I installed a Samsung 990 Pro about 8 months ago and it was super fast, but lately everything feels sluggish. Checked Task Manager and nothing's using much CPU or RAM. Is my drive degrading or is this normal?
You probably don't have free space - SSDs throttle themselves when they get too full (usually past 80-90%), so check how much room's left. Also run CrystalDiskInfo to see if TRIM's working or if there's any health issues, but honestly full drive is the culprit 99% of the time.
The other answer nailed it - check your free space first since full drives definitely throttle. also worth running `optimize-volume -DriveLetter C -Defrag` in powershell (or just use windows defrag) to make sure TRIM's actually running properly. if you're still at like 60%+ free and it's still slow, grab CrystalDiskInfo and look at the health stats - sometimes firmware issues can creep up too, so might be worth checking if samsung has an update for the 990 Pro.
The other answers are spot on about free space - that's definitely the first thing to check. But I'd add a couple other things that got me when my drive started feeling slow. Sometimes Windows Update decides to do a massive indexing job in the background, and you won't really notice it in Task Manager right away. Check your disk usage in Task Manager by clicking the disk column header to sort it - sometimes System or SearchIndexer will be quietly hammering your drive. If that's happening, just give it time or temporarily disable Windows Search if you don't use it.
Also, even though you have a Samsung Pro which is solid, make sure you're not running it close to full capacity. SSDs absolutely tank in performance when they get above 80-85% full - it's not just throttling, it's that they literally can't manage their garbage collection properly. I'd suggest freeing up at least 10-15% of your total capacity if you're running tight. Quick thing to try: open Disk Management and just see what your actual free space looks like, because sometimes what Windows reports and what's actually available don't match up perfectly.
One more thing - check if you've got any background tasks or software running that you installed recently. I had a security program start doing constant scans that absolutely nuked my drive performance, and it wasn't showing up as high usage until I dug deeper. But honestly, in 2026, the free space issue is still the most common culprit for SSDs feeling slow after a few months of use.
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