Windows 10: Disk runs at 100% almost all the time

Hi, so my PC is a custom build and has high specs and have always had this 100% disk problem. I have used 3 different antivirus software which hasnt detected anything, so dont think it is that. There seems to be alot of updates that happening which could be affecting it or maybe there's a broken file. Another thing I have noticed is that my startup is slow and when I try to chack my BIOS time on taskmanager everything is not measured and last BIOS time is 0.0 seconds?


Thanks



:)

 

Disk Usage at 100% with nothing running

My PC is running Windows 10 with the latest updates but has suddenly become unusable with disk usage staying at 100% even with nothing running and just the same processes listed in Task Manager as before the problems
started. I've tried a few suggestions found in online forums - disabling Windows Search and Superfetch, adjusting page file size, etc. but nothing has done the trick yet. I don't have any outside anti-virus software installed. I read about the potential MSI
issue but don't have IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers listed in the Device Manager. Finally, it seems to boot up normally and will have periods where the disk usage drops and it's usable but those moments are brief and it inevitably goes back up to 100% usage.

 

Clean install, disk usage at 100%

I've seen that article. and I am in fact not running that driver. I followed the steps and it does not appear in the list.

 

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.