Windows 10: 100% disk usage (out of ideas)

I’ve been having problems with disk usage being at 100% for the drive my OS is on for a few months now. Usually, as soon as I boot up my PC the disk usage will jump to 100% and stay that way for the majority of the time my PC is on, rendering it pretty un-usable. Occasionally it will resolve itself and go down to normal usage, and other times it will jump all over the place, going from 0% to 100% and then dropping back down to 0%. I don’t remember doing anything drastic before this started happening. I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and everything was fine for months, this seems to have happened all of a sudden, randomly.

After trying pretty much everything suggested from various sources online and not being able to resolve the problem, my hard drive finally died. I figured buying a new hard drive and doing a fresh install of windows would finally resolve the problem. However, I recently bought a Samsung Evo 850 SSD, installed windows, but the problem still persists.

I’m also receiving blue screen crashes, which happened after about an hour after the fresh install of windows. I’m unsure if this is related to the 100% disk usage problem though.

I’m pretty much out of ideas as I’ve already tried disabling superfetch, windows search, playing around with the power settings, virtual memory, new hard drive, new RAM, fresh windows install, new sata cables, trying different sata ports, updating drivers, SFC scan, virus scan, etc.

I don't have a windows 10 disk as I upgraded from windows 7, so I had to use windows tools to put windows 10 on a USB from my old hard drive and did a fresh install on the new SSD I bought. Could this have taken over a corrupt version of windows 10? Any help would be appreciated, as I'm pretty much out of ideas.

Specs below. My PC is about 6 years old now.

Windows 10

MSI 770-C45

Amd phenom ii x4 925

4GB Ram

Sapphire Radeon HD 5770

2 TB internal HD (Used for storage)

1TB Internal HD (Used for the OS. This is the drive that has just died and was replaced with a SSD)

750W Power Supply

:)

 

100% Disk Usage

All the time in my laptop Windows 10 Diagnostics Policy Services is Running that cause 100% disk usage. What I do to decrease disk usage? It is possible to decrease disk usage by stop this services and install third party software? If Yes, then send me the
link And if no then give me idea's to decrease disk usage(not like format your pc).

Thankyou

 

Changed SSD and HDD and still having high disk usage

Hi,

This issue can be caused by several reasons like application problems, storage, and malware infections.

100% disk usage is not really uncommon and is actually expected when some disk intensive events are happening like a virus scan and etc.

If you've found that Chrome and Norton are sometimes causing the issue, are they having 100% disk usage for a straight 24 hour period? Because, 100% disk usage for a minute or an hour is not really an indication that the problem exists.

We'll keep an eye out for your response.

 

What do you see in task manager? What program has the largest MB/s number?

As for the blue screens I use this program: Resplendence Software - WhoCrashed, automatic crash dump analyzer
It can give a vague idea why you had the blue screen.

 

I don't recommend whocrashed since it often provides misleading information when analyzing the dump files. It's much more informative to ask the blue screen crash analysts for help:

BSOD - Posting Instructions - - Windows 10 Forums

BSOD Crashes and Debugging - Windows 10 Forums


Ben54321 may also want to follow 100% usage on disk - - Windows 10 Forums and provide similar information to what's being asked for in that thread to get more in-depth help with the 100% disk usage issue.

 

Now that I have hardly anything installed I've been able to get a better look at the disk read/write and the main culprits, among others, appears to be NTFS volume log, NTFS master file table, and a large number of entries for C: Windows/software distribution.

I tried stopping Windows update from services, but was unable to, and also tries deleting the software distribution file, again I was unable to due to the folder being in use.

I'll try to get a screen shot of the processes the next time I'm on my PC, as well as looking into the crash I had, which fortunately hasn't happened again since.

Any suggestions on following up on these leads?

 

Just to get a screenshot of the processes. I'd recommend the route from the other thread: Display the disk activity of any process in Windows - gHacks Tech News

As discussed in the other thread, make sure to run the Process Explorer application in elevated/administrator mode.

 

What error code do you see with the BSODs?

 

How long has it been since you installed the drive and installed Windows on it? It is not unusual for a system to be slow right after installing Windows. This is due to some setup that is still being done and also the system searching for and applying updates.

EDIT:

Look into what BIOS version you are running. If there is a newer BIOS version on the manufacturer website for your system, install it. There was a time where I had a issue very similar to yours. Nothing seemed to fix it. Resets, total restores, what have you. The only thing that fixed it was a BIOS update.

 

The read/write total has gone as high as about 130,000,000 for a split second. Which seems really excessive.

I put in the new drive and did a fresh install only a few days ago, on Thursday I think it was.

Just checked and my BIOS version is up to date.

 

Hi, maybe you've resolved this by now as it's been a couple of days. You need to clean install Win 10, as I believe you haven't actually done this. (See 2. below)

1. Some observations on the above.

There's quite a bit going on.
First, Tiworker.exe is active- something related to Windows updates.
If you look at your Update History, do you see any failed updates? (Please post a screenshot).

Second, searchindexer is active, and should not be. I would expect this to have backed off (not be active) as it's only intended to run when your PC is relatively idle.

Edge is clearly doing more than it should

Defender is using resources (Msmpeng.exe) presumably with all the disk activity.

SearchUI.exe is Cortana, and again, that's creating excessive disk activity, which should not be the case.

Now, here I think lies the root of your problem. You haven't downloaded a Win 10 iso for a fresh install of Win 10. So that's where to start. As you have a new disk, that shouldn't be a problem.

2. Clean install Win 10.

Now, you have got a SSD, so if your BIOS supports it, you should enable AHCI for faster performance before installing Windows.
(e.g.
Why do i need AHCI with a SSD Drive (Guide Here!) ... - Crucial Community
for reference).

I recommend you format your SSD before installing Win 10.

Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Clean Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

 

Hi dalchina,

The links you provided is how i re-installed Windows 10 on the new SSD originally. It looks like the problem has now been resolved any how after updating windows, which is strange as I had done the same thing on the old hard drive, which didn't fix the problem. I still get the occasional jump up to around 100% or just below, but it's only happening when I'm actually doing something and isn't constant. It's been a few days now and things seem ok, so hopefully it stays that way.


Unfortunately I didn't enable AHCI before installing windows. I may look into it soon, but for the time being, things seem ok without it being enabled.

Thanks for all of the suggestions and help, I appreciate it.