Windows 10: External Hard Drive 100% when accessed

Every time I access my external hard drive, it jumps to 100% usage and stays that way for about 15 minutes.
Ithink it is windows defender scanning it, but I'm not sure.

Also: even after the scan is complete, if I try to copy a file to it from a flash drive, it will jump up to full transfer speed for a second and then go to 0mb/s.. It sits there for a bit, then jumps back to full transfer speed for a few seconds and then dies back to 0mb/s.. An 800mb file took 20 minutes to copy, when it should have taken less than a minute.

How can I tell what program is beating up the drive every time I access it?
If it is windows defender, how can I tell it to NOT scan every time I access it?

:)

 

Seagate External Hard Drive

Hi Barbara,

Hardware failure or corruption within your system files are some of the possible reasons why you are experiencing an issue with accessing your external hard drive. For us to provide an accurate solution, we would need you to answer the following questions:

• Which build, version and edition of Windows 10?
• Are you experiencing the same issue when you are trying to access the external hard drive using another PC?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

In the meantime, we suggest running the automated troubleshooter for hardware. Follow these steps to do so:

• Open the Control Panel.
• Using the search box at the upper right corner of the window, type troubleshooting.
  
• From the search results, click on Troubleshooting.
• Click on Hardware and Sound and then choose Hardware and Devices.
• Once done, restart your computer and then check if the same issue persists.

We are looking forward to your response.

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

External hard drive not recognised

Thanks for this. I've done what you suggested and been through all the steps mentioned in the article. The hard drive works fine on a Mac computer, and I've managed to copy the information on it. It must be a Surface issue so I'll try to get a chat line tomorrow.