Is it true that having your hard drive/SSD full will slow down your pc?

[Neymus]

So for my future build storage, I only bought a 500 gb SSD. Told it to a friend and he said "why would you use that, you should use your SSD only for booting Windows, it's not recommendes to store games inside because if it's full it will slow down your whole PC" etc. Isn't the PC slowing down thing only on smartphones? Also, are his advices true or not?

[dizmo]

He's right and he's wrong. It's not good to keep an SSD absolutely full, but it won't really slow down unless you have it packed.

They also tend to wear faster the less spare room you have on them.

I'd have bought a 1TB SSD, but that's because there at such good prices right now, and it'd be better to buy now before they go back up.

I also hate HDDs.

[vanished]

SSDs will wear faster and lose write speed as they fill up.  This is because they aim to write new data to unused space whenever possible, but as they fill and this becomes impossible, they have to go back to space that is already used and add more to it, which involves reading from it, adding the new data, then writing that back to the SSD.  This of course is slower, and will wear the drive out faster.  Read speeds however shouldn't be noticeably impacted.  This shouldn't really be noticeable until you get it ~70% full or more.

 

I would like to provide an example of this effect the way I have for the HDD below but sadly it seems most people only test the first ~10% of their SSDs or so, and as a result any images you see of this test will show no degradation in performance.

 

HDDs will lose read and write speeds as they fill up, but for a different reason.  By default, HDDs will write to the outside of the disk (platters), moving inward as more data is stored.  Therefore, by the time the drive is nearly full, the new data you're adding is being put on the inside of the disk.  Due to HDD disks having uniform data density, this means that as they spin, fewer bits are moving under the read/write head per second vs what happens when reading from or writing to the outside edge of the disk.  For this reason, writing new data will be slow, unless space near the outside is reopened by deleting files, and reading will be slow from the inside (new data), but would remain fast for "old data" that's stored near the outside.

 

Here you can see an example of this effect.  This benchmarks measures performance (on the y axis) vs used space (on the x axis):

Spoiler

 

I would recommend storing your games on the SSD because it will noticeably improve loading times and eliminate heavy stutter in open world games caused by loading as you move around.  Just keep your used space under control and don't stuff it right to the limit.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

For best operation, you should keep 10-15% free space (empty space) on an HDD.

 

However, for an SSD, you should keep between 20%-25% free space to get the best performance and write life, especially the latter. Also, ignore what anyone might say about overprovisioning;it's not the same thing as free space, Just leave the factory set overprovisioning alone; it is already at the best setting for what the SSD needs.

[Xplo1t]

That's why I like buying a larger SSD for games.  The writes slow down, but reads are still fast so it doesn't impact load times.   Right now, my NVMe is maybe 40-50% full and then the gaming SSD is closer to 80%. 

[WereCatf]

On 11/23/2019 at 11:28 AM, Ryan_Vickers said:

SSDs will wear faster and lose write speed as they fill up.

Just would like to clarify this bit a little better for the OP: write-speeds suffer, not read-speeds. Read-speeds aren't affected by how full or empty the SSD is.

[vanished]

3 hours ago, WereCatf said:

Just would like to clarify this bit a little better for the OP: write-speeds suffer, not read-speeds. Read-speeds aren't affected by how full or empty the SSD is.

Yes I did say writes slow down but reads would not be impacted

[PianoPlayer88Key]

On 11/23/2019 at 1:28 AM, Ryan_Vickers said:

SSDs will wear faster and lose write speed as they fill up.  This is because they aim to write new data to unused space whenever possible, but as they fill and this becomes impossible, they have to go back to space that is already used and add more to it, which involves reading from it, adding the new data, then writing that back to the SSD.  This of course is slower, and will wear the drive out faster.  Read speeds however shouldn't be noticeably impacted.  This shouldn't really be noticeable until you get it ~70% full or more.

 

I would recommend storing your games on the SSD because it will noticeably improve loading times and eliminate heavy stutter in open world games caused by loading as you move around.  Just keep your used space under control and don't stuff it right to the limit.

 

On 11/23/2019 at 7:10 AM, Lady Fitzgerald said:

For best operation, you should keep 10-15% free space (empty space) on an HDD.

 

However, for an SSD, you should keep between 20%-25% free space to get the best performance and write life, especially the latter.

 

I wonder if this could be why my 3 SATA SSDs in my laptop could be only doing about 100-130 or so MB/s in sequential CrystalDiskMark, or large file transfers?  The laptop (bought Dec 2015, some parts upgraded later but boot SSD is within a couple months of that age) is a Clevo P750DM-G with an i7-6700K, 64GB DDR4-2133 & GTX 970M 6GB, and the SSDs are a 250GB M.2 Crucial MX200 (boot) and 2x 1050GB 2.5" Crucial MX300s.  The MX300s each have < 60-90 GB free (both show red bars in Windows Explorer "This PC"), and the MX300 has 37GB free.  (Was about 24GB before I moved Rocket League and  a few other GB of data to one of the MX300s.)  Also the 250GB MX200 shows about 51% life or so in CrystalDiskInfo.

 

Interestingly, they give me full transfer  rates (~500+ MB/s) if I put them in my desktop (built Jan 2015: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, i7-4790K, 32GB DDR3-1600, GTX 1060 3GB).

 

Also could the low space on (the 250GB MX200 - that's drive C, damn emotes breaking the standard shorthand) combined with often using upwards of 45-60 GB RAM, be a factor in being unable to properly resume from hibernation?  (It will show a black screen after the Windows logo, and if you look carefully and the room is fairly dark, you can see what I'd guess is the backlight or something gray flashing very briefly once per second.  I tried taking a video of it once, but the camera's frame rate was too low.

 

The laptop also has a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo, but I haven't switched over to the Windows 10 Pro install on it yet, mainly due to the seemingly insurmountable ordeal of reinstalling and reconfiguring all my programs, apps, etc.

[Kilrah]

When I had a 128GB SSD (bought back in 2010) I always had <10GB free, for several years. Yeah write speed was reduced, but... I obviously wasn't going to be writing huge amounts to it in 10GB free space anyway, and it had no effect on actual responsiveness.

[vanished]

2 hours ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

I wonder if this could be why my 3 SATA SSDs in my laptop could be only doing about 100-130 or so MB/s in sequential CrystalDiskMark, or large file transfers?  The laptop (bought Dec 2015, some parts upgraded later but boot SSD is within a couple months of that age) is a Clevo P750DM-G with an i7-6700K, 64GB DDR4-2133 & GTX 970M 6GB, and the SSDs are a 250GB M.2 Crucial MX200 (boot) and 2x 1050GB 2.5" Crucial MX300s.  The MX300s each have < 60-90 GB free (both show red bars in Windows Explorer "This PC"), and the MX300 has 37GB free.  (Was about 24GB before I moved Rocket League and  a few other GB of data to one of the MX300s.)  Also the 250GB MX200 shows about 51% life or so in CrystalDiskInfo.

 

Interestingly, they give me full transfer  rates (~500+ MB/s) if I put them in my desktop (built Jan 2015: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, i7-4790K, 32GB DDR3-1600, GTX 1060 3GB).

 

Also could the low space on (the 250GB MX200 - that's drive C, damn emotes breaking the standard shorthand) combined with often using upwards of 45-60 GB RAM, be a factor in being unable to properly resume from hibernation?  (It will show a black screen after the Windows logo, and if you look carefully and the room is fairly dark, you can see what I'd guess is the backlight or something gray flashing very briefly once per second.  I tried taking a video of it once, but the camera's frame rate was too low.

 

The laptop also has a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo, but I haven't switched over to the Windows 10 Pro install on it yet, mainly due to the seemingly insurmountable ordeal of reinstalling and reconfiguring all my programs, apps, etc.

I can't explain the descrepency in speed, but I am concerned by that health level.  Seems you've used it quite heavily.  I believe this is related to using way more memory than you have room for in RAM, as well as hibernating.  Both of these acts will place a lot of stress on the drive in terms of doing writes.

 

Asfor not being able to resume from hibernation, are you sure it doesn't just take a long time?  With that much data it surely would.

[PianoPlayer88Key]

14 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I can't explain the descrepency in speed, but I am concerned by that health level.  Seems you've used it quite heavily.  I believe this is related to using way more memory than you have room for in RAM, as well as hibernating.  Both of these acts will place a lot of stress on the drive in terms of doing writes.

 

Asfor not being able to resume from hibernation, are you sure it doesn't just take a long time?  With that much data it surely would.

Well I checked CrystalDiskMark, and it shows 35107 GB total host writes, 2911 power on hours, etc, on that drive.  Also I typically only hibernate if I'm going to be transporting the laptop, or if the power goes out and I don't want to run the battery down, or I'll have it turned off for an extended time (like more than a couple days).  Otherwise it stays running all the time 24/7, doesn't even go to sleep.

 

Spoiler

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 7.6.0 (C) 2008-2018 hiyohiyo
                                Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 18362] (x64)
  Date : 2019/11/27 20:23:43

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
 + Intel(R) 100 Series/C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller [ATA]
   - Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1
   - Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1
   - Crucial_CT250MX200SSD6
 + Standard NVM Express Controller [SCSI]
   - Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB
 - Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller [SCSI]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
 (1) Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB : 1000.2 GB [0/0/0, sq] - nv
 (2) Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1 : 1050.2 GB [1/1/0, pd1] - mi
 (3) Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1 : 1050.2 GB [2/1/0, pd1] - mi
 (4) Crucial_CT250MX200SSD6 : 250.0 GB [3/1/0, pd1] - mi

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (1) Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Model : Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB
        Firmware : 2B2QEXE7
   Serial Number : S467NX0KA14968F
       Disk Size : 1000.2 GB
     Buffer Size : Unknown
    # of Sectors : 
   Rotation Rate : ---- (SSD)
       Interface : NVM Express
   Major Version : NVM Express 1.3
   Minor Version : 
   Transfer Mode : PCIe 3.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4
  Power On Hours : 2609 hours
  Power On Count : 166 count
      Host Reads : 1829 GB
     Host Writes : 947 GB
     Temperature : 41 C (105 F)
   Health Status : Good (100 %)
        Features : S.M.A.R.T.
       APM Level : ----
       AAM Level : ----
    Drive Letter : H:

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 000000000000 Critical Warning
02 00000000013A Composite Temperature
03 000000000064 Available Spare
04 00000000000A Available Spare Threshold
05 000000000000 Percentage Used
06 000000392BF3 Data Units Read
07 0000001D9E55 Data Units Written
08 000003E785BA Host Read Commands
09 0000013F13EE Host Write Commands
0A 00000000001C Controller Busy Time
0B 0000000000A6 Power Cycles
0C 000000000A31 Power On Hours
0D 000000000042 Unsafe Shutdowns
0E 000000000000 Media and Data Integrity Errors
0F 000000000050 Number of Error Information Log Entries

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (2) Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Model : Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1
        Firmware : M0CR060
   Serial Number : 1742194F936C
       Disk Size : 1050.2 GB (8.4/137.4/1050.2/1050.2)
     Buffer Size : Unknown
     Queue Depth : 32
    # of Sectors : 2051200368
   Rotation Rate : ---- (SSD)
       Interface : Serial ATA
   Major Version : ACS-3
   Minor Version : ACS-3 Revision 4
   Transfer Mode : SATA/600 | SATA/600
  Power On Hours : 803 hours
  Power On Count : 433 count
     Host Writes : 13405 GB
Wear Level Count : 119
     Temperature : 33 C (91 F)
   Health Status : Good (93 %)
        Features : S.M.A.R.T., 48bit LBA, NCQ, TRIM, DevSleep
       APM Level : ----
       AAM Level : ----
    Drive Letter : E:

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 100 __0 000000000000 Raw Read Error Rate
05 100 100 _10 000000000000 Reallocated NAND Blocks
09 100 100 __0 000000000323 Power On Hours
0C 100 100 __0 0000000001B1 Power Cycle Count
AB 100 100 __0 000000000000 Program Fail Count
AC 100 100 __0 000000000000 Erase Fail Count
AD _93 _93 __0 000000000077 Average Block-Erase Count
AE 100 100 __0 00000000007F Unexpected Power Loss Count
B7 100 100 __0 000000000000 SATA Interface Downshift
B8 100 100 __0 000000000000 Error Correction Count
BB 100 100 __0 000000000000 Reported Uncorrectable Errors
C2 _67 _45 __0 0037000C0021 Temperature
C4 100 100 __0 000000000000 Reallocation Event Count
C5 100 100 __0 000000000000 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 Smart Off-line Scan Uncorrectable Error Count
C7 100 100 __0 000000000000 Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate
CA _93 _93 __1 000000000007 Percent Lifetime Used
CE 100 100 __0 000000000000 Write Error Rate
F6 100 100 __0 00068BA6BF0A Total Host Sector Writes
F7 100 100 __0 00003521CE92 Host Program Page Count
F8 100 100 __0 0000E03BD718 Background Program Page Count
B4 __0 __0 __0 000000001127 Unused Reserve NAND Blocks
D2 100 100 __0 000000000000 Successful RAIN Recovery Count

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (3) Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Model : Crucial_CT1050MX300SSD1
        Firmware : M0CR040
   Serial Number : 171816E6CFD2
       Disk Size : 1050.2 GB (8.4/137.4/1050.2/1050.2)
     Buffer Size : Unknown
     Queue Depth : 32
    # of Sectors : 2051200368
   Rotation Rate : ---- (SSD)
       Interface : Serial ATA
   Major Version : ACS-3
   Minor Version : ACS-3 Revision 4
   Transfer Mode : SATA/600 | SATA/600
  Power On Hours : 418 hours
  Power On Count : 537 count
     Host Writes : 8271 GB
Wear Level Count : 21
     Temperature : 29 C (84 F)
   Health Status : Good (99 %)
        Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ, TRIM, DevSleep
       APM Level : 00FEh [ON]
       AAM Level : ----
    Drive Letter :

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 100 __0 0000000004AB Raw Read Error Rate
05 _97 _97 _10 00000000007F Reallocated NAND Blocks
09 100 100 __0 0000000001A2 Power On Hours
0C 100 100 __0 000000000219 Power Cycle Count
AB 100 100 __0 000000000003 Program Fail Count
AC 100 100 __0 000000000000 Erase Fail Count
AD _99 _99 __0 000000000015 Average Block-Erase Count
AE 100 100 __0 00000000008E Unexpected Power Loss Count
B7 100 100 __0 000000000000 SATA Interface Downshift
B8 100 100 __0 000000000000 Error Correction Count
BB 100 100 __0 0000000005E4 Reported Uncorrectable Errors
C2 _71 _40 __0 003C000B001D Temperature
C4 100 100 __0 00000000007F Reallocation Event Count
C5 100 100 __0 000000000000 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 Smart Off-line Scan Uncorrectable Error Count
C7 100 100 __0 000000000000 Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate
CA _99 _99 __1 000000000001 Percent Lifetime Used
CE 100 100 __0 000000000003 Write Error Rate
F6 100 100 __0 000409EA2FA1 Total Host Sector Writes
F7 100 100 __0 0000205D2665 Host Program Page Count
F8 100 100 __0 000021DACC2D Background Program Page Count
B4 __0 __0 __0 0000000010D8 Unused Reserve NAND Blocks
D2 100 100 __0 0000000000FA Successful RAIN Recovery Count

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (4) Crucial_CT250MX200SSD6
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Model : Crucial_CT250MX200SSD6
        Firmware : MU03
   Serial Number : 1601116CC7B2
       Disk Size : 250.0 GB (8.4/137.4/250.0/250.0)
     Buffer Size : Unknown
     Queue Depth : 32
    # of Sectors : 488397168
   Rotation Rate : ---- (SSD)
       Interface : Serial ATA
   Major Version : ACS-3
   Minor Version : ACS-3 Revision 4
   Transfer Mode : SATA/600 | SATA/600
  Power On Hours : 2911 hours
  Power On Count : 901 count
     Host Writes : 35107 GB
Wear Level Count : 1500
     Temperature : 42 C (107 F)
   Health Status : Good (50 %)
        Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ, TRIM, DevSleep
       APM Level : 00FEh [ON]
       AAM Level : ----
    Drive Letter :

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 100 __0 000000000027 Raw Read Error Rate
05 100 100 _10 000000000000 Reallocated NAND Blocks
09 100 100 __0 000000000B5F Power On Hours
0C 100 100 __0 000000000385 Power Cycle Count
AB 100 100 __0 000000000000 Program Fail Count
AC 100 100 __0 000000000000 Erase Fail Count
AD _50 _50 __0 0000000005DC Average Block-Erase Count
AE 100 100 __0 000000000084 Unexpected Power Loss Count
B4 __0 __0 __0 000000000A0A Unused Reserve NAND Blocks
B7 100 100 __0 000000000000 SATA Interface Downshift
B8 100 100 __0 000000000000 Error Correction Count
BB 100 100 __0 000000000000 Reported Uncorrectable Errors
C2 _58 _14 __0 00560010002A Temperature
C4 100 100 __0 000000000000 Reallocation Event Count
C5 100 100 __0 000000000000 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 Smart Off-line Scan Uncorrectable Error Count
C7 100 100 __0 000000000000 Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate
CA _50 _50 __1 000000000032 Percent Lifetime Used
CE 100 100 __0 000000000000 Write Error Rate
D2 100 100 __0 000000000000 Successful RAIN Recovery Count
F6 100 100 __0 001124642234 Total Host Sector Writes
F7 100 100 __0 000089672DFF Host Program Page Count
F8 100 100 __0 000290D04F97 Background Program Page Count

 

 

Also I came across a photo album from about a year and a half ago showing benchmarks of those SSDs in my laptop, vs in my desktop (edit: forgot to add link) - minus the 1TB 970 Evo which I didn't have yet.  Somewhere I may also have benchmarks, etc, of some 10TB 7200rpm SATA HDDs, and an 8.4GB PATA HDD, plus a few others in between, but they're kind of disorganized.   I remember seeing one video @LinusTech did a while ago - I think one where he did that 10 SD cards = SSD video, or maybe it was a cheap SSD from Ali Express, I forget ... and IIRC, my HARD DRIVES were faster than that "SSD", possibly even in random transfers!  (I think the SSD was *THAT* bad!)

 

Well it does take a little while to load from hibernation, but it will either eventually come up (show the Windows logo, then the Windows lock screen image so I can sign in), or glitch out (show the windows logo, then show the black screen).

 

Sometimes it takes a little while to POST.  (My laptop on left, dad's old Core 2 Duo laptop on right, monitor connected to my desktop on bottom.)

 

Also I found an older (Dec 2018) short (~2 seconds) video clip of what the screen looks like when it can't properly resume from hibernation.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XnPyNfSctibdz9eu7

I haven't gotten a video of the entire boot process though, from power on to getting to desktop (or failing to resume from hibernation).

 

 

I have seen things like this though...

 

[Blue4130]

On 11/23/2019 at 3:06 PM, Neymus said:

So for my future build storage, I only bought a 500 gb SSD. Told it to a friend and he said "why would you use that, you should use your SSD only for booting Windows, it's not recommendes to store games inside because if it's full it will slow down your whole PC" etc. Isn't the PC slowing down thing only on smartphones? Also, are his advices true or not?

@Neymus what nobody has mentioned yet and what your friend may be alluding to is that the OS requires freespace for page file, swap and temporary directories. Full drives will absolutely slow to a crawl and crash at times. How much you need free varies depending on drive size and os used, but 5 to 10 percent is a good value.