How to Fix 100% Disk Usage on Windows 10

If your Windows 10 PC has slowed almost to a halt, but you have very few programs open, something may be causing your hard drive to over-work.

Method 1: Disable Windows Search

Method 2: Disable Superfetch Service

Method 3: Perform a disk check

Method 4: Reset Virtual Memory

Method 5: Disable Antivirus Software temporarily

Method 6: Change the settings in Google Chrome 

Method 7: Is Skype Eating Disk Resources?

Method 8: Fix your StorAHCI.sys driver

Method 9: Disable Diagnostic Tracking in Windows 10

Method 10:  Resolve PCI-Express Firmware Bug

Method 11:Could It Be Flash?

Method 12: Update your device drivers

This is a relatively common problem in Windows 10, but luckily, it’s usually not a hard problem to fix. Here are a few repair methods that have helped other users fix their Windows 10 100% disk usage problem. You may not need to try them all; just start at the top of the list and work your way down.

Method 1: Disable Windows Search

Windows Search is what makes searching files on your PC much faster. If you don’t use it at all, or you have another search app, you can disable it completely. Disabling this service will stop the indexing of all files. But you will still have access to search, which will take longer time.

Here’s how to temporarily disable Windows Search and find out if it’s the cause of your 100% disk utilization problem. (Note that Windows Search will start again when you restart your computer.)

1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key  and X at the same time, then select Command Prompt (Admin). 

2) Click Yes at the User Account Control window prompt. 

3) A mostly black window will then display. This is the command prompt window. In this window, type in the following command: 

net.exe stop "Windows search"

4) Hit Enter on your keyboard. 

Check to see if your disk usage and the performance of your computer improve. If they do, you should permanently disable Windows Search as described below.

Permanently disable Windows Search

If you discovered that Windows Search is causing your 100% disk usage error in Windows 10, you can permanently disable Windows Search:

1) Press Windows logo key + R at the same time, and type in services.msc. 

2) Locate Windows Search option, double click it to enter its Properties window. 

3) Change the Startup type to Disabled. Then click Apply and OK to save your change. 

Disable Windows Search for Improved Disk Performance

A bug in Windows 8 and 10 results in a sort of “search loop” that causes an increased load on the system drive.

To stop this and prevent it from happening during your current session (until Windows is rebooted) open the Command Prompt (the quickest way is by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Command Prompt (Admin)) and enter the following:

net.exe stop "Windows search"

To permanently disable Windows Search or Indexing, press Windows key + R, enter services.msc, and hit Enter. In the Services window that opens find the Windows Search entry and double-click it to open the Windows Search Properties window. Under Startup type, select Disabled. Here you can click Stop to abort the service. Click OK to save your changes.

Method 2: Disable Superfetch Service

To deal with this, open another Command Prompt (or if you’ve still got the earlier box open, use that) and enter:

net.exe stop superfetch

Again, wait a few moments to check whether this has had any effect on your computer’s performance. You should also run Check Disk in a Command Prompt:

chkdsk.exe /f /r

You’ll be informed that your PC must be rebooted for Check Disk to complete, so make sure you have closed all of your applications first.

If this doesn’t work, it is likely that you’re experiencing an iteration of this issue that is frustrating to realize, but simple to resolve.

Method 3 – Perform a disk check

1) On your keyboard, press Windows key and X at the same time, then choose Command Prompt (Admin). 

2) Click Yes at the User Account Control prompt. 

3) The command prompt will once again display. Type in the following command:

chkdsk.exe /f /r

4) Hit Enter on your keyboard, then type Y to confirm that you’d like to perform the disk check the next time you restart your computer. Please make sure you have closed all of your applications first.

IMPORTANT: Disk check will start the next time you boot your PC and it might take some time to complete (could be a day for some). If, when you restart, you don’t have time to wait for the disk check to complete, you can skip it. You’ll need to reschedule it again, as described above, though. 

Method 4: Reset Virtual Memory

Virtual memory can be considered an extension of your computer’s physical memory. It’s a combination of RAM and a portion of your hard drive. When the RAM isn’t enough to perform a task, Windows will temporarily store files in virtual memory, then swap them back to RAM when required. 

To reset virtual memory:

1) On your keyboard, press Windows key and Pause/ Break key at the same time. Then choose Advanced System Settings on the left panel.

2) Go to the Advanced tab, then click Settings. 

3) Go to the Advanced tab again, and choose Change… in the Virtual memory section. 

4) Ensure the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox is NOT ticked. 

5) Select your windows drive (the hard drive or partition that has Windows installed on it – usually C:), and enter an Initial size and Maximum size for your virtual memory:

• Initial size – This value varies, depending on your computer. If you’re not sure what value to use, just enter whatever the number is in the Recommended category. 
• Maximum size – Don’t set this value too high. It should be about 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM. e.g. A PC with 4 GB (4096 MB) of RAM should have no more than about 6,144 MB virtual memory (4096 MB x 1.5).

Once you’ve entered your virtual memory values, click Set, then click OK to continue. 

6) Clear all your computer’s ‘temp’ files. On your keyboard, press Windows key and R at the same time, then in the Run form, type temp and hit Enter. This will invoke Windows Explorer with your Temp folder open, showing you all the temp files on your computer. 

7) Select all the files in the Temp folder and delete them. 

Method 5: Disable Antivirus Software temporarily

If you’ve installed antivirus or anti-malware programs such as Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, Avast Behavior Shield or Malwarebytes, you should temporarily turn them off or disable them to see if they’re causing your disk usage problem. If your computer’s disk usage returns to normal when they’re off, you should contact the vendor of the software to see if they can provide some help. 

Note that Microsoft has its own default anti-malware, Windows Defender. It’s automatically enabled even if you also have other antivirus applications installed. Even if you disable your other antivirus programs, Windows Defender is always there for you during that certain time range. So, no need to worry too much about temporarily turning antivirus off. 

If you use other antivirus and anti-malware systems, please consult their user manuals to learn how to disable them. You might also find these links useful: 

Method 6: Change the settings in Google Chrome 

For some, a particular combination of Skype and Google Chrome browser settings causes the 100% disk usage problem in Windows 10. Here’s how to fix those settings: 

Note that the wording on different versions of Chrome could be slightly different. 

1) In Google Chrome, click the three-dot icon at the top right corner and choose Settings. 

2) Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Advanced. 

3) In the Privacy and Security category, make sure  Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly is turned off. 

Method 7: Is Skype Eating Disk Resources?

In Windows Explorer, go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\. 

 Right-click Skype.exe and select Properties. 

 Go to the Security tab and select Edit. 

 Click ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES and tick the Allow checkbox for Write. Then click Apply, then OK to save your change. 

Now check your disk usage in Task Manager to see if this has resolved the problem. 

Method 8: Fix your StorAHCI.sys driver

Note: A million thanks to our warm-hearted reader Javier for the following solution.

If you have tried all the above methods but still no avail, please see if this additional one helps.

The Windows 10 100% disk usage problem might also be caused by some Advanced Host Controller Interface PCI-Express (AHCI PCIe) models running with the inbox StorAHCI.sys driver due to a firmware bug. 

Here’s how to determine if this is your problem and fix it:

1) Open Device Manager by pressing Windows logo key and X at the same time to choose Device Manager. 

2) Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers category, and double-click the AHCI controller. 

3) Go to the Driver tab and click Driver Details. If you can see storahci.sys stored in a path of system32 folder, then you are running the inbox AHCI driver. 

3) Close the Driver Details window and go to Details tab. From the drop-down menu, select Device Instance Path. Make note of the path, starting from VEN_. 

4) Type regedit in the search box of Start panel, then hit Enter on your keyboard to run Registry Editor. Then go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\ <AHCI Controller>\<Random Number>\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties

The <AHCI Controller> here refers to the name you see from step 2). 

The <Random Number> differs on different machines. 

5) Double click the MSISupported key and change the value to 0. 

6) Restart your computer after the change. 

Method 9: Disable Diagnostic Tracking in Windows 10

When it comes to reducing your hard disk drive usage, it’s quicker to bypass the usual Windows 10 privacy setting and simply disable the DiagTrack service. If this is the source of your 100% HDD use in Task Manager, you can stop the service and prevent it from launching via Command Prompt.

Right-click Start and select Command Prompt (Admin), then input these commands to disable and stop DiagTrack:

sc config "DiagTrack" start= disabled

sc stop "DiagTrack"

In addition, you might also head to Settings > System > Notification & actions and disable Get tips, tricks and suggestions as you use Windows. Doing so has been shown to improve things.

Method 10:  Resolve PCI-Express Firmware Bug

Some drivers don’t run quite as they should in Windows 10. One that has been discovered to be causing 100% HDD use is the StorAHCI.sys driver, which has a firmware bug. StorAHCI.sys intended for storage devices connected to the PC or laptop motherboard via Advanced Host Controller Interface PCI-Express.

If you’ve made it this far with no success, this could be the problem. Open the Device Manager(use Windows 10 search, or right-click This PC in Windows Explorer, then Properties > Device Manager) and expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. If an AHCI Controller entry is listed, double-click, then open the Driver tab and select Driver Details. Is the driver listed as C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\storahci.sys? If so, you could be affected by this bug. Close the driver details box and switch to the Details tab, selecting Device instance path from the drop-down menu. Where the Value is listed, right-click, and select Copy. Launch your text editor (like Notepad) and Paste the contents in.

Next, press Windows key + R and type regedit, followed by the OK button. Navigate to this address:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\ and use the pasted string above to open the correct AHCI Controller, followed by the random number. Here, expand Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties and you should see MSISupported listed in the right-hand pane. Double-click this, then change the Value data: to 0. Click OK to confirm, and follow the instructions to restart Windows.

Method 11:Could It Be Flash?

How you fix this depends on which version of Chrome you’re using. In older versions prior to Chrome 57, go to the address bar and enter:

chrome://plugins

A new settings-style screen will display a list of installed plugins. If you have Adobe Flash installed for viewing videos (BBC iPlayer requires Flash on desktop browsers, for instance, as do many other video streaming services, as well as browser games) then you will see it listed as Adobe Flash Player here.

Click the Disable button; the Adobe Flash Player entry will be grayed out. Wait a few moments and then check your Task Manager. Performance issues related to your system drive should be resolved. Try restarting the Chrome browser if this is still an issue.

However, as Chrome updates silently, and without your involvement, this may not work. If you’re using Chrome 57 or later, the steps for disabling Flash differ.

Open Menu > Settings > Show advanced settings… and find the section marked Privacy. Here, click on Content settings… and find Flash. You’ll see three options — select the third, Block sites from running Flash, then Done. Restart the browser, and check your HDD performance.

If this doesn’t alleviate the issue, you might want to change that setting. We recommend the middle option, Ask first before allowing sites to run Flash.

Method 12: Update your device drivers

If the steps above don’t resolve your 100% disk usage problem in Windows 10, it may be caused by a device driver. 

You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 clicks (and you get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee):

1) Download and install Driver Easy. 

2) Run Driver Easy and click Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.

3) Click the Update button next to any flagged device to automatically download and install the correct version of that driver (you can do this with the FREE version).

Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system (this requires the Pro version – you’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All).

Appendix

Here’s how to identify if 100% disk usage is actually your problem.

Note that the following steps may take some time if your hard drive is being over-worked. 

1) Type “task manager” in the Windows search bar and select Task Manager: 

2) In the Processes tab, look at the % at the top of the Disk column. If it’s 100% (or it’s close and it has a red background), something is causing your hard disk to over-work.