r/techsupport • u/3ndee2900 • 12h ago
Open | Windows Steam Disk usage issues
I've been having issues with slow Steam downloads and updates, where the download speed drops to 0 MB/s and the disk usage can spike. Initially, I thought the problem was caused by downloading and installing games on my HDD (D: drive), so I moved my games to my SSD (C: drive), which seemed to fix the issue and allowed downloads to run properly again. However, the problem has recently returned while updating a game, Cyberpunk 2077, despite it being on the SSD. I've tried several troubleshooting steps, including updating drivers through Device Manager, checking and updating the storage controllers, and disabling Windows Search, SysMain and Shared PC Account Manager. I've also restarted the PC and tried other basic Steam troubleshooting steps, such as clearing the download cache and checking the download region and speed limits. I'm still experiencing slow or stalled downloads and would like help identifying the underlying cause, as I initially thought moving everything to the SSD had resolved it.
1
u/9NEPxHbG 8h ago
Apparently Steam files are so compressed that writing the uncompressed data to the disk takes more time than the download, forcing the download to pause until the disk is available again.
I think that could be possible if the drive hasn't been "trimmed". Try that.