Windows 10: Discovered a Way to a HUGE Increase in Disk Transfer Rate

Howdy, Everyone! I hope your-all’s day is going fine! *Smile

Firstly, allow me to begin with the obligatory disclaimer for this post:"Well, no, I'm not actually recommending this." *Wink Satisfied? Great!
AFTER the last Windows 10 Update (which I think occurred just a few weeks ago on my PC), I was doing my Routine System Backup (for which, I always do a Full IMAGE Backup across All Drives Using Macrium). Only, on this occasion, I was in for a Shock:: My Disk Transfer-Rate for EVERY Drive had slowed by ~ 35% (!!) so that the entire Imaging Process likewise took about 35% longer than it usually does!!

So I googled various keywords about this issue, and there were a couple of posts indicating that the issue Could be related to Microsoft's recent patch for the Spectre/Meltdown vulnerability. So, I downloaded Gibson Research's TINY Utility which lets you see whether you are patched for Meltdown or Spectre, And an OPTION to toggle those respective patches – Off Or On.
I discovered thereby that I was patched ONLY for Meltdown, and for a Test, I toggled that patch to "OFF", •Rebooted, & •Re-ran a Full Macrium Image to see if that Toggle had an affect on my Drives’ Transfer Rates.
... It had a DRAMATIC Effect!!:: My Drives’ Transfer-Rates had returned to the same speed that they had PRIOR to the last Windows 10 Update.

- Chuck

—— 2 PS's: ——
A. I was definitely in the Group for which Microsoft,Etc. said the Spectre/Metdown Patch’s Speed Decrease should be Negligible. Not!
B. In addn to the listed PC description, I should also note that my PC was custom-built about 11 months' ago.

:)

 

How to increase disk transfer rate in Windows 10

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

Are you concerned about disk transfer rates?

It depend on your hard disk capability. The disk transfer rates varies depending on the action that is performed. Say for example, copying the data, running software, playing a game, running apps and some other. Moreover it also depends on the kind of the
motherboard and the type of SATA cable. Suggest you to perform disk defragmentation and see if it makes any difference in performance.

Defragment your hard disk:

• 
  Open Disk Defragmenter
  by clicking the Start button. In the search box, type Disk Defragmenter, and then, in the list of results, click
  Disk Defragmenter.
  
• 
  Under Current status, select the disk you want to defragment.
  
• 
  To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click
  Analyze disk. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
  
  Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, you can check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the
  Last Run column. If the number is above 10%, you should defragment the disk.
  
• 
  Click Defragment disk. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
  

Disk Defragmenter might take from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk. You can still use your computer during the defragmentation
process.

Keep us posted if you require further assistance.

 

Disk Active time 100% Disk transfer rate 0

This is a problem I've seen reported countless times, on Microsoft support sites and elsewhere. Task Manager shows "Disk Active time 100% Disk transfer rate 0", and everything that's running on the computer freezes, although sometimes you can switch windows,
or even perform some operations within a window, but other times
everything freezes, including the mouse pointer. It usually lasts for 30 or 60 seconds, but sometimes it goes on for several minutes. Then it stops and everything goes back to normal, including Disk active time and Disk transfer rate.

It happens regardless of the apps I'm running or the activities I'm doing. I've even seen it happen with no user apps running at all - no browser, no file manager, nothing but background stuff. It happens every single day, regardless of whether there has
been a Windows update installed.

Microsoft gave me a fix for this problem a week ago, but it didn't work. Here are the steps I followed:

at admin command line prompt:

• Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
• dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
• reboot
• find driver file for Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\iaStorA.sys
• Details tab from Properties window for controller
  • Device instance path:
    • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C83&SUBSYS_06B01028&REV_03\3&11583659&0&FA
• find registry key for disk controller
  • Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C83&SUBSYS_06B01028&REV_03\3&11583659&0&FA\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties
  • change MSISupported from 1 to 0
• reboot

The instructions I was given include this for Step 4: If you see “StorAHCI.sys” in the list, you are running the inbox driver. But my driver is iaStorA.sys, so maybe this
fix doesn't even apply to me.

After doing all of the above, twice, I still have the problem. I've seen this now over a period of about three years, on two completely different laptops, one a Toshiba running Windows 8.1 and currently on a Dell running Windows 10. I also have a Thinkpad
for work that runs W7, and I've never seen it happen on that machine. It got so bad on the Toshiba that I ended up discarding it, after spending countless hours trying to fix it.

I've also tried all the fixes I've found on the web, e.g. disable superfetch, disable BITS, add write permissions to Skype and the browser. Nothing I've found so far has helped. I also reverted Windows back to build 1703. That didn't help either.

 

Windows 10 Freezes; SSD's transfer rate goes to 100%

Hi,

I am experiencing the same exact problem.

• Dell Latitude E5520
• Windows 10 Version 1607 (OS Build 14393.953)
• Seagate Momentus XT 500GB (Booting Drive, Disk 0, based on combination 4GB SSD and the rest is HDD).
  • The last few months it was freezing briefly (within a minute or so) and then unfreezes. All activities that do not need to access the drive can be done normally while frozen up to some point.
• Crucial MX300 SSD 525GB Booting Drive (Disk 0), recently bought to replace the above 'aging' Seagate.
  • Freeze after a few operations and remains frozen until Power Recycled.
    
  • Disk Active Time spikes to 100% while Disk Transfer Rate is 0 or minimal.
  • All activities that do not need to access the drive can be done normally while frozen up to some point.

• I have not tried replacing the Microsoft generic SATA driver yet.

Hope the above helps pin-pointing the issues. I would greatly appreciate assistance in how to replace the SATA driver, if there is no cure from Microsoft yet.

Thank you in advance!

UPDATE:

Applied KB4015438. Same issue:

• Freeze after a few operations and remains frozen until Power Recycled.
• Disk Active Time spikes to 100% while Disk Transfer Rate is 0 or minimal.
• All activities that do not need to access the drive can be done normally while frozen up to some point.

UPDATE (03/27/2017):

Applied KB4016635. Issue persists:

• Freeze after a few operations and remains frozen until Power Recycled.
• Disk Active Time spikes to 100% while Disk Transfer Rate is 0 or minimal.
• All activities that do not need to access the drive can be done normally while frozen up to some point.

Replaced Microsoft Generic SATA Driver to OEM (Intel) Driver. System has been stable since 03/26/2017 15:10.