Hard drive capping only at 50% usage

[shammydo]

So I have seen my computer do this a while ago and its kept on capping my Disk Usage at only 50%, it has never gone over that percent. I taught this was normal so I let it be, until I noticed extreme disk performance drops while playing games and even on the desktop. Now i'm starting to think its because of this strange 50% only cap, I have no clue what is not letting my disk go over 50% usage. I have already cleaned up junk and it's defrangemented, plus it's only 1 year old with little heavy use except recently. Is it a Windows problem, or is it a hardware issue?? Please Help!!

 

Hard Drive: Seagate ST31000524AS (1 TB only 310 GB used up, and its very well cleaned and organized)

[matjojo]

can you post a creen of the SMART data?

[shammydo]

can you post a creen of the SMART data?

How do I get to SMART data?? idk what that is 

[matjojo]

install the app cristaldiskinfo and make it so large that you can see all the info, then make s screen of that. download the free program here (4MB)

[gilm0re3]

Is it plugged into a SATA 1 or 2 port? That might possibly be the issue. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[shammydo]

Is it plugged into a SATA 1 or 2 port? That might possibly be the issue. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes its SATA 2 port

[shammydo]

install the app cristaldiskinfo and make it so large that you can see all the info, then make s screen of that. download the free program here (4MB)

Alright I took a screenshot here is the link: http://prntscr.com/7i3tst

[gilm0re3]

Yes its SATA 2

After a bit of research, I determined that your SATA port can't be the issue since HDD's really only get up around 120 or so megabytes, and SATA II can do around 300 megabytes. So at least we can rule the interface out as the cause of the issue.

[shammydo]

After a bit of research, I determined that your SATA port can't be the issue since HDD's really only get up around 120 or so megabytes, and SATA II can do around 300 megabytes. So at least we can rule the interface out as the cause of the issue.

Alrighty so could it be on the software side?? 

[matjojo]

Alrighty so could it be on the software side?? 

 

 

that could be it, i assume that you have updated the drivers already?(if not: do it like now)

i also dont really see something wrong in the SMART, although your temps are kinda high, nothing to be worried for at these temps, is it possible that you make a big file transfer to see how high the drive gets temp wise?

[shammydo]

that could be it, i assume that you have updated the drivers already?(if not: do it like now)

i also dont really see something wrong in the SMART, although your temps are kinda high, nothing to be worried for at these temps, is it possible that you make a big file transfer to see how high the drive gets temp wise?

Alright I did and the highest temp was 46c, but i don't know how that plays into my computer not allowing my hard drive to go over 50% and not getting to top performance. It seems to be a windows issue because SATA 2 ports still allows for 100% usage. Could it be that the Hard Drive is SATA 3 and the mobo SATA 2 thats doing it or windows?? 

[InVis]

Maybe this will help you?

 

Try this: Open a command window with administrative privileges. Then type diskpart.

Once DiskPart is ready, type list disk to identify your harddisk by its number (we'll assume it's 0, though it may be different. If so, use that number for the following commands accordingly.)

Type select disk 0. Now follow up with list partition and, as before, select the C: drive by typing select partition 1. (Another way to do this is with list volume and select volume <number>).

Here comes the clou. Now type extend filesystem. What this command will do specificially is to check the size of the partition, and match the size of the NTFS filesystem to it. This is very useful if a partition was resized without correctly adjusting the filesystem as well.

This command should only take a moment to execute and is completely safe (and yes, it also works on the running Windows system). When finished, exit DiskPart with exit and then close the command window.

Now check the size of your C: drive again in Explorer. Did it work?

 

 

Credit to Corazon: http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/198411-1tb-hdd-only-shows-523gb-2.html?s=d6393f7b8f276136ea7e8904751821b1

[matjojo]

-snip-

 

 

I hope this will help.

[shammydo]

Maybe this will help you?

 

Try this: Open a command window with administrative privileges. Then type diskpart.

Once DiskPart is ready, type list disk to identify your harddisk by its number (we'll assume it's 0, though it may be different. If so, use that number for the following commands accordingly.)

Type select disk 0. Now follow up with list partition and, as before, select the C: drive by typing select partition 1. (Another way to do this is with list volume and select volume <number>).

Here comes the clou. Now type extend filesystem. What this command will do specificially is to check the size of the partition, and match the size of the NTFS filesystem to it. This is very useful if a partition was resized without correctly adjusting the filesystem as well.

This command should only take a moment to execute and is completely safe (and yes, it also works on the running Windows system). When finished, exit DiskPart with exit and then close the command window.

Now check the size of your C: drive again in Explorer. Did it work?

 

 

Credit to Corazon: http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/198411-1tb-hdd-only-shows-523gb-2.html?s=d6393f7b8f276136ea7e8904751821b1

The problem i'm having isn't about the space I can occupy on the drive, It's the amount of performance usage that my disk isn't able to reach when programs are attempting to use it like a game loading or programs opening. Even though this solution isn't the one for me I still attempted it and it did not solve it. 

[InVis]

ohh.... I totally missed that it was the disk performance and not the utilization of disk space. 

 

Is there something else on your computer that is capping?

 

What does it amount to when you transfer a file to another disk in mb/sec? (not another partition) 

 

Could it be because the disk is connected to a slow interface on your motherboard? SATA 1 for example?

[shammydo]

ohh.... I totally missed that it was the disk performance and not the utilization of disk space. 

 

Is there something else on your computer that is capping?

 

What does it amount to when you transfer a file to another disk in mb/sec? (not another partition) 

 

Could it be because the disk is connected to a slow interface on your motherboard? SATA 1 for example?

No every other component is working perfectly, my SATA interface on the motherboard is SATA 2 and my disk is SATA 3. I was told that SATA 2 to SATA 3 shouldn't be causing my hard drive to be gimped. I was maybe thinking since I have windows 8.1 rather than 8.1 Pro that Windows might be gimping the harddrive to run at half performance only... At this point iv'e done a lot of searching and no one with my problem has found a solution. 

 

Someone pointed out that maybe it has to do with the amount of RAM I have, I have 6GB of 1333Mhz RAM and 1 TB Hard drive. I doubt that my RAM is the problem since iv'e seen other friend's computers and laptops with 2 to 4GB of RAM going over 50% disk performance usage. 

 

I wanted to know what you guys think of the RAM statement. 

 

(P.S. I really wanted to thank everyone who has helped me) 

[Jarsky]

hold the bus.

 

When you say you arent getting more than 50% of the drive - what speeds are you actually seeing when you say....copy a large file from it to an SSD?

50% performance is subjective, when we don't know what you're seeing this performance in.

 

Could you run a default test with HD Tune and post a screenshot?

Could you also run a CrystalDiskMark and post that as well?

 

Performance can really depend on what you're trying to do as well.
What app/game are you noticing the issues on, and what exactly are you noticing? e.g extremely long load time when loading a level on XXX game?

 

 

RAM only matters if you're maxing out your memory.

[InVis]

hold the bus.

 

When you say you arent getting more than 50% of the drive - what speeds are you actually seeing when you say....copy a large file from it to an SSD?

50% performance is subjective, when we don't know what you're seeing this performance in.

 

Could you run a default test with HD Tune and post a screenshot?

Could you also run a CrystalDiskMark and post that as well?

 

Performance can really depend on what you're trying to do as well.

What app/game are you noticing the issues on, and what exactly are you noticing? e.g extremely long load time when loading a level on XXX game?

 

 

RAM only matters if you're maxing out your memory.

Agreed