Why Are Game Load Times So Slow on HDD vs SSD?

What Causes This?

Game load times are much slower on an HDD because a hard drive has moving parts and much lower random read speed than an SSD. Modern games constantly pull lots of small files, textures, shaders, and level data, which SSDs handle far better. Slow loading can also happen when a game is installed on the wrong drive, the SSD is nearly full, the drive is running in a slower mode, or background apps are hammering disk usage.

Common Symptoms

• Games take a long time to reach the main menu or load into matches
• Open-world areas stutter while assets stream in
• Load times are much worse on one PC drive than another
• Disk usage spikes to 100% in Task Manager while loading
• An SSD-equipped PC still feels as slow as an HDD during game startup

How to Fix It Manually

1. Check which drive the game is installed on

   • Open Settings with Windows + I.
   • Go to System > Storage > Advanced storage settings > Where new content is saved to see your default game/app location.
   • For Steam, open Steam > Settings > Storage and check the library drive for the game.
   • If the game is on an HDD, move it to an SSD if possible.

2. Move the game from HDD to SSD

   • In Steam, go to Library, right-click the game, select Properties > Installed Files > Move install folder.
   • In the Xbox app, go to the game page, click the three dots, then choose Manage > Files > Change drive if available.
   • If the launcher does not support moving, uninstall and reinstall the game to the SSD.

3. Make sure the SSD has enough free space

   • Open File Explorer with Windows + E.
   • Click This PC and check free space on the SSD.
   • Try to keep at least 15-20% free space. A nearly full SSD can slow down writes, updates, and shader cache behavior.
   • Delete large unused files or move videos, downloads, and old games to another drive.

4. Check disk usage and background apps

   • Open Task Manager with Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
   • Click Processes and sort by Disk usage.
   • Close launchers, updaters, cloud sync tools, browser downloads, or antivirus scans that are heavily using the drive while you game.
   • If Windows Search or another service is constantly hitting the disk, reboot and test again.

5. Confirm TRIM is enabled for the SSD

   • Press Windows, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator.
   • Run:

     fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

   • If the result is 0, TRIM is enabled. If it shows 1, enable it with:

     fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0

6. Optimize the drive correctly in Windows

   • Press Windows, type Defragment and Optimize Drives, and open it.
   • Select your SSD and click Optimize. This runs the proper Windows optimization for SSDs.
   • If you also use an HDD for games, optimizing that drive can help a little, but it will still be much slower than an SSD.

7. Check drive health and connection speed

   • Press Windows + X and select Device Manager.
   • Expand Disk drives and confirm your SSD is detected properly.
   • If load times suddenly got worse, update motherboard storage drivers from your PC or motherboard maker’s support page.
   • For SATA SSDs, make sure the drive is connected to a SATA III port and not an older/slower port if your system has multiple controller types.

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Kudu can quickly spot storage-related slowdowns by checking disk health, startup load, background activity, and common Windows settings that hurt game performance. Instead of digging through Task Manager, storage menus, and command-line checks, Kudu helps identify the bottleneck and apply safe optimizations faster.

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