Steam Disk Usage Slow? How to Increase Download Speed on Windows 11

Quick Answer: Can You Fix Slow Steam Disk Usage?

If you are seeing your download speed drop to 0 bytes/s or wondering why your disk usage is so low on Steam, the answer is: Yes, this is a solvable bottleneck.

Games are more massive and highly compressed. A "slow disk usage" error usually means your drive cannot write the data as fast as your internet is downloading it, or your CPU is struggling to decompress the files. You do not necessarily need a new computer; you often just need to optimize your current storage and system settings.

Why Is Steam Downloading So Slow? (Disk Usage Paradox)

Before applying fixes, it is crucial to understand the relationship between your Internet, CPU, and Disk. Many users confuse "Network Usage" with "Disk Usage." You might have gigabit internet, but if your Steam download graph shows a flat green line (Disk) at the bottom, your internet speed doesn't matter.

Steam downloads are heavily compressed to save bandwidth. When you download a game, your PC goes through a cycle:

Download: Receive compressed chunks (Network).

Decompress: The CPU unpacks these files (CPU).

Write: The Drive saves the unpacked files (Disk).

If your disk is fragmented, nearly full, or has bad sectors, it cannot write data fast enough. Steam pauses the download to let the disk catch up. This is why is steam downloading so slow, even with fast internet.

Comparison: Network Issue vs. Disk Issue

Use this table to diagnose your specific problem.

If you fall into the "Stuttering" or "Spiking" category, the following methods are specifically designed for you.

8 Fixes to Optimize Storage to Increase Speed

If your drive is the bottleneck, software settings won't help until the physical storage is managed correctly.

A full or unhealthy drive is the number one reason for write speeds plummeting. To address this, we use professional partition software rather than the basic Windows Disk Management, which is often too limited for these specific tasks.

Method 1. Increase the Free Space on Steam Disk (via AOMEI Partition Software)

When an SSD or HDD fills up (especially over 85% capacity), write speeds degrade significantly because the drive has to work harder to find empty blocks. To solve how to increase disk usage on Steam, you must ensure the game drive has ample breathing room.

What is AOMEI Partition Software?

AOMEI Partition Software is a robust Windows disk management toolkit. Unlike the native Windows tool, which restricts you from extending a partition if the unallocated space isn't right next to it, AOMEI allows you to "Allocate Free Space" from one partition (like D:) to another (like C: or your Game Drive) directly without data loss. It is an essential tool for gamers managing large libraries in 2026.

AOMEI Partition Software

A free and reliable disk partition software that helps you resize partitions, migrate OS, convert disks, and optimize PC efficiently.

 

Download Freeware Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

Option 1. Allocate free space to the Steam drive

Step 1. Install and Launch: Download and open AOMEI Partition Software.

Step 2. Select Source: Right-click a partition that has plenty of free space (e.g., your D: drive or a data partition). Select "Allocate Free Space".

Step 3. Configure: In the pop-up window, type in how much space you want to move (e.g., 50GB). In the "To" dropdown menu, select your Steam Game Partition.

Step 4. Execute: Click OK. You will see a preview of the operation. Click Apply in the top-left corner and then Proceed to commit the changes.

By giving your Steam drive more space, the file system can arrange data more efficiently, directly fixing the "Steam disk usage slow" issue.

Option 2. Resize/Move drive to Steam game partition

Step 1. Launch and install AOMEI Partition Software. Then, all disks and partitions will be listed on the interface.

Step 2. Right-click on the partition you wish to shrink and select “Resize/Move Partition”.

Step 3. In the pop-up window, adjust the length of the green bar by dragging the circle on both sides to determine the size of the space to shrink. When it’s done, click on “OK.”

Step 4. After returning to the main interface, click on “Apply” on the upper left side and then hit “Proceed” to start the shrinking operation.

Method 2. Check the Disk Error (via AOMEI Partition Software)

If increasing space doesn't help, your drive might have physical "Bad Sectors." When Steam tries to write to a bad sector, it fails, retries, and hangs, causing the download speed to drop to zero. AOMEI Partition Software includes a "Surface Test" that is more visual and thorough than the Windows chkdsk command.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Partition Software. Right-click the disk where Steam is installed. Select "Test" from the menu, then click "Disk Surface Test".

Step 2. Click Start. The software will scan every sector of your hard drive.

• Green boxes: Healthy sectors.
• Red boxes: Damaged sectors.

If you see red blocks, this confirms why my disk usage is so low on Steam—the drive is failing. You should use AOMEI's HDD copy feature to migrate to a new SSD immediately. Once your storage is healthy, tweak these settings to force Windows and Steam to prioritize your downloads.

Method 3. Set Steam to High Priority in Task Manager

Windows balances resources between all open apps. By default, Steam has "Normal" priority. Raising this tells the CPU and Disk controller to handle Steam's decompression and writing requests before anything else.

Step 1. With Steam running, right-click the Start button and select Task Manager.

Step 2. Go to the Details tab (in Windows 11, it is the icon that looks like a bulleted list).

Step 3. Scroll down to find steamService.exe or steam.exe.

Step 4. Right-click it, hover over Set priority, and choose High.

Note: Do not choose "Realtime" as it can cause your mouse or OS to freeze.

Method 4. Verify the Integrity of Steam Game Files

Most games on Steam are typically tens of gigabytes in size, and sometimes, it's inevitable that some files will get corrupted. Thus, you can verify the integrity of game files to identify corrupted game files, delete them, and re-download them to fix the problem.

Step 1. Close all games running on your computer.

Step 2. After closing, go to the Steam "Game Library".

Step 3. Locate the problematic game in the game list on the left. Right-click on it and select "Properties".

Step 4. After entering the property options, find the "Local Files" tab from the navigation bar.

Step 5. Click "Verify integrity of game files" to get started.

Method 5. Clear Steam Download Cache

Corrupted temporary files can clog up the writing process. This is the classic "turn it off and on again" fix for increasing Steam download speed.

Step 1. Open Steam Settings. Navigate to the Downloads tab.

Step 2. Click the button labeled Clear Download Cache.

Step 3. Steam will ask you to confirm, then restart. You will need to log in again.

Step 4. Reduce System Interference

Step 5. External software can aggressively scan the new files Steam is writing, causing massive slowdowns.

Method 6. Reduce Disk Load

If you are running other disk-intensive tasks, Steam has to wait its turn.

Step 1. Open Task Manager and check the Disk column percentage. If it is near 100%, sort by Disk usage to see the culprit.

Common offenders:

• Windows Update (Pause updates in Settings).
• File transfers / Torrenting.
• Video Rendering.

Step 2. End these tasks to let Steam utilize the full bandwidth of the drive.

Method 7. Disable Anti-Virus Software

Real-time protection features in Windows Defender scan every single file chunk as it is written to the disk. This creates a massive overhead.

Step 1. Temporarily disable "Real-time protection" in your antivirus settings.

Step 2. Resume the Steam download.

Step 3. If the speed drastically improves and disk usage stabilizes, add the Steam folder (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam) to your Antivirus Exclusion/Exception list.

Important: Re-enable your antivirus immediately after testing.

Method 8. Uninstall and Reinstall the Steam Application

If all else fails, the Steam client itself may have corrupt internal files. Move your steamapps folder (where games are located) to a safe location (like an external drive or outside the Steam folder) so you don't have to redownload games.

Step 1. Uninstall Steam via Windows Settings > Apps.

Step 2. Download the latest installer from the Steam website and reinstall.

Step 3. Move your steamapps folder back.

Ending

In conclusion, a slow disk usage slow issue is rarely a mystery—it is a bottleneck between high-speed compression and available storage performance. By understanding how to increase disk usage on Steam, you can ensure your gaming rig isn't held back by a fragmented or full hard drive.

Start by clearing caches and adjusting priorities. If the issue persists, the physical state of your disk is likely the culprit. Tools like AOMEI Partition Software provide the professional-grade capabilities needed to extend partitions, check for errors, and align SSDs, ensuring your PC is ready for the next big game release.

AOMEI Partition Software

A free and reliable disk partition software that helps you resize partitions, migrate OS, convert disks, and optimize PC efficiently.

 

Download Freeware Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

FAQ

Q1: Why does my Steam download speed drop to 0 bytes/s?

A: This usually happens because the disk is busy. Steam downloads a chunk of data, and if your disk hasn't finished writing the previous chunk, Steam pauses the download (0 bytes/s) until the disk catches up. It is a disk writing bottleneck, not an internet outage.

Q2: Is an SSD better than an HDD for Steam downloads?

A: Yes, significantly. An SSD (especially NVMe) has much faster write speeds than a traditional HDD. Installing games on an SSD virtually eliminates the "disk usage slow" issue because the drive can write data faster than most internet connections can download it.

Q3: Does clearing the Steam download cache delete my installed games?

A: No. Clearing the cache only removes temporary files, partial downloads, and update data that might be corrupted. Your installed games and save files remain safe.

Q4: How much free space do I need to prevent slow disk usage?

A: It is recommended to keep at least 15-20% of your total drive capacity free. If an SSD is full, its "Write Amplification" increases, causing drastic slowdowns. Use AOMEI Partition Assistant to extend the partition if you are running low.

Q5: Will capping my download speed help increase disk stability?

A: Surprisingly, yes. If your internet is faster than your disk (e.g., 1Gbps internet on an old HDD), capping the download speed in Steam Settings (e.g., to 50MB/s) can prevent the download buffer from overflowing, resulting in a smoother, continuous download without the "start-stop" behavior.