Will a HDD upgrade help in this case?

Question

Need some help in the following Situation:

About my laptop:

I am currently using Sony Vaio laptop. The model is Sony Vaio Fit 14A (SVF14N16SN). You can find the technical specifications of my model at http://www.sony.co.in/support/product/SVF14N16SN in Specifications tab. The only 2 changes I have made to this is upgrading my RAM to 8 GB and Upgrading to Windows 10.

Nature of my work:

I am basically a software developer who deals mostly with Web development and minor back-end development. My work involves usage of tools like Eclipse, Visual Studio, NodeJS, Apache Tomcat, etc. Hence I have upgraded my RAM to 8 GB. The most common scenario is a browser with multiple tabs (>5) most of the time, Tomcat Server, at least 1 IDE, a few Windows Explorer windows, Microsoft Outlook, Skype, Command Prompt and NodeJS process running simultaneously.

My problem:

My computer becomes unbearably slow every now and then. In such scenarios I always go to Windows Task Manager and check the status of my resources. All other resources except my Disk drive are always fine. A sample screenshot can be found at the Google Photos link below .

My question:

My question is what can I do in such cases? I think the RAM is fine as it is generally around 85% even at my exhaustive usage. CPU as usual is rarely above 45%. The disk however is always close to 100% if not 100%. Will my problem be solved if I upgrade to a better drive like a SSD? Another issue is my HDD has some weird dimensions to I will have to replace it with something called as Slim SSD.

Thanks.

Images of my existing SSHD:

Since I do not have enough reputation to post more than one links, I am sharing the album from Google Photos. Please visit the link for the images:

https://goo.gl/photos/jQK31PNdfxYyZ5hQ6

NOTE: This is NOT an opinion based question. I am looking for a proper answer with technical reason as to why or why not.

Answer 1

i've read your problem, and i think that upgrade the hhd to a GOOD SSD like Samsung EVO and beyond,could be the right way to improve pc's performance and your work time. The disk usage, generally it could result from intense activity of some system processes like windows update and others. My advice is to check what are the processes that can make intensive use and turn them off if they are not indispensable for the system. Regarding Windows Update, you should turn it off and once a week, switch on to make updates, avoiding performance degradation and relative increase of disk usage.

Regards,

Let42

Answer 2

Yes, you should upgrade to an SSD - this will provide a massive improvement as your system is currently very much disk bound and SSD's are at least 5 times faster - probably much more depending on your workload.

Do note that while SSD's are an order of magnitude more reliable then hard drives, when they fail they are much more likely to fail catastrophically and without warning, so make sure you have very good backups.

Also, double check, but I've done some Googling which has bolstered my suspicion that a "Thin SSD" is actually standard - while 2.5" hard drives are typically 9mm high, SSD's are most often 7mm high - ie slim - ie it is most likely you will have no problem fitting a Samsung SSD in your system (Samsung and Intel win the reliability sweepstakes for SSD's)

Answer 3

Just googled you Laptop. Like other said, SSD will make you PC much faster, your Speed is incredible slow.

I always prefer the Samsung SSD 850 Evo (PRO has higher BTW rate, but so high that you will NEVER reach it in the lifetime of your Laptop). It will also fit in your Laptop, you have a standard sized HDD inside it. The REAL Question is, do you need 1TB? Because 1TB is not cheap. I think the 512GB is the best deal. Is around 130€ (or dollar) ..