Recently, I have seen many users report that their disk utilization reaches 100%, leading to lagging and unresponsive system. In this article, I’ll show you, how to fix 100 percent disk usage problem in Windows 10.
Symptoms of 100 Disk Usage Windows 10
Computers or laptops are becoming slower with notice popping up frequently, warning you that disk full? How to fix the “disk 100 usage” issue? Don’t let these problems bother you anymore. Below you’ll find effective solutions to fix “100 % disk usage” issue in Windows 10 with ease and I will show you the worth-trying 12 ways to address this issue.
This can be observed in the screenshot of error:
Method 1: Fix Your StorAHCI.sys Driver
According to Microsoft support, Event ID 129, the resets of the disk controller, can be caused by many factors. We known ones is that some Advanced Host Controller Interface PCI-Express models cause these symptoms in Windows 10 when running with the inbox StorAHCI.sys driver.
Due to a firmware bug, the SSD doesn’t properly complete input/output when MSI mode is enabled. As a result, the Windows storage will reset the device after waiting on unresponsive read/write for a period of time.
So, the first method to fix 100 percent disk usage Windows 10 here is to disable MSI mode. Follow the detailed steps below:
Step1: Press “Win+R”< then type “devmgmt.msc” and hit Enter< Under “IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers”, right-click “Standard SATA AHCI Controller” and select “Properties”< Navigate to the “Driver” tab and click “Driver Details”
Step2: In the same properties window, navigate to the “Details” tab and select “Device instance path” from the Property drop-down menu< Open the registry editor by typing “regedit” <Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\<AHCI Controller>\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties”< where <AHCI Controller> refers to the device instance path you noticed in Step 1< Then change the value of the MSISupported key from “1” to “0”.
Method 2: Change Energy Options from Balanced to High Performance
Go to Power Options > And then change plan settings > then change advanced power settings, then choose High performance from the drop-down box <Make sure all plan settings are on default.
Method 3: Change Settings in Google Chrome
In Google Chrome, go to “Settings”< click “Advanced”< Click the “Privacy and security” category < make sure the “Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly” is turned off< and then ensure that “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” is disabled in “System” settings.
Method 4: Disable Windows Search
Windows Search enables to search files on your PC fast. When you don’t use it at the free time, you can disable it completely. Disabling Windows Search service will stop the indexing of all files on your computer. However, to identify whether this is the cause of your 100% disk utilization problem, I recommend temporarily disabling Windows Search first.
Method 5: Disable SuperFetch Service
SuperFetch helps to decrease boot time and make must-load programs more efficiently. However, it has been identified as a potential cause of high disk usage Windows 10. You can try to disable this service.
Press “Win+X”< then choose “Command Prompt (Admin)” < In the Command Prompt window, type “net.exe stop superfetch” and Enter.
Method 6: Disable Antivirus Software
If you’ve installed some antivirus programs on your computer, you can temporarily disable them to see if they’re the cause of your 100 disk usage reason.
If your computer’s disk usage returns to normal and you’ve contacted no improvement is offered from the vendor, you also don’t need to worry too much. Microsoft has its own default anti-malware for Windows Defender. So even if you disable the your antivirus programs, Windows Defender is always there and protect your computer.
Method 7: Uninstall Any Flash Player Update
Uninstalling all the flash player update is also reported as a good solution that has helped some users get out of disk utilization 100 Windows 10. To do so, go to Settings > and then click Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced Options > View your update history > Uninstall updates. Then uninstall the flash player update.
Method 8: Reset Virtual Memory
Virtual memory is a portion of your hard drive and is regarded as an extension of your computer’s memory. When the computer RAM is not enough to perform a task, Windows will temporarily store files in virtual memory, and swap them back to RAM when required.
Type “Win+Pause/Break” keys to call out “System” information<Then choose “Advanced system settings” on the left panel< Go to the “Advanced” tab, and click “Settings”< Go to the “Advanced” tab, and choose “Change…”< Make sure “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” is NOT checked< Then click “Set”, and then “OK” to continue< Press “Win+R” keys to call out the Run dialogue, then type “temp” and hit Enter.
Method 9: Disable Windows Update Service
Some of my users suggested that Windows Update Service could also bring 100 disk usage Windows 10. In here, I suggestion you can try to disable it and check later.
Run “services.msc” and press “OK”<Find “Windows Update” and double-click on it< choose “Disabled”<Then press “Stop”, “Apply” and “OK” orderly.
Method 10: Perform a Disk Check
If the above solutions all do not help for you, it is necessary to check your hard drive. You can do this by using the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free which simplifies things within a few clicks. With this tool, you can manage hard drive and disk partitions in all aspects even you are not professional.
Step1:Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free and install it on your computer.
Step 2: The interface of MiniTool Partition Wizard, select the system partition and choose “Check File System” .
Step 3. Select the second of“Check & fix detected errors” in the pop-up window.
Method 11: Wipe SSD and Reinstall Windows 10
The last method is to totally wipe your hard drive and reinstall Windows 10. You may completely back up the SSD, and prepare a Windows 10 installation media, then do a clean install.
Step 1:Back up SSD
Here you can also use the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free to do this.
Launching the MiniTool Partition Wizard, select the system disk and choose “Copy Disk Wizard” from the menu.
Choose the hard disk as the target disk. Please note: all data on the target disk will be removed for a successful disk clone.
Continuing to the next steps, you see several copy options are listed here. And select the desired options you want and go on.
When coming across the “how to boot from the new disk” message, read it and click Finish. The last click “Apply” to start copying the whole drive.
Step 2: Reinstall Windows 10
Download Windows 10 media creation tool from Microsoft to create a Windows 10 installation media.
Connect the installation media and follow the installation process to complete. When you see “Where do you want to install Windows”, select partition to do the deletion and then choose the unallocated space to do a clean install.
Now you can check whether the Windows 10 100 disk usage is reduced. If NOT, replace the hard drive and maybe the original hard drive may be failing.