This is my first time requesting help through this forum, so I will do my best to adhere to the rules and include as much info about my tech issue and PC as I can. I included a link to the report from CPU_Z for my PC specs as a .txt file below.
Long story short, I am potentially having issues writing data on both of my hard drives and I don't know what is causing the bottleneck. My PC is on Windows 10 and my harddrives are C: a WD 240GB SSD and E: a Toshiba 2TB HDD. My entire PC was purchased from an online retailer that lets you select every component, they assemble it, and then ship it to you, ready to run. This was probably about one year ago. No other additions or changes have been made to my PC's internal hardware.
My tech issue started about four days ago when I was trying to download/update a computer game through Steam. I noticed that a download of any game would start off normally, then rapidly decline until it showed little to no activity except for the occasional brief spike. It technically is still downloading, but at maybe 100 kb/s and so will take days to install games that are 10s of GBs in size. Before this issue, I had no major issues downloading at a decent speed (probably around 20mb/s) and playing games through Steam.
Since then, I have done as much troubleshooting as I am knowledgeable enough to attempt and have determined that I may not have the skills to figure it out on my own. Based on my tests, I am fairly confident it is not a Steam issue and it is not a network/internet issue.
As for the troubleshooting I have done that has led me this far:
My computer boots up fine. I can use my internet browser and stream videos fine. Internet speed tests report normal speeds. The games I have had installed on my PC before this issue run fine (eg. Genshin Impact - a 30GB 3D action RPG). I updated, launched, and played the online game Final Fantasy 14 quickly and without issue (NOT through Steam).
So then I tried testing the two drives with simply moving some files around with copy/paste. I noticed that the Windows file transfer window would show similar results to Steam's estimate that I mentioned above. The transfer would start out at a seemingly normal transfer rate then rapidly decline to a fraction of the speed it normally would. I tried this method by copying from C: to C:, E to E:, and C: to E: and each test would show the same results. I have included an attachment of a screenshot of the Windows file transfer from one of these tests as an example (this example was a C: to C: test).
I did a System Restore and rolled back my PC but it did not correct the issue. I have completed all required Windows updates. I tried reseating the harddives with the PC off, power disconnected, and grounded myself to avoid shock damage. I tried running a CHKDSK command with admin rights at the suggestion of some online guides I attempted to follow, but this begins to move into territory that I am not skilled enough to understand. So this didn't yield any new insights I was able to follow-up on. I have not done any sort of harddrive wipe or reformat because I do not have any other drives large enough to transfer a copy of the files.
There are probably more steps I have tried, but at this point I'm beginning to go crazy and desperately need some more experienced eyes to take a look at this issue. I am happy to provide more info and screenshots/logs if needed. Thank you for any help y'all can offer!
CPU_Z Report: CP_Z Report
Long story short, I am potentially having issues writing data on both of my hard drives and I don't know what is causing the bottleneck. My PC is on Windows 10 and my harddrives are C: a WD 240GB SSD and E: a Toshiba 2TB HDD. My entire PC was purchased from an online retailer that lets you select every component, they assemble it, and then ship it to you, ready to run. This was probably about one year ago. No other additions or changes have been made to my PC's internal hardware.
My tech issue started about four days ago when I was trying to download/update a computer game through Steam. I noticed that a download of any game would start off normally, then rapidly decline until it showed little to no activity except for the occasional brief spike. It technically is still downloading, but at maybe 100 kb/s and so will take days to install games that are 10s of GBs in size. Before this issue, I had no major issues downloading at a decent speed (probably around 20mb/s) and playing games through Steam.
Since then, I have done as much troubleshooting as I am knowledgeable enough to attempt and have determined that I may not have the skills to figure it out on my own. Based on my tests, I am fairly confident it is not a Steam issue and it is not a network/internet issue.
As for the troubleshooting I have done that has led me this far:
My computer boots up fine. I can use my internet browser and stream videos fine. Internet speed tests report normal speeds. The games I have had installed on my PC before this issue run fine (eg. Genshin Impact - a 30GB 3D action RPG). I updated, launched, and played the online game Final Fantasy 14 quickly and without issue (NOT through Steam).
So then I tried testing the two drives with simply moving some files around with copy/paste. I noticed that the Windows file transfer window would show similar results to Steam's estimate that I mentioned above. The transfer would start out at a seemingly normal transfer rate then rapidly decline to a fraction of the speed it normally would. I tried this method by copying from C: to C:, E to E:, and C: to E: and each test would show the same results. I have included an attachment of a screenshot of the Windows file transfer from one of these tests as an example (this example was a C: to C: test).
I did a System Restore and rolled back my PC but it did not correct the issue. I have completed all required Windows updates. I tried reseating the harddives with the PC off, power disconnected, and grounded myself to avoid shock damage. I tried running a CHKDSK command with admin rights at the suggestion of some online guides I attempted to follow, but this begins to move into territory that I am not skilled enough to understand. So this didn't yield any new insights I was able to follow-up on. I have not done any sort of harddrive wipe or reformat because I do not have any other drives large enough to transfer a copy of the files.
There are probably more steps I have tried, but at this point I'm beginning to go crazy and desperately need some more experienced eyes to take a look at this issue. I am happy to provide more info and screenshots/logs if needed. Thank you for any help y'all can offer!
CPU_Z Report: CP_Z Report