The post shows information about system disk high usage. I recently discussed troubleshooting Windows 10 freezing concerns and in this post I’ll be speaking about fixing another relatively typical concern, which is disk usage revealing 100% all the time. The article contains information about system disk high usage. I have actually discovered that this condition is especially real on laptop computers.
Generally, the disk usage will increase to or close to 100% for a couple of seconds or perhaps for a number of minutes, but then should calm down to something more reasonable (generally under 10%). If you consistently see an extremely high disk usage, it implies there is something else going on that isn’t rather best.
Table of Contents
Inspect Disk Usage in Windows 10 Do Not Try These Solutions
Method 1– Upgrade Firmware for SSDs
Method 2– Perform a Clean Boot
Method 3– Upgrade Memory (RAM).
Method 4– Usage High Performance Power Strategy.
Method 5– Disable MSI Mode.
Method 6– Disable Windows Defender with 3rd Party AV.
Method 7– Disable Windows Notifications.
Method 8– Inspect Hard Drive for Mistakes.
Check Disk Usage in Windows 10
To start, you can inspect your disk usage by opening the Task Manager in Windows 10. You could either right-click the Start button and then select Task Supervisor or you can push CTRL + SHIFT + ESC. If you just see a little list of apps, click on More details at the bottom.
On the primary Processes tab, you’ll see a fast review of the CPU, Memory, Disk and Network utilization. For me, unless I am doing something on the computer system, the disk usage is typically best around 0. In a worse case , you’ll see something like listed below where disk usage is 100% or very near to it.
Sometimes, you may see simply one process that is causing the high disk usage, however in other instances, the process that is triggering the spike may change.
Now let’s talk about how we can identify what is triggering the issue and then develop a service. In many cases, the solution is simple and in others, it’s a bit trickier. Prior to we enter into those, here’s what you shouldn’t do.
Do Not Try These Solutions
Online, I stumbled upon an entire lot of services that just didn’t settle well with me since they can cause more issues later on. Attempt to prevent doing anything listed below:.
Disabling the BITS service– It’s required by Windows for your PC to be updated and it will not help disabling it.
Disabling Windows Search or Superfetch– Again these are core Windows services and you need to not disable them.
Customizing Page File– You need to leave it so that Windows manages the page file. Don’t attempt custom values.
Disabling Windows Defender– Except for Method 6, do not disable Defender.
Method 1– Upgrade Firmware for SSDs
If you have actually an SSD installed on your machine and are having the disk usage issue, it is most likely a problem with the firmware. SSDs are fast and unless you own some program that is accessing the disk all the time, it actually must never be at 100% for more than a couple of seconds.
Here are a number of few links to the SSD firmware updates for a few of the significant brands: Crucial, Samsung, Kingston, Intel, OWC.
Method 2– Perform a Clean Boot
If you have actually never carried out a tidy boot, now is the time to discover. A clean boot basically loads Windows with the least motorists and start-up programs. A tidy boot will help you determine whether the concern is being caused by Windows itself or by a third-party program installed on Windows.
Microsoft has a terrific short article on how to carry out a clean boot. I recommend trying it due to the fact that is generally repairs a great deal of other problems too. It’s a bit lengthy, but absolutely worth the effort. Simply reserved a couple of hours on a weekend to get it done.
If you discover that whatever loads fine on a clean boot, then slowly make it possible for each start-up program one by one up until you determine which program is causing the downturn. You can then uninstall it or disable it. For starters, constantly start by disabling any third-party anti-virus/anti-malware program as those programs can tend to access the disk all the time.
In online forums, I’ve heard a great deal of people complain that Skype was the reason for the disk usage spike. So attempt uninstalling Skype and see if that works.
Method 3– Upgrade Memory (RAM)
Another thing you wish to examine is to see how much RAM you have actually set up on your device. Considering that Windows 10 can work on older gadgets, I’ve seen a lot of individuals install it on old desktops and laptops. This is great, however you need to make sure the machine has a good quantity of RAM, meaning nothing less than 4 GB.
You can likewise open Task Manager and click Performance and after that click Memory.
As you can see, I have 16 GB of memory and about 6 GB remains in usage. This indicates if you have 4 GB of RAM on your computer system, all the memory would be tired. Whatever that can’t be suited memory is paged to the hard drive. So generally Windows will utilize your hard drive as a short-term memory gadget.
If you have a lot of information that needs to be written to disk, it will cause your disk usage to spike and your computer system to slow down. If you notice that the line in this chart is close to the top, then it suggests you probably need to upgrade the RAM on the computer.
Method 4– Use High Performance Power Plan
With some computer systems, the hard drives are clever and will try to power down or alter RPM to conserve power. One example is the green/blue Western Digital disk drives. It seems like a fantastic feature, however I don’t think it actually works all the well in practice.
To avoid this issue, go to Power Options and pick the High Performance power plan. In addition, click Change plan settings and after that broaden Turn off hard drive after and set the minutes to 0.
This will guarantee that the hard disk does not power down or go into the low power state, which can cause the disk usage problem.
Method 5– Disable MSI Mode
This option is more unknown and probably won’t help the majority of people, but it’s worth mentioning since Microsoft has actually particularly mentioned that this is a problem in Windows 10. Essentially, it has something to do with AHCI, which is technical lingo you do not need to know.
When you have this concern, Disk Usage will reveal 100%, but when you sort the column, there isn’t any specific program or process that is revealing high disk usage. You can check out the Microsoft KB post here and try the fix.
Method 6– Disable Windows Defender with 3rd Party AV
By default, Windows Defender ought to disable itself if you have actually third-party anti-virus set up on your system. However, in some circumstances, this does not happen and running 2 anti-virus programs at the same time can cause excessive disk usages and a bunch of other issues. The method would decrease the system disk high usage very effectively.
To check if Windows Defender is disabled or not, click on Start, then Settings, Update & Security and after that Windows Defender. Make sure Real-Time defense and Cloud-based Protection are switched off.
Again, you ought to ONLY do this if you have actually third-party anti-virus set up on your system.
Method 7– Disable Windows Notifications
This solution has actually been extensively dispersed on the Internet, but I’m not sure whether it truly works or not. I believe it does for particular variations of Windows 10. Anyhow, it doesn’t actually injured to disable it, so that’s why I’m going to discuss it.
Basically, you disable extra Windows alerts that are basically advertisements. Go to Settings, then click System, and after that Notifications and Actions. Merely switch off the Get pointers, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows.
It’s worth keeping in mind that all your regular alerts will work simply great, you simply will not see any useless ones from Microsoft.
Method 8– Check Hard Disk for Errors
If nothing above is working, then you might actually have a problem with your disk drive. There are numerous methods to examine the health of your hard disk, which I’ve blogged about in the past.
In lots of instances, repairing errors on the drive repaired the issue. In other circumstances, replacing the drive was necessary.