100 disk loaded on laptop

The disk is constantly working, judging by the continuous glow of the indicator on the front of the computer, and in the task manager we see that the disk usage is 100%. All programs are slow to start and you cannot determine what is loading your computer so much.

Excessive disk usage is very common right after a system reinstall. Services are started that sort the data, index it, and optimize the disk. Unfortunately, sometimes the load is so high that it is impossible to use the computer. We offer several ways to deal with this problem.

Automatic Disk Defragmenter runs at some time and optimizes the hard drive. This process can significantly slow down your computer.

To turn off automatic disk defragmentation, go to the Windows 8 Start screen or Windows 7 Start menu and type "defragment" in the search bar. The "Defragment and Optimize Your Drives" feature should appear in the search results.

Click on the found entry. The disk optimization window will open. Click on "Set Up Schedule" in Windows 7 or "Change Settings" in Windows 8.

In the window that opens, disable the "Run on schedule (recommended)" option. If you disable this option, the system will not defrag without our knowledge and consent.

Disable file indexing

File indexing is probably the biggest disk performance eater right after a system reinstall. What is indexing? The system scans the disk, building and putting in order the database of all files that are in their partitions. Thanks to this, the subsequent search for files using the search engine is much faster.

Unfortunately, the indexing process itself can take a very long time and slow down your computer. Fortunately, it can be easily turned off. To do this, press the key combination Win + R. The “Run” window will open - enter the command in it services.msc and confirm its execution with Enter.

In the list of services on the right side, you need to find the Windows Search service. Double-click on it and in the window that opens, click on "Stop". Then in the "Startup type" field, set "Disabled". Due to this, file indexing will not be enabled automatically.

Turn off preloading data into RAM (Prefetcher)

Preloading data into RAM is another system service that aims to speed up the operating system and reduce program loading times, but in many cases it works the other way around.

To disable it, press the key combination Win + R. In the Run window that opens, enter the regedit command to enter the Windows Registry Editor.

In the editor, go to the next parameter:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlset > Control > Session Manager > Memory Management >.

Click on the PrefetchParameters parameter, the following entries will open on the right side:

EnableSuperfetch;
EnableBootTrace (can only be in Windows 7).

Double-click on each of the listed parameters and change their value to 0. Then exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

Turn off diagnostic and usage data (Windows 10)

Windows 10 has a built-in feature to collect and send diagnostic data from the system to Microsoft. This is statistics about Windows usage that is shared to help developers fix bugs and improve the quality of the system. Many people have problems with this feature, claiming that it reduces user privacy. But, besides such a problem, there are no less important technical ones, namely ... disk loading.

After the KB3201845 update, it turns out that the diagnostics and information gathering feature starts additional services related to Windows performance monitoring. In short, this update causes the so-called Windows Performance Recorder (WPR) service to start, which collects tons of information about the computer. The action of this service leads to the fact that the hard drive is working all the time, and in the Task Manager we see 100% disk load. What to do with it?

First you need to make sure that it is Windows Performance Recorder that is causing excessive disk usage. To do this, right-click on Start and select "Command Prompt (Admin)" from the drop-down menu.

In the Command Prompt window, enter the following command and confirm its execution by pressing Enter:

WPR-cancel

This command is capable of delaying the WPR (Windows Performance Recorder) service. If the message “There are no trace profiles running” appears on the screen, then this means that WPR did not work, that is, it was not the cause of the problem and the solution should be looked for elsewhere.

However, if a message appears confirming the delay of this function and the disk usage decreases after a while, then this means that WPR was actually running in the background and started every time the system was rebooted.

The solution is to limit data collection in Windows 10.

To do this, go to the Start button in Settings and select the "Privacy" section.

In the sidebar, scroll down to "Reviews & Diagnostics" and on the right, find the "Diagnostic & Usage Data" option. Set the Send Device Data to Microsoft field to Basic Information.

Now this service will be automatically disabled and will not start with the operating system. Now the load on the disk should decrease to a low level.

Skype and Chrome conflict on Windows 10

The next reason for high disk usage is not only typical for older computers, but can also occur on new laptops with Windows 10. It turns out that the combination of installed programs - Skype and Chrome - can be the cause.

We have already looked at how to solve high disk usage problems by disabling unnecessary services. But it turns out that these solutions do not always help, since the problem can arise through the action of a certain set of reasons.

It turns out that 100% disk usage is experienced by users who have purchased a new laptop with Windows 10. The system starts and runs quickly, but after about 5 minutes, the computer slows down a lot. The problem occurs when installing two programs on a Windows 10 laptop - Chrome and Skype. This situation is described on the official Microsoft forum and we have prepared a solution for you based on its reports.
These programs somehow conflict with each other, which leads to a high load on the disk. To avoid this, you need to make changes to the Chrome and Skype settings.

Chrome

In the Chrome browser, you need to go to advanced settings. To do this, in the upper right corner of the window, click on the "Settings and Management" button (designated by three vertical dots). Then, in the drop-down menu, go to the "Settings" item and at the very bottom we find the link "Show advanced settings ...".

In the expanded list we find the section "Personal data". Here we find the item “Use hints to speed up page loading”.

You need to uncheck this item, as in some cases this option may cause problems with loading the disk.

Skype

Now you need to make changes to Skype. To begin with, it must be completely closed so that it does not work even in the background. We close it using the tray icon or by deleting the Skype.exe process itself in the Task Manager.

Now go to the folder where Skype is installed. If nothing has been changed, then by default the following path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone.

Here we find the Skype.exe file. Right click on it and select "Properties". Go to the Security tab and click on the "Edit" button.

Note that in the window that opens, you can edit the access rights of individual groups. We mark the group "All application packages" in the list. Now you can manage access rights to this group using the bottom position.

In the "Allow" capital, check the "Record" field to allow the "ALL APP PACKAGES" group to write data. Save changes to OK. You should now be able to turn Skype back on and use Chrome Browser, disk usage should drop significantly.

In this article, I will talk about all the reasons why a disk in Windows can boot to 100% and what can be done to make the disk work normally.It looks like this:

Finding and indexing files in Windows

In order to quickly find and open any files on a computer in Windows, there are several services that provide this. These are file search and indexing services, for good, these services should work fine, but often it is because of them that there are problems with disk load up to 100%. Disabling these services helps a lot. To turn them off do:

My computer - right click on the disk - properties - at the bottom uncheck "Allow file indexing"
Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services - find the service "Windows Search" and disable it

But I want to warn you right away, if you disable these services, then the search will not work, and Windows will also get access to the necessary files longer!

SuperFetch Service

Those who often clean their computers with various programs for cleaning the screw also face the problem of loading the disk at 100%. the problem is that cleaners can delete the PerfLogs folder in the root of the system drive. And after that, the Superfetch service has no data on the operation of the disk and it starts to collect them again, thus loading the disk at 100%. There are two ways to either add the PerfLogs folder in the cleaners to the exceptions, or disable the Superfetch service, do it like this:

Control panel - administration - services - find the "Superfetch" service and disable it

In general, this service is supposed to maintain and improve system performance. But due to the lack of knowledge of many users how it works, it leads to disk load. Another point, for those who have been running HHD for more than 3 years, or have hardware problems, it is also advisable to disable this service. It will not be able to improve performance on an old or dead disk!

Windows update

Many have noticed that when performing a Windows update, their computer starts to freeze. The problem is the same, when performing an update, the disk can be loaded at 100% because Windows gives high priority for installing updates. In general, such freezes pass quite quickly, but for those who have weak computers or choked disks, the process can stretch for hours. In this case, you can either wait until the installation of all updates is completed and always wait until new ones arrive. Or disable Windows updates once and for all, you can do it like this:

Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services - find the service "Windows Update (Windows update)" and disable it

And one more warning, after disabling updates, your system may become vulnerable to new threats. In any case, you do this at your own peril and risk. And the site is not responsible for what you do.

Damaged disk and chkdsk check

Many people use Windows without even knowing that they have disk problems. Often, Windows will signal such problems, but users either don't notice or ignore these problems. Have you noticed a black screen with checking disk before loading Windows? Many people skip this check so as not to waste time. But they do it in vain. This is a chkdsk disk check, it starts both before Windows boots and after boot, but already in hidden mode. During this check, the disk is checked for errors on it, and it is natural that during such a check the load on the disk will be 100%. In this case, I can only advise two solutions to the problem - this is to check all the disks to the end or simply replace the disk, since it probably already has problems. If you do not want to change the disk and wait too, then you can disable the chkdsk check in the task scheduler. We do it like this:

Control Panel -- Administration -- Task Scheduler -- Task Scheduler Library -- Find the chkdsk task and delete it

After disabling this task, Windows will not be able to check the disk and fix errors on it automatically.

Viral activity

Everything is simple here, viruses that have got on the computer are actively active, thus they can load the disk up to 100%, most often due to worms and ransomware viruses such a problem arises. To reduce the load on the disk, you need to remove all viruses from your computer, you can do this according to our wonderful, which has already helped millions of our readers!

Antivirus activity

There is another side of the coin, the antivirus, when checking a disk for viruses, can also load it 100%. It is easy to check and get rid of this problem, you can turn off the disk check and see the load. if this does not help, then you should probably choose another antivirus that will not load the system, including the disk. Also, sometimes when the antivirus tries to neutralize the virus on the computer, but cannot do it, the load on the disk increases. In this case, the check should be performed either in safe mode, or from under the resuscitator, or with special bootable anti-virus utilities, for example,.

Recently, many write about problems with the defender on Windows 10. The defender service loads the disk at 100%. Most often, this problem occurs on already infected computers. A complete total cleansing of viruses will help, or maybe the small-soft comrades will bring the algorithms of the defender to normal mode.

Cloud sync

Many use synchronization with the cloud, at the time of downloading and synchronizing files, the load on the disk increases greatly, especially if there are a lot of files. To avoid the problem, do synchronization in manual mode when it is convenient for you.

Driver installation

Often, those who install Windows themselves do not install the disk driver (ACHI, Storage tool) and motherboard chipset. And they get the same problem - disk load. I think you already understood that the solution is driver installation.

Severe disk fragmentation

If you have not done disk defragmentation for 100 years, then the problem of disk load is 100% guaranteed to you! When files are scattered all over the disk in parts, it is difficult for the system to find them and quickly open them. Just do a defrag.

Using torrents

If you use a torrent to download files to your computer, then at the time of the torrent and the distribution of files, the disk can also be heavily loaded! Do not leave a large number of torrents on the distribution, it will slow down your disk. In extreme cases, the torrent program can generally be turned off.

Serious hardware problems with the drive

And lastly, if your disk has a lot of slow sectors, and even worse bad sectors (bads). Then you should not expect normal operation from such a disk. Check your drive for problems with . In this article, you will learn how to check your disk for errors, bad and slow sectors.

In this article, I have collected all the problems known to me due to which the disk can be loaded, and also provided methods for solving these problems. Do not forget to like and repost if the article helped. Well, if you have any questions, write them in the comments.

One of the problems that Windows 10 users often have is 100 percent disk usage. Windows 10 has issues that affect both hard drives and solid state drives. At the same time, system performance drops sharply. Up to a complete freeze.

There are several ways to fix this. Try them one by one until you see positive results.

Disable Windows Search

The Windows 10 Indexing Service allows you to search your files quickly, but it can also put a high load on .

To stop the service for the duration of the current session (until reboot), open a command prompt. To do this, click "Start" → "All Programs" → "Accessories". Right-click "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator". Then enter the following command:

net.exe stop “windows search”

To permanently turn off the indexing service, press Windows + R, type services.msc and press Enter. In the Services window that opens, find Windows Search and double-click on it. In the Startup Type section, select Disabled and Stop to stop the service. Click "OK" to save changes.

Within seconds of disabling Windows Search, Windows 10 performance should improve significantly.

Disable Windows Update

Windows update also loads the disk to full. This usually happens when there is a problem with downloading patches. You have several options:

Just leave your computer to update. Wait for all update files to be downloaded, then restart Windows and let it install them. This may take a long time.
Restart your computer and wait for Windows Update to resolve the issue.
to make sure that it is Windows Update that loads the disk at 100%.

If the disk is still overloaded after updating, try the following methods.

Turn off Windows Telemetry

You can turn off telemetry not only to save system resources, but also to increase your privacy. Press Windows + R and type regedit to open the "Registry Editor". In the registry open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Policies/Microsoft/Windows/DataCollection.

Right click on DataCollection and create a new DWORD (32-bit) value. Name it Allow Telemetry. Then double click on it and set the value to 0. Restart Windows.

Disable Diagnostics

Another common reason for high disk usage is the Windows 10 Diagnostics service. You can disable it.

Open a command prompt with administrator rights and run:

sc config “DiagTrack” start= disabled

sc stop “DiagTrack”

Alternatively, you can also open Settings → System → Notifications & Actions and turn off the "Get recommendations and suggestions while using Windows" feature. This can also reduce the load on the disk.

Windows writes some data from RAM to virtual memory to reduce the consumption of RAM. Growth of the virtual memory file also increases the load on the disk.

Open Control Panel → System Settings and select Advanced System Settings. In the window that appears, select the "Advanced" tab. Then, in the Performance section, click Settings.

Here you will find another "Advanced" tab, which has a section labeled "Virtual Memory". Click "Change" and uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives".

Select your Windows drive (C:) and select "Custom Size". It is best to enter a value of 1.5 times your RAM. Then click "Install" and "OK".

Now you need to clear temporary files in virtual memory. Press Windows + R and type temp. When the temp directory opens, select all files (Ctrl + A) and delete them.

Disable SuperFetch

The SuperFetch service in Windows 10 should improve system performance by optimizing the startup of the . In practice, it can provoke a high load on the disk.

You can turn it off and see how it affects disk loading. Open a command prompt and type:

net.exe stop superfetch

Wait a few seconds to see if your disk performance has improved. Then start checking it with the command:

chkdsk.exe /f/r

To complete the disk check, your computer must be restarted.

Problem with PCI-Express

100% disk usage can also be related to incorrect operation of the PCI-Express driver. Open "Device Manager" and expand the list of "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers". Double click on the AHCI controller, open the Driver tab and select Driver Information.

If the path to the driver is C:/Windows/system32/DRIVERS/storahci.sys, so the problem may be in it.

Click the Details tab and select Device Instance Path from the drop-down menu. Right-click and select Copy. Copy the path to the device, for example, into Notepad.

Then press Windows + R and type regedit. In the "Registry Editor" find the address HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /System/CurrentControlSet/Enum/PCI/your_device_instance_path. Expand in it Device Parameters/Interrupt Management/MessageSignaledInterruptProperties.

You will see the MSISupported option in the right pane. Double click and set it to 0. Click OK to confirm and restart Windows.

Please note that before making changes to the registry, it would be a good idea to make it .

High performance

Last try. Try changing your Windows 10 power settings. In the default power mode, the drive is often 100% loaded. Switching to high performance mode may resolve this issue. This will cause your computer to use more power, which may reduce the battery life of your laptop.

Press Windows + X and open Advanced Power Options. Select High Performance. After a couple of minutes, the load on the disk should decrease.

Users who have been working with a computer for a long time have repeatedly encountered the problem of hard disk utilization at 100%. This can happen on any version of Windows. Therefore, in the article I will tell you why the disk can be loaded at 100% in Windows 10, and what options there are to fix the problem.

Why is the disk loaded at 100% in Windows 10

Reasons why the disk is 100% loaded in Windows 10:

System update.
Windows Search and Superfetch system services.
System processes svchost and system.
Disk fragmentation.
The presence of bad sectors.
Loads of processes of third-party applications.

First of all, pay attention to which processes load the disk at 100%. Based on this, it is easier to identify a malfunction:

What to do if the disk is loaded at 100%

If the disk is 100% loaded, one of the options will help:

system update;
backup;
virus removal;
configuring Windows services.

System update

A common cause of the problem may be downloading updates. In the Task Manager, in the "Processes" tab, the Service node responsible for updating can load the system. If it's "Windows Update", just wait for the update to finish. To prevent the OS from downloading updates every time as soon as they are released, you can delay the updates:

If you have set up the backup function in Backup Services, then the data copying processes can load the disk. To change archiving options:

Windows Services and Processes

Sometimes, the OS services themselves can load the hard drive.

Windows search engine

The Windows Search service is responsible for searching and indexing files. The processes of this service are called SearchIndexer.exe and Searchfilterhost.exe. There are times when the search engine loops and there is a 100% hard drive usage. Reboot and a new search do not save the situation. In this case, you need to disable the fault manually:

If the load has decreased, then the cause has been eliminated and no further action is needed. Over time, if the disk usage reappears, you need to completely disable the service. The appearance of such a malfunction is typical when the computer uses an old hard drive or there are problems with file indexing. To disable:

Advice! With the service disabled, you won't be able to search in File Explorer. However, disabling the service will reduce the load on the system, which will be useful for older PCs.

Superfetch service and svchost process

The Superfetch service is used to maintain and improve system performance. The service runs inside the svchost system process and keeps track of which applications you use most in order to preload them into system memory. In addition, the service is responsible for the process.

With this functionality, frequently used applications load faster. But for preloading programs, the service consumes a lot of resources and can load the hard drive. To disable:

If svchost continues to load the system even after rebooting the PC, check out the material:.

Process System

If there is a significant load on the System process, and disabling the above services does not work, it is possible that the process simply does not have enough permissions.

It is difficult to determine how the rights of the ntoskrnl.exe file (the operating system kernel that starts the system process) and 100% disk utilization are related, however, this can help. To add rights:

Important! Check the behavior of the processes in to see if a third party application/service is causing the issue.

Disk usage 100% due to viruses

Do not rule out that your computer has been infected. In the Task Manager, in the "Details" tab, define the "Username". System files "system", "svchost", etc. must be signed: SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE, NETWORK SERVICE. If they are signed with your username, I recommend checking Windows 10 for viruses. Both free and free scanners can help with this, like Dr.Web CureIt! or Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool.

Hardware

The reason for loading a disk at 100% in idle mode may be the hardware of a computer or laptop itself. It could be:

If you have any questions or any points from the article are not clear, write about it in the comment. I and other users of the Windows 10 operating system will try to help.

Updated: 12/22/2019 Published: 24.09.2016

Description

The computer is running slowly, and in the task manager the disk is constantly loaded at 100%.
After loading the computer, the computer slows down for several minutes, and the disk loading is 100%.

The problem occurs on laptops, monoblocks, desktop PCs. The type of media also does not matter - a high load can be on HDD or SSD.

Cause

Active use of the paging file by the system.
A process that actively uses a computer's disk system.
Strong fragmentation.
Logical or physical media errors.
Viruses.

Solution

1. Disable swap file

Most modern computers use a lot of RAM, so there is no need for a paging file.

To disable it in Windows 10 / 8.1, right-click on Start:

And choose System:

In Windows 7 and below, open Conductor- right click on Computer and choose Properties.

Now in the left part of the window that opens, click on Additional system settings:

In the window that appears, on the tab Additionally find section Performance and press the button Parameters:

Go to tab Additionally:

And we press Change In chapter Virtual Memory:

Now uncheck Automatically choose swap file size and set the pointer to the disk with the paging file:

A little lower we set the choice on the item No swap file and press Ask:

The system will throw a warning about the inability to create debug information when a critical error occurs. Agree by clicking Yes.

Then close all windows by clicking OK and restart the computer.

If the system continues to freeze, and the disk is used at 100%, follow the instructions below.

2. If the disk loads the system process

You can't remove a task from the system process, but what if it creates a large load?

Typically, this is due to Windows services:

Snapchat
superfetch;
Windows Search;
Windows update;
IPsec Policy Agent;
Windows Update;
Diagnostic Policy Service;
Client for tracking changed links;
KtmRm for the distributed transaction coordinator.

We first try to disable them using one of the Services console or using the command net stop<имя службы> . If this gives a temporary effect, disable the autostart of these services.

Also, in rare cases, Windows Firewall can be the problem. Let's try to turn it off.

3. Check the physical condition of the media

A physical disk failure is also possible and will affect the response speed of the media.

Process Explorer:

For more detailed information, you can use the program Process Explorer. By default, it does not show the load on the disk system, so we open the column editing window:

Go to tab Process Disk and check the boxes for reading and writing the disk:

5. Optimize the media

When using an HDD (not an SSD), data fragmentation (their physical dispersion over the disk surface) plays a big role in performance. For optimal performance, you must perform a defragmentation. For an SSD disk, you can perform optimization - filling free space with zero data. These two tasks are easily handled by the Defraggler program.

Frequent defragmentation spoils the disk - the HDD is physically depreciated, and the SSD loses its read / write resource. Frankly, for the latter, it will not help much, since the fragmentation of the data does not reduce its performance. You should defragment in moderation as needed.

6. Do a logical disk check

Logic errors can also cause problems.

The check is performed from the command line with the command:

* where c: is the letter of the partition to check.

7. Perform an antivirus scan

It is best to perform not only a full scan with the installed antivirus, but also additionally scan the system with a healing utility, for example, CureIt.

The installed antivirus itself can also be the cause of the problem - we try to update it, temporarily disable it, remove it.

8. Turn off hibernation

If the computer loads the disk system for some time after it wakes up from sleep mode, we try to disable hibernation - to do this, run the command prompt as an administrator and enter:

We restart the computer and for some time we test the operation of the PC. Later, hibernation can be re-enabled:

9. Removing Disk Utilities

Slow performance may be due to the presence of disk management software in the system, such as Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Removing this software component may solve the problem.