Why does a high HDD usage make a PC unusable?

[MyName13]

Just using a browser while a HDD is working hard is a very difficult task.Why?Browser should be in RAM memory so there shouldn't be any interaction with storage devices.

[Guest]

Some considerations: Yes, some part of a browser run on RAM, after you start it the first time, but not the entire browser itself, so when you open a new tab for example you still need to retain some data from the hard disk 

There are other interactions on the hard disk as well as swapping, virtual memory, etc

Edited January 10, 2019 by Guest

[MyName13]

3 hours ago, Lukyp said:

Some considerations: Yes, some part of a browser run on RAM, after you start it the first time, but not the entire browser itself, so when you open a new tab for example you still need to retain some data from the hard disk 

There are other interactions on the hard disk as well as swapping, virtual memory, etc

Why can't the entire browser be placed into the RAM memory?

[TechyBen]

Which browser? Which OS? What is being used for the HDD? It probably is entirely in RAM, but is also caching to HDD (this can be turned off), and also if the HDD is thrashing, that suggests Windows update/service/virus scanner is also hogging the CPU and/or wait calls.

[MyName13]

1 hour ago, TechyBen said:

Which browser? Which OS? What is being used for the HDD? It probably is entirely in RAM, but is also caching to HDD (this can be turned off), and also if the HDD is thrashing, that suggests Windows update/service/virus scanner is also hogging the CPU and/or wait calls.

Firefox, windows 10 (shouldn't most browsers and operating systems handle things similarly?).Windows services mostly cause problems (superfetch, telemetry, update although anything that maxes out HDD makes the entire PC slow...).How can other programs block the CPU if I have multiple cores with SMT?

[TechyBen]

Quote

Firefox, windows 10 (shouldn't most browsers and operating systems handle things similarly?).

You are asking the wrong questions.

Good questions, but the wrong ones. The answer to your question is "no, they are different. For example, Windows 95 or Puppy Linux would run in like 32mb  ". But I doubt you want to swap to puppy Linux... so the question to ask is:

 

"Why is your HDD thrashing?"

 

(A computer is a computer, if we ask it to shoot it's self in the foot, face and hand, it will. Seems your PC is doing something it cannot cope with, either Software locking up, too many services hogging the HDD, too slow hardware/HDD/CPU/too little RAM or similar, but without info, we do not know).

 

In Windows 10, can you go to system monitor and see what service is hoggin the HDD?

[Wh0_Am_1]

6 hours ago, MyName13 said:

Why can't the entire browser be placed into the RAM memory?

Programming reasons, also most people do not have enough RAM for all of the browser to constantly be loaded on to the RAM, so from a programming prospective it is just easier and more stable to have the browser request the data from the HDD whenever that data is needed.