I have 3 hard drives C: D: and E: Windows is installed on the C: drive, or more specifically a partition on the physical drive under F: with only the OS installed on it. C: and E: are both SSDs and not terribly large, C: is 250 GB and E: is 500GB. The bulk of my storage is on my older HDD, D: with 2 terabytes of storage.
When I set up my computer I made it so by default all new programs are installed onto D: though I have a few things installed on C: and most of my steam games on the E: drive.
My main problem is I have noticed my computer is running slow on wake up or when changing tasks, and watching the task manager D: is getting pegged to 100% for several minutes and C: or E: are both at 0% utilization. Given that D: is the oldest and slowest drive I would much rather any work needing to be done on C: or E: and I have no idea why D: is the default for all the work. I have had so much trouble with this I have considered replacing D: with an SSD to entirely bypass the problem but hope it can be solved.
Is the any way to change the default hard drive work is done on?
I have tried to google this issue over the last several months but its hard to even articulate to google the correct problem, and all the "fixes" I have found are just how to change the default save drive. I am pretty sure work can only be done on 1 drive, but if there is a way to load balance between the 3 drives that would be great, but if not just changing the "working" drive to an SSD would significantly improve my set up.
I'd recommend looking at your Pagefile Settings. Incorrect Pagefile settings can cause issues with disk usage.
A paging file is a file on your computer's hard drive that Windows uses as extra memory when it runs out of physical memory (RAM). It helps your computer run smoothly by allowing it to use more memory than it physically has.
When Windows uses the paging file, it writes data from RAM to the paging file on the hard drive, and when it needs that data again, it reads it back from the paging file into RAM.
This constant read and write activity can cause additional wear and tear on the hard drive and can also slow down disk performance, especially if the hard drive is already experiencing high levels of activity from other programs or processes.
Additionally, if the paging file is not properly configured, it can take up a significant amount of space on the hard drive, which can lead to disk space issues and potential performance problems. It's important to properly configure the paging file settings to balance the need for additional memory with the impact on disk usage and performance.
To change the Pagefile settings:
This is where you can edit the Paging file. You can select which drives have a paging file, and which don't, as well as setting the size or allowing it to be set automatically.
For more background info on Pagefiles, check out the following links: