5 Tips to Fix 100 Disk Usage Problem in Windows 10, 8.1 and 7

If you experience Windows 10 not performing well after installing windows 10 updates, such as system freezes at startup, applications not responding to your clicks. And checking on Task manager you may discover that your system drive is running at 100, which slows down the operating system. A number of users report this issue affects both hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs).

There are various problems that cause 100 Disk Usage Problem in Windows 10. Start with Corrupted system files, Buggy windows update, Any windows service stuck running, security software (antivirus), third party app or Disk drive errors and more. Whatever the problem here 5 working solutions you may apply to Fix 100 Disk Usage Problem in Windows 10, 8.1 and 7.

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How to fix 100 disk usage in Windows 10

For starters, always start by disabling any third-party anti-virus/anti-malware program as those programs can have a tendency to access the disk all the time. If you notice this is caused by a common combination of Skype as well Google Chrome. Similar issues with other programs could also cause 100 disk usage. To fix this do the following: Google Chrome: In Google Chrome, go to Settings > Show Advanced Settings … > Privacy > Prefetch resources to load pages more quickly and untick it. Skype Make sure you have exited Skype and it is not running in the taskbar (if it is running in the taskbar then quit it). Open Windows Explorer and open the following folder:

Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\, right-click on the Skype.exe file and select Properties.
In the next step, choose the Security tab and then click Edit.
From the list of “Groups or user names“, choose “ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES“, check the Writeoption to be Allow, which allows Skype to write to your disk.
After that, press OK.

Remove All Windows Temporary Files

According to a few suggestions from users on the Microsoft forum, cleaning up all Windows temporary files will help to resolve 100 disk usage issue in Windows 10.

To do so, press Windows + R, type: temp and press Enter.
After that, choose all files in the temp folder and then delete them.
Reboot your Windows computer.
That’s it!

Perform Clean Boot

Clean boot basically loads Windows with the newest drivers and startup programs. A clean boot will help you determine whether the issue is being caused by Windows itself or by a third-party program installed on Windows.

Go to the search box > type msconfig.
Select System Configuration > go to Services tab.
Select Hide all Microsoft services > Disable all.
Go to Startup tab > Open Task Manager > Disable all the unnecessary services running there.
Restart your computer and check, there is no 100 Disk usage.

If you find that everything loads fine on a clean boot, then slowly enable each startup program one by one until you determine which program is causing the slowdown. You can then uninstall it or disable it.

Check Unresponsive Windows Services

According to many Windows experts, there is a bug in Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system that will result in a kind of searching loop. This problem will lead to an increased load on the physical system drive.

Temporarily Disable Windows Search From Windows services.
Press Windows + R, type services.msc and ok.
Scroll down and look for service called windows search.
Double click on it to open its properties.
change the startup type disabled and stop the service.

Again Sometimes, the Superfetch service, BITs And Windows update service (stuck checking updates) in Windows has been determined as the potential reason for this 100% disk usage issue in Windows 10. Temporarily disable these services by following the same steps applied to stop windows search service.

After turning off these services the disk performance should considerably improve. The Windows 10 100 disk usage problem should be gone. Otherwise, move on to the next method.

Reset Virtual Memory in Windows 10

By default Virtual memory uses your HDD disk as RAM. When your computer runs out of memory, it will use your system drive to store files temporarily and will swap those files back when required. Therefore, it can be considered as physical memory despite the fact that the performance can’t be the same.

However, if something goes wrong with the pagefile.sys, it can cause 100 disk usage issue on your Windows 10 computer. That’s the reason why you need to reset/reconfigure virtual memory settings to make sure everything is fine.

To do this press Windows + R, type sysdm.cpl and ok
Here on system properties, Go to the Advanced tab, then click Settings.
Again on new window Go to the Advanced tab, and choose Change… in the Virtual memory section.
select the Advanced tab, and click on the “Change” button.
Make sure the box named “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” is checked.

Note: To verify whether the virtual memory is the cause of the Windows 10 100 disk usage problem or not, you can uncheck the box (mentioned above), choose “No paging file” and press OK. After that, rebooting your computer to see the result.

Run Check Disk Command To determine Disk Drive Error

Sometimes disk drive itself causes 100% disk usage problem due to disk errors, bad sectors etc. Run the CHKDSK command with Extra parameters to force chkdk command to check and fix disk drive errors. To do this launch Command Prompt with the administrative privilege.

In the Command Prompt, type: chkdsk /f /r and press Enter. And Press “Y” when ask for confirmation to schedule chkdsk run on the next restart.

Note: Here chkdsk command stands for check disk errors. C is the drive letter where the windows installed. The “/f” parameter tells CHKDSK to fix any errors it finds; “/r” tells it to locate the bad sectors on the drive and recover readable information

Save your current work and restart windows to allow chdsk command to check and fix disk drive errors. Wait until 100% complete the scanning process after that restart windows and check this fix the problem or not. Also, Run System file checker utility to scan and restore missing corrupted system files.

Use High Performance Power Plan

To change to high performance, open the Power & sleep screen with Windows + X, then Additional power settings. Select High performance, then OK. If this isn’t an option, you’ll need to create a power plan, then choose High performance. Give the plan a name, tweak any personal settings you need (such as screen brightness) then select it as a power plan to use.