Facing 100% Disk Usage in Windows 10

rafaelsolano

New member
This problem has been annoying me for 2 weeks now, randomly my disk usage goes to 100% in task manager yet nothing is actually using it everything is at 0mbs.

I've done some googling and tried a few things like set my virtual memory to recommended and 1.5x

  • Disabled superfetch and Wsearch
  • Unistalled Skype & other Startup tools
  • Deleted the latest Adobe Flash updates.
  • Turned off windows notifications.


Still seems to randomly 100% every so often.

Not sure what to do.
 

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
This problem has been annoying me for 2 weeks now, randomly my disk usage goes to 100% in task manager yet nothing is actually using it everything is at 0mbs.

I've done some googling and tried a few things like set my virtual memory to recommended and 1.5x

  • Disabled superfetch and Wsearch
  • Unistalled Skype & other Startup tools
  • Deleted the latest Adobe Flash updates.
  • Turned off windows notifications.


Still seems to randomly 100% every so often.

Not sure what to do.

It could well be Windows checking for updates. It tends to ramp the disk up.

It could be AV/AntiMalware doing a scan.

You really need to use performance monitor to dig deeper as task manager won't necessarily tell you much.

The advice to set a pagefile to 1.5x RAM is way outdated and shouldn't be done. Check out Mark's blog article about it here: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com...pushing-the-limits-of-windows-virtual-memory/ This is the guy who created Sysinterals and knows a thing or two about Windows.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I completely agree with Tony1044 on the 1.5 times RAM rule of thumb, it's outdated. Your best option is to allow Windows to manage the paging files size.

You say it's random, but roughly how often does it happen? Once a minute, once an hour, once a day??

Your best tool to track this is the Windows performance monitor but you'll need to run the data collector long enough to be sure to capture one of the random events. To see how to run the performance monitor in data collector mode see this post; https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?60203-Using-the-Performance-Monitor&p=421032&viewfull=1#post421032 and the one following (that whole thread will be useful to you).

When you come to selecting your own datga counters (that's in post #7 in that thread) specify a 1 second sample interval and include the following counters:

Physical Disk\% Idle Time - this is a measure of how busy the disk is, aim for 60% idle (reduce active files on this disk if exceeded)
Physical Disk\Agv. Disc sec/Read - this is the average time for a read operation, aim for no longer than 25ms (archive old data and defrag if exceeded)
Physical Disk\Agv. Disc sec/Write - this is the average time for a read operation, aim for no longer than 25ms (archive old data and defrag if exceeded)
Physical Disk\Current Disk Queue Length - this is the depth of the wait queue, aim for no more than 2 (move some active files to other physical disks, spread the load)

They will show you how busy the disk actually is. It's possible that your disk activity could be paging, and that means you're short of RAM. To see whether you're paging also add the following counters:

Memory\Available MBytes - this is RAM that can be used immediately, it includes the Standby, Modified, and Free lists, aim for at least 10% of installed RAM available (this is just a guide, 100% RAM used is not a problem in itself, as long as you're not hard paging)
Memory\Page Reads/sec - these are hard page faults that were satisfied from the pagefile on the disk, aim for no more more than 100/sec (install more RAM if exceeded - unless they all come from one process, in which case investigate the process for memory leaks)

Running all these counters at the same time can make the report a little complex to read so it might be wise to run the disk counters separately from the RAM counters.

Set the overall duration that the counters run for to be double the average time it takes one of these high disk usage event to happen. It's vital that your data collector run captures at least one of these events. Be warned however, running a data collector with a 1 second interval over several tens of minutes will generate a BIG report and this is stored on disk, so you need lots of disk space to hold it.

Post #7 in that thread gives you an overview of how to read the resulting report. This should show you whether your problem is paging (which it might well be) or whether it's just a busy disk and based on what you find here you can run further data collector sets with more specific counters to locate the process(es) that are contributing to that.

From what you've said so far, paging is a good bet and the above report (the Memory\Page Reads/sec counter) will show that.
 

Shepard

Enthusiast
There are also some settings in Windows 10 that might help:

Left click the windows button and open settings > Privacy.
Every setting you see in here, go through them one by one and turn it all off, ESPECIALLY feedback and diagnostics.
Once all that is turned off, we need to turn off the new creators' edition feature “Game mode”.
Open the Settings Menu by clicking the cogwheel icon to the left of the Start menu.
Click on Gaming > Click on Game Mode > Turn game mode off.
You also want to turn off the game DVR, broadcasting and game bar.
Also, as the system is updating the apps will be downloaded, open up the Microsoft store and check the downloads.
Stop any downloads you can see, and turn the automatic downloads off.
Once complete, restart the system, let any windows updates or steam updates complete.
 

rafaelsolano

New member
In addition to the above, could you post your full spec?

The Specs are quite great in fact. I have an Intel i5 (7th Gen), 8 GB DD4, 256 SSD & 1 GB HDD. The Windows is installed on the SSD Storage and I seemed to have removed every piece of unwanted software but it just won't work. :/
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
The Specs are quite great in fact. I have an Intel i5 (7th Gen), 8 GB DD4, 256 SSD & 1 GB HDD. The Windows is installed on the SSD Storage and I seemed to have removed every piece of unwanted software but it just won't work. :/

We really need to see the full specs from your PCS order page.
 

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
I am sorry! I didn't get you? I already told you the specs.. Did you mean the Video Card, Sound Card details, etc?

ubuysa is referring to the full list of components in your PC, you provided a high level summary of your components earlier.

If you log into your account on the PCS website (not the forum) you should be able to get a list of all the components in your PC, you can copy/paste that here (or re-type if its easier :))
 

rafaelsolano

New member
I completely agree with Tony1044 on the 1.5 times RAM rule of thumb, it's outdated. Your best option is to allow Windows to manage the paging files size.

You say it's random, but roughly how often does it happen? Once a minute, once an hour, once a day??

Your best tool to track this is the Windows performance monitor but you'll need to run the data collector long enough to be sure to capture one of the random events. To see how to run the performance monitor in data collector mode see this post; https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?60203-Using-the-Performance-Monitor&p=421032&viewfull=1#post421032 and the one following (that whole thread will be useful to you).

When you come to selecting your own datga counters (that's in post #7 in that thread) specify a 1 second sample interval and include the following counters:

Physical Disk\% Idle Time - this is a measure of how busy the disk is, aim for 60% idle (reduce active files on this disk if exceeded)
Physical Disk\Agv. Disc sec/Read - this is the average time for a read operation, aim for no longer than 25ms (archive old data and defrag if exceeded)
Physical Disk\Agv. Disc sec/Write - this is the average time for a read operation, aim for no longer than 25ms (archive old data and defrag if exceeded)
Physical Disk\Current Disk Queue Length - this is the depth of the wait queue, aim for no more than 2 (move some active files to other physical disks, spread the load)

They will show you how busy the disk actually is. It's possible that your disk activity could be paging, and that means you're short of RAM. To see whether you're paging also add the following counters:

Memory\Available MBytes - this is RAM that can be used immediately, it includes the Standby, Modified, and Free lists, aim for at least 10% of installed RAM available (this is just a guide, 100% RAM used is not a problem in itself, as long as you're not hard paging)
Memory\Page Reads/sec - these are hard page faults that were satisfied from the pagefile on the disk, aim for no more more than 100/sec (install more RAM if exceeded - unless they all come from one process, in which case investigate the process for memory leaks)

Running all these counters at the same time can make the report a little complex to read so it might be wise to run the disk counters separately from the RAM counters.

Set the overall duration that the counters run for to be double the average time it takes one of these high disk usage event to happen. It's vital that your data collector run captures at least one of these events. Be warned however, running a data collector with a 1 second interval over several tens of minutes will generate a BIG report and this is stored on disk, so you need lots of disk space to hold it.

Post #7 in that thread gives you an overview of how to read the resulting report. This should show you whether your problem is paging (which it might well be) or whether it's just a busy disk and based on what you find here you can run further data collector sets with more specific counters to locate the process(es) that are contributing to that.

From what you've said so far, paging is a good bet and the above report (the Memory\Page Reads/sec counter) will show that.

This really helped! Thanks for sharing this. I also found a relevant post to fix 100% Disk Usage in Windows 10. In case, anyone else faces similar issues, you can check it out.

Again, thanks for the help guys!
 

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
Did you get your issue sorted? Did you attempt any of the 'fixes' in that link?

I don't agree with a number of the so-called fixes.

One of the things I've personally noticed with Windows 10 is that it seems very active round disk and CPU for the first couple of weeks.

After that - once it's got everything updated and indexed etc, it behaves itself very well.

And people recommending, for example, turning off superfetch, are generally doing it without real knowledge of what it does.

But that's just my two pence worth.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I don't agree with a number of the so-called fixes.

One of the things I've personally noticed with Windows 10 is that it seems very active round disk and CPU for the first couple of weeks.

After that - once it's got everything updated and indexed etc, it behaves itself very well.

And people recommending, for example, turning off superfetch, are generally doing it without real knowledge of what it does.

But that's just my two pence worth.

I agree with you, that's why I asked. :)

Several of those 'fixes', such as disabling Superfetch, changing the virtual memory size (note that no values are given), changing the power options, and turning off page prediction in Chrome, are either unwise or straw-clutching. As I understand it, the StorACHI.sys registry change to turn MSI off is because some older SSDs don't handle MSI interrupts well, and turning it off has a performance implication for all devices using that driver. And changing the security settings for Skype.exe is a mystery to me, but I don't know much about Skype so I might have missed something there.

You really need to know WHY you're seeing high disk activity and what's contributing to that before making any changes to anything. Information is power.
 
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