Hard Drive Light Stays On With A Slow System Fixes
If your hard drive light is constantly on and your system is running painfully slow, you have come to the right place to find the information you need to fix it.
It can happen to desktop and laptop computers alike. In some rare cases, it can even occur after purchasing a brand-new computer.
Important: All the steps explained to help fix the issue in this article is based on the assumption that you aren’t trying to use a very old computer that struggles to keep up with the demands of today’s version of Windows and other software.
Check the resource usage in Windows
We will start by opening the Task Manager and reviewing the performance statistics.
Open the Task Manager by right-clicking the Start button and left-clicking on ‘Task Manager’ in the contextual menu.
From there, left-click on the ‘Performance’ tab. Now, you will have all the computer’s main component’s performance information displayed.
It is highly probable that the ‘Disk 0 (C):’ is showing around 100% usage all the time. This means the hard drive is working beyond its original intended use levels, thus delivering poor overall performance to your system.
Next, look at the ‘Memory’ item. Ideally, you would want a minimum of 16GB of RAM, and the percentage used to be less than 50% with no extra applications open or running. If the RAM situation looks bad, you may have a problem where your RAM and hard drive are below the needed amount.
In this case, I would also recommend removing any malware or viruses that may be present in your system before continuing. If your CPU usage is also very high, it’s reasonable to assume you have some virus or malware.
Find out how much space you have left on your hard drive
Left-click on the ‘This PC’ icon on your desktop or the yellow folder in the taskbar, and left-click on the ‘This PC’ item in the left column. After doing this, you will see an overview of all your drives on your computer in the right pane.
Look at the ‘Local Disk (C:)’ item and see how much free space you have left.
If you have less than 15% of your space left (or the indicator bar is red), you must perform a drive clean-up, uninstall unused programs, and remove some old files from the drive.
Run the Disk Cleanup tool
You can run the Disk Cleanup tool by right-clicking on ‘Local Disk (C:)’ and left-clicking on ‘Properties’ in the contextual menu.
A ‘Disk Cleanup’ button will be in the newly opened panel under the ‘General’ tab. If you left-click the button, a new panel will appear, allowing you to select the items you wish to clean up.
Most items are safe to check. Just be aware of the ‘Downloads’ folder if it’s present. Having that checked will delete the contents of your Downloads folder.
Once you have run the ‘Clean up system files’ and re-checked all the items you want removed once you click on ‘Ok’, it’s time to uninstall some unused software.
Uninstall unused/unwanted software
Open the Start Menu and left-click the gear icon to open the Settings app.
Left-click on the ‘Apps’ button.
All the programs installed on your computer will appear on a list. If you left-click on a program you don’t want. An uninstall button will appear, giving you the option to uninstall it.
Just be careful not to remove any programs that you are unsure of. You may need the program at some point only to find that it’s gone along with any chance of reinstalling it.
Delete old or unwanted files
Open Windows File Explorer by either double-clicking on the ‘This PC’ icon on the desktop or left-clicking on the yellow icon in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen.
Navigate through all your folders like Documents, Downloads, or Pictures, and either back up or delete unwanted files by right-clicking on them and selecting ‘Cut’ (then paste somewhere else) or selecting ‘Delete’ in the same contextual menu.
A handy program that shows you where all your largest files reside on your drive using a handy block graph is WinDirStat. This will help you locate the largest files first, making your cleanup efforts more productive and as fast as possible.
Look at the hard drive specifications
Open Windows Disk Manager by searching for it in the Start Menu, right-clicking on the “This PC” icon on the desktop, and left-clicking on ‘Manage’.
Left-click ‘Disk Management’ under the ‘Storage’ item in the left column.
Right-click on the disk associated with the (C:) drive and left-click on ‘Properties’. This is the grey area on the left with the disk number, type, and total size.
Under the General tab in the newly opened panel, the drive’s manufacturer name and model will be listed at the top. Perform a Google search using the drive’s manufacturer name and model.
Find the corresponding manufacturer’s website listing in the search results and click on it. Hopefully, you can look at the drive’s specifications on that landing page.
You should consider upgrading to an SSD if it’s a mechanical hard drive. At the very least, download a free program called Crystal Disk Info. You can check the health of your drive once you have downloaded and installed it.
If you get any result besides good, you should back your drive up immediately and replace it as soon as possible.
Check the RAM
Quite often, a limited amount of RAM can cause a computer to slow down quickly. The bare minimum amount of RAM you would expect from any computer these days is at least 8GB. Ideally, you should be aiming for 16GB.
You can find out how much RAM you have by opening the Computer Properties panel. Right-click on the ‘This PC’ icon and left-click on properties. Another way is to press and hold down the Windows key and tap the ‘Pause/Break’ key.
There, you will see the amount of installed RAM on your machine.
Make sure the operating system is clean
As I’ve mentioned before, if you follow the instructions in my other article, how to stop your computer from sending automated queries, you will be taken through the steps to get rid of most of the unwanted viruses or malware that could be causing the hard drive led to stay on.
Suppose that fails to remove all of the infections on your system. In that case, I highly recommend that you back up your important files on an isolated removable drive, format your entire drive, and start over with a new Windows installation.
Caution: Make sure you have a good antivirus installed before copying any files back from your removable backup drive.
Ensure that Windows is well maintained and you have all the latest updates installed with the correct updated drivers for your computer’s hardware.
Check that the hard drive LED has been connected correctly
Occasionally, a hard drive LED on a desktop computer gets connected to the wrong pin header. This can cause your LED to stay on permanently and not show when your hard drive reads and writes.
Although it won’t cause a slow computer, it may permanently solve the problem of the light being on. If you download and check the connector’s location for the hard drive light in the motherboard’s manual, you can eliminate this as the cause.
Find your motherboard manufacturer name and model number on the motherboard and complete a Google search to find the manufacturer’s relevant product page in the search results.
Check that the Page File is set properly
This is a setting, if it’s not configured properly, that can significantly impact your computer’s performance. Not only will you have the hard drive light staying on and working overtime, but your system will also be very slow.
You can configure this setting by opening the System Properties panel (press the Windows key and tap the ‘Pause/Break’ key) and left-clicking on ‘Advanced System Settings’.
In the newly opened System Properties panel, left-click on advanced, then the ‘Settings’ button under the Performance section.
Left-click on the Advanced tab, and under the Virtual Memory area, click on the ‘Change’ button.
Ensure the checkbox ‘Automatically manage paging file size for all drives’ is checked. Once you have checked it, click the ‘OK’ button (and the same on the other two open panels) and perform a restart as Windows will request.
You can find out more about adjusting your page file size if you wish.
