it progressively worse.

 

[rambo919]

And there is another problem with SDD's.... the drive lifetime drops once you fill more than 50% of it.... or has that been actually fixed rather than just mitigated by now?

 

[rambo919]

But none of this actually answers the question..... WHY had HDD's become obsolete while no one was looking?

Is M$ simply trying to ignore older generation hardware the way they are surprised that so many people don't have TPM's? Are they hoping the older stuff will just magically poof away?

 

[Nirv]

And there is another problem with SDD's.... the drive lifetime drops once you fill more than 50% of it.... or has that been actually fixed rather than just mitigated by now?

They're lightyears ahead of where they were when the first scaremongering happened as they became more mainstream. Hard to kill them now.

 

[Johnatan56]

They worked perfectly fine till the late 1900 versions of win10 started rocking the boat.... and now with the 2000 versions they started performing as if they are p4's..... "underpowered" is relative.


The hardware is fine..... the software is the problem. The obvious bug caused by some genius forgetting HDD's still exist is the problem.

Windows 1909 is 2019, so those are probably 5 year devices I would guess, running under-powered spinners.
Disable superfetch/sysmain (it was renamed to the latter, no clue what Windows version you're running).

I'd rather they enable the extra features that improve the QoL of using the system, based on your post, you're running 5400RPM mobile HDD's, they're not going to perform well no matter what you do.

Other than stuff like java and vc+.... nope.

I started noticing the same problem universally as they updated to newer win10 versions. Each feature update made it progressively worse.

Doubtful.

Most of the files are not in user files or in program files.... it's win10 confiscating space.

I suspect system restore has a lot to do with that.... and if I move to SSD's I need to disable that anyway.

Nope.

I am guessing your drives are also low on space, keep at least 50-100GB free.

And there is another problem with SDD's.... the drive lifetime drops once you fill more than 50% of it.... or has that been actually fixed rather than just mitigated by now?

Just no, has nothing really to do with percentage filled, it's how much write you do, and modern drives are going to last a very, very long time, you're talking about tens to hundreds of TB written for a 250GB SSD, it's going to take a very long time to exhaust that flash.

But none of this actually answers the question..... WHY had HDD's become obsolete while no one was looking?

Is M$ simply trying to ignore older generation hardware the way they are surprised that so many people don't have TPM's? Are they hoping the older stuff will just magically poof away?

Because HDD's are slow. SSD has entered mainstream for ~7 years, and is basically on any medium range device since 2016 or so.
HDD's haven't been good for a very, very long time, they've been delaged to cheap, large storage, and that's where they'll stay.

I'm done with this thread, one cannot fix general, and you refuse to provide information as to the specs of the device, and reading between the lines these devices are all underpowered laptops with HDD from 5+ years ago.

 

[rambo919]

Windows 1909 is 2019, so those are probably 5 year devices I would guess, running under-powered spinners.
Disable superfetch/sysmain (it was renamed to the latter, no clue what Windows version you're running).

Like I said, those "these 5-11 tricks will solve the problem" articles are useless.

I'd rather they enable the extra features that improve the QoL of using the system, based on your post, you're running 5400RPM mobile HDD's, they're not going to perform well no matter what you do.

Only one of them is, the others are all 2nd to 5th gen desktops.

Doubtful.

Nope.

I am guessing your drives are also low on space, keep at least 50-100GB free.

It has 400GB free.....

Just no, has nothing really to do with percentage filled, it's how much write you do, and modern drives are going to last a very, very long time, you're talking about tens to hundreds of TB written for a 250GB SSD, it's going to take a very long time to exhaust that flash.

I'm done with this thread, one cannot fix general, and you refuse to provide information as to the specs of the device, and reading between the lines these devices are all underpowered laptops with HDD from 5+ years ago.

These are self built Desktops.... not laptops except for the one. They use standard desktop HDD's.

And age has nothing to do with it. Like I said the hardware functions fine.... each year of win10 feature updates progressively made the OS slower.

Simply saying upgrade the hardware is not a fix.... it's ignoring the problem and throwing money at it like pixie dust.

 

[rambo919]

They're lightyears ahead of where they were when the first scaremongering happened as they became more mainstream. Hard to kill them now.

And all the older gen cheap SSD's still on the market? Or have they all been sold now?

 

[Nirv]

And all the older gen cheap SSD's still on the market? Or have they all been sold now?

You still get less long-wearing drives at the bottom of the barrel, but the old controller issues that caused premature bricking, data loss and that kind of issue are all long gone.

 

[Johnatan56]

Like I said, those "these 5-11 tricks will solve the problem" articles are useless.

So did you or did you not disable superfetch? That's it, stop with the stupidity.

Only one of them is, the others are all 2nd to 5th gen desktops.

2nd gen desktop is 10 years old at this point.
5th gen desktop is 7 years old, they are from 2014.
Put a damn SSD in them and they'll do fine, not sure what you're expecting a 7-10yo HDD to do. Tech moved on, software should take advantage of it, not have everyone else be stuck because of your old stuff.

It has 400GB free.....


These are self built Desktops.... not laptops except for the one. They use standard desktop HDD's.

And age has nothing to do with it. Like I said the hardware functions fine.... each year of win10 feature updates progressively made the OS slower.

Simply saying upgrade the hardware is not a fix.... it's ignoring the problem and throwing money at it like pixie dust.

Whatever, I'm adding you to my ignore list, you already know the solution of going with SSD, if you can't convince your boss of that, it's such a minor cost, and is insane if you're installing software/work on them, that it's completely useless company to work for.

 

[Arthur]

And age has nothing to do with it. Like I said the hardware functions fine.... each year of win10 feature updates progressively made the OS slower.

Not so. It's getting faster.
The issue is outside Windows 10.

 

[KinsZA]

/looks at own C drive SSD that's at 700GB usage due to software tools

That said, most users should be fine with a small SSD and HDD attached, just put all their personal files and stuff on the other drive.
Windows itself is not that large, and a 250GB SSD is big enough for most normal use cases and 500GB for most others until you start involving games and other non-streaming media stuff.

I was responding to

Too small, current win10 installation is already ballooned to 350GB without files that can be moved to storage.

I interpret that as the base OS excluding anything else sitting at 350GB which is why I commented about it being very wrong.