Slow Windows Performance (HDD ?)

Question

I have a Windows desktop that is ~10 years old. It was pretty speedy in its time, but now it is quite slow. Based on task manager stats, the disk speed is a bottleneck. I get around 10 MB/s overall performance, and nearly constant 100% usage. I ran the winsat tool to try and assess it. I'm not sure what to make of the results, though. Do any of these indicate whether the disk performance is bad, and how to diagnose it?

 Windows System Assessment Tool
 Running: Feature Enumeration ''
 Run Time 00:00:00.00
 Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -ran -read'
 Run Time 00:00:23.91
 Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -seq -read'
 Run Time 00:00:50.31
 Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -seq -write'
 Run Time 00:00:17.11
 Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -flush -seq'
 Run Time 00:00:33.86
 Running: Storage Assessment '-drive c -flush -ran'
 Run Time 00:00:33.76
 Disk  Random 16.0 Read                       1.25 MB/s          3.5
 Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read                   95.57 MB/s          6.5
 Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write                  106.27 MB/s          6.7
 Average Read Time with Sequential Writes     13.319 ms          3.7
 Latency: 95th Percentile                     36.067 ms          2.6
 Latency: Maximum                             95.205 ms          7.7
 Average Read Time with Random Writes         15.776 ms          3.2
 Total Run Time 00:02:41.6

Answer 1

Well 10 years is a long time for a HDD (assuming it's still the original part from the sys build) and if you used it intensely it's normal to get "tired". Now there are a lot of tools out there that can scan HDDs using SMART to verify most checklists. If you're in a "hurry", the simplest one I recommend is HD Sentinel. It has 2 licenses: free (with annoying pop-ups when you start, no adds, no malware - at least not when I last used it) and a professional one (as usual, with all the annoyance removed and some stuff in it). The free one will suffice.

You might need to rune it once or twice to get the reference point (once "now" and then again, say the next day) and depending on the results, I recommend a check-up every week (pick a day AFTER you know you run a lawnmower over it with overhead, or you can just opt for Sunday evening to round-up the whole week activity). This weekly check-up I recommend is so you can assess the decay rate.

Now, onto the analysis. Your main point of concern will be the HEALTH check (the summary will be on the left where the drives are listed). You will also get an approx. temperature detected by SMART. It's a good idea to check the temp during some intensive work (rendering, compiling, using codecs etc.) but don't worry unless it goes over 70º (situational still as there may be some argument towards the best temperatures during higher load).

The health is obviously the biggest indicator to how well the HD is doing. The temp might be an indicator of how much this can affect it (as you know, heat and dust are the main enemies of electronics, the only one worse being water). And yes having a clean and well ventilated case also prolongs the life of every component, but if that's not taken care of already, you might need to consider a new case (or system altogether, considering yours is 10 years old).

Hardware wise, apart from taking into consideration temperature and dust, also consider any noises you might hear, as they are signs of HD soon-to-be failure.

Recommendations: get an SSD for the main system (OS and programs), I recommend using the full SSD for the system, no partitioning. If you want "fast games" you can consider an additional SSD for it. Note that excessive read and writes do wear SSDs and chances are your system SSD will wear fast. So best is to use it separate from other stuff. If you have photos, documents, games that don't need speed (like single player games or games that take a ton of storage space), you can use a HD. Kits/setups/drivers and other offline stuff can also sit on the HD.

My setup is just this: one SSD for the system, one for the multiplayer games and a HD for the static stuff/dumping old stuff from older HDs/SSDs that I am too lazy to organize OR downloads. The idea of this setup is that if the games SSD fails, I'll buy a new one and redownload them from Steam (data is stored in the Steam cloud anyway, the only stuff I might lose are at most saves/replays), if I lose the OS the only issue is I'll need to redig my license key and waste time to config the OS (or I'll get an imager to just burn the system partition on a new SSD). And the HD will fail slower since I am not riding it with games and programs non stop.

You can't really stop storage units from failing, but you can delay it if you respect certain rules. Also, when buying SSDs keep in mind the cell count. I recommend MLCs for SSDs that you don't care if they go down faster (f.e. the OS as you can just reinstall it) and TLCs for games (as they offer more space). Opinions on this differ as well.

Also note all suggestions above are from my own experience, so YMMV, depending on whom you ask.

Minor caveat: you need administrator rights to access SMART so when HD Sentinel asks for them don't panic.