Windows 10: Disk 0 (C:) 100% activity

When I restart my computer, and at various times after it has been running for a while, the C: drive activity goes to 100% for long periods of time, resulting in very slow performance. It is a dual quad core computer with 12 GBs of ram. Running the latest Windows 10 Home update. Any help will be greatly appreciated.


Jim Nelson

:)

 

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.

 

DISK USAGE (first 100%, then 0-20%)

I will check the link you provided with WIKI about this app (actually I already checked it.. but will do again).

I want to add right settings... any chance that you help me with setting up WPRUI.exe so that the results can show us what causing my problems?

I would like to start this app immediately after I boot up... and let it run for 15 minutes

Generally:

• 0-5 mins: 100% disk usage (according to task manager ACTIVE TIME)
• after that: 0-20% disk usage (according to task manager ACTIVE TIME)

It would be helpful if you tell me which options to turn on in this app.. .considering my problem is the DISK

 

Upgraded to Windows 10 - Disk 0 Usage 100

I agree. This entire thread has appeared unproductive as this issue continues. The one point perhaps that has not been discussed appears to be that even though the disk 0 usage is at 100% the processes running never add up to 100percent. for example at 24%
usage there are 10 processes listed as using 0.1 mb/sec which totals 1MB /sec. from that one could assume that at 100% the processes may total 4MB/sec but I routinely see the system process spike upwards of 25Mb/sec and after any usage climbs over 7mb/sec
the disk 0 reads at 100%. also the running processes are never the same. there is no one process which creates the issue.

A better solution would be for Microsoft to explain the point and purpose of the disk usage, and how it is reported. it is reported at the top as a percentage and in the row as a transfer speed. (mb/s).

The question is what is up with that specifically, how do I determine the max transfer speed of disc 0, and at what point will system performance slow to an unacceptable user level? when it does what are the steps to take to identify and resolve the issue?