Windows 10: 100% Disk Usage, tried some methods found online.

Hi! I dont really have any idea when this problem first started. However, ive noticed a slow down in the computer for about a month or so and was deciding to clean up the computer only recently in which i found that the disk usage is unusually high.

I have tried the 6th tip from 7 Tips to Fix 100% Disk Usage Improve Windows Performance, still experiencing disk usage 100% with less than 10mb/s transfer rate when opening apps. However, I've realise that at times disk usage doesn't go all the way up to 100% when the transfer rate is 10mb/s or less. Any ideas? Is there any possibility that the disk drive might be failing?

Thanks!

 

Well, it could be related to the hardware interface.. rather than the disk surface..

Try 7 then 3 of that doct, making sure you can reverse the changes. Also experiment with a high performance plan.
Note- none of these should be regarded as real solutions in my view.

What might be interesting would be to connect a USB drive and see what happens copying a file from and to that (not using your internal disk).

How old is your laptop? Which OS did it come with?
Vaio S first came out in 2004..

On a completely different tack, try
a. Safe Mode - check the performance copying a file back to the internal disk as I did.
b. If still poor, download and boot from Kyhi's boot disk available from the top of the software and apps section here, and repeat that.

If you can demonstrate the hardware is capable of good performance, I'd suggest the problem may be a system driver incompatibility- old hardware, recent OS.

 

Hi! Well this laptop is 4 years old, and my computer has always been running on high performance with no changes in the power plans. It came up with windows 7 which might probably be one reason why some drivers may not be supported. I'll will try out some of the things u suggested and get back to you.

Forgot to mention that ive tried stopping superfetch, but the problem is still there. And Number 7 of that doct was the solution that allowed my laptop to not remain at 100% disk usage at idle.

Thanks!

 

4 years sounds promising. But given Sony pulled out of the market, could be driver issues as I suggested- just a guess. The other two trial approaches should use some different drivers.

By any chance did you upgrade to the Creator's build about the time this started happening?

 

Hi! I have tried booting into safe mode, any ideas how to view disk usage in task manager? as it is missing in safe mode.

Heres the image when a file is copied from external usb to internal hard drive (Not in safe mode):






Heres the image in safe mode: (Im not sure how do you check from disk usage in safe mode so here's just the resource monitor)




Well it feels that this has already occurred before creator update but im not sure.

Thanks for your help!

 

Do you recommend if I try to go back to the previous build of windows and see if this problem still occurs?

 

Try those two approaches first - won't take too long. And Kyhi's disk is very useful to have around just in case.

If you wanted to try Win 7 or a previous build, you can create a disk image of what you have now, so restoring the disk image will mean you are back exactly as now.

We strongly and repeatedly recommend the routine use of disk imaging anyway - maybe you already use it. E.g. Macrium Reflect (free) + external storage for images.

Regarding drivers (and assuming it is driver related):
Two thoughts-
1. If you find your PC works on an earlier build you can save the drivers from that build. If you then knew which was critical, you could replace the current driver.
2. An outside possibility would be to use a driver scanner tool. We never recommend these in general, but for specific problems they can sometimes be helpful.
The difficulty is knowing which low level driver might be involved- at present that's guesswork.

 

In Safe Mode you can use the Resource Monitor:




or an alternative task manager:

 

Hi, I have tried the safe boot option as metioned in your post. All the images can be seen on post #18. (Im not an expert in window stuff so could you help me check if safe boot has solved the problem.) Thanks you so much, appreciate your help!

UPDATE: whoops nvrm didnt see ur latest post.

 

40MB/s over USB 2 is about right- here's both ways on mine. (Of course depends on a few other things).

 

Go into System, Alerts and Notifications...turn off all alerts and notifications, reboot. If the problem goes away, it could be caused by a store app hanging up the runtime broker. In some cases ending the offending runtime broker a couple times remedies the problem, or it has for me.

 

Hi! I forgot to mention that while doing the 6th tip of 7 Tips to Fix 100% Disk Usage Improve Windows Performance , I have realised that mine IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers is not listed as C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\storahci.sys in the drivers details page. My IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller is a Intel 7 series chipset family SATA AHCI Controller. And its latest driver is dated back to 2014. Could this driver be a firmware bug as mentioned in the site despite not being listed as C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\storahci.sys in the driver details page?





Thanks!

 

A thought- try running Drivermax (a driver scanner program I've used very occasionally to find a driver I couldn't otherwise) and see what that says..

 

Hi! Ran the program and here is the list of drivers that are not up to date:




DriverMax also showed that the Intel 7 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller is up to date:




I was wondering if the Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller would have anything to do with this problem as it isnt up to date. However its just a network adapter so i doubt it affects?

Thanks!

 

That should be some sort of confirmation of your basic drivers, I guess. I find it hard to imagine those shown have an effect, although it would be a complete guess about the Xeon processor driver.

Have you yet experimented with transfer rate using Kyhi's disk and Safe Mode?

Another experiment would be to image your system (so you can restore it) and install the Anniversary build (recalling you said the problem occurred around or before upgrading to the CU).

Another would be to try substituting the drive and reinstalling- that would separate any hardware issues - PC vs physical disk. And you might try taking the drive out and testing it as a USB drive- you could do that booting your laptop from Kyhi's disk. (I've read a couple of examples where it was necessary to swap the disk).

Unfortunately, being a laptop, you don't have another physical port.

Searching for
disk usage 100% low transfer rate
yields many results.

Beyond that, it's research or anyone else coming along with ideas. We've yet to see any evidence of your hardware supporting a high transfer rate.

You could also check technical params for your disk, but a physical swap is simpler and easier!