[Solved] Disk Usage 100% in Task Manager
If your computer disk usage constantly stays at 100% in Task Manager, something must be wrong.
Your computer is slow as a snail, and the computer freezes from time to time, making it almost impossible to do anything. There may be good times where the disk usage drops from the horrifying red 100%, but when you do anything (or don’t do anything), it goes right back to 100%.
As unbelievable as it sounds, you’re actually not alone: many Windows 10 users have been bugged by the 100% disk usage problem as well.
And here are some of the most common fixes that work like a charm. You may not need to try them all, just work from the top down until you find the solution that works for you.
- Disable SuperFetch service
- Scan for malware
- Update device drivers
- Fix the AHCI driver
- Disable third-party antivirus programs
- Check your hard drive
- Reset your computer
Before we move on, if the disk usage 100% problem just happens to your computer, there’s actually a rule of thumb: undo any changes you’ve done right before the problem.
For instance, if you’ve just recently installed a certain device driver, then uninstall it and see if it helps to fix the 100% disk usage problem.
If you aren’t sure what changes you’ve done exactly before the problem, no problem, just move on and try the following common solutions.
1. Disable SuperFetch service
SuperFetch is designed to preload programs that you use most frequently by loading them in advance, so as to speed up your computer. However, it’s ironic that now it seems to be working against what it was designed to do. Here’s how you can stop this service:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows key and the R key together, then type cmd and hit Shift + Ctrl + Enter to run Command Prompt as administrator.
- When asked for administrator permission, click Yes to give the go-ahead.
- Copy the following and paste it into the Command Prompt window then hit Enter:
net.exe stop superfetch
- If the above command doesn’t work like what’s shown on the above screenshot, copy and paste the following command instead:
net.exe stop sysmain
- Then check to see if the disk usage problem has been sorted. If the problem remains, please move on to the next solution.
2. Scan for malware
Sometimes the high disk usage can be a sign of malware infection. So if you haven’t done it already, please run a full system malware scan with your Windows Defender or your trusted third-party antivirus software.
3. Update device drivers
If the above doesn’t help to fix the 100% disk usage problem, it’s time to update your computer drivers.
To do so, you can try to find available device drivers on your computer’s manufacturer’s support web pages. But if you find the process too time-consuming, or you lack expertise in identifying the needed drivers, or you worry that something goes wrong when installing the drivers, Driver Techie is here to help.
It scans and detects the needed drivers for your computer, and you can choose to install them one by one manually by yourself, or automatically update them all with the Pro version, with just 2 clicks. Here’s how Driver Techie can help update your drivers:
- Download and install Driver Techie. Then click the Scan Now button, so it can tell what drivers are needed on your computer.
- When the scan is done, click the Update All button (Pro version) to update all your drivers automatically.
- Check the disk usage in Task Manager again and see if it still says at 100%.
- If the problem remains, please move on to the next method.
If you’re a Pro user of Driver Techie, and need our technical support to help with the New World crashing problem, please feel free to contact <support@drivertechie.com>.
4. Fix the AHCI driver
AHCI stands for Advanced Host Controller Interface, you just need to know that it’s related to how your storage controller works. If all works well, the correct AHCI driver should help to speed up your computer, and even help to fix the disk 100% usage problem, but if the driver is not configured correctly, it becomes the culprit to the disk 100% problem.
Before we move on, you should first check if you have the storahci.sys file. Here’s how:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows key and X at the same time, select Device Manager.
- Double-click to expand the category IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, then double-click the AHCI Controller you see here. (The device name for your AHCI controller might be different from mine, which is normal. Just double-click the device and move on.)
- Click Driver, then Driver Details. If you see storahci.sys here (as shown in the screenshot), click OK to close this window, and move on to step 4 below. But if not, please move on to method 5.
- Click Details, select Device instance path from the drop-down menu, and copy the value you see here to an editor.
For instance, this is my value: PCI\VEN_1022&DEV_7901&SUBSYS_382117AA&REV_81\4&E089CB0&0&0042. The value after the section PCI is important for the next step.
- Now on your keyboard, press the Windows key and R at the same time. Type regedit and hit Enter. Click Yes to run Registry Editor as administrator.
- Make sure you’ve highlighted Computer. On the menu bar, click File > Export…, and save your registry files to your desktop.
- Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI
- Now find the section after PCI when in step 4. For instance, mine is VEN_1022&DEV_7901&SUBSYS_382117AA&REV_81\4&E089CB0&0&0042, so I go to the appropriate place. Like this:
- Then go further to \Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties.
- Double-click MSISupported and change its value to 0. Click OK.
- Restart your computer for the change to take effect.
- Check to see if the disk usage in Task Manager is still 100%. If not, then congrats, you’ve fixed the 100% disk usage problem now!
- If this doesn’t help, go to Registry Editor again, then on the menu bar, click File > Import…, and import your registry files from the desktop to undo the change.
5. Disable third-party antivirus programs
You might find it hard to believe, especially if you’ve been using Windows for a long time, but the built-in Windows Defender is actually solid enough to protect your computer from possible malware or virus, so there’s no need for you to install a third-party antivirus program anymore.
Apart from what’s mentioned, it’s not uncommon that some antivirus products actually slow down your computer, since they’re constantly running in the background, which means that they occupy a certain amount of system resources. And disk usage is part of the resource they hog.
So if you don’t want to uninstall third-party antivirus programs completely, you can try to disable them for some time, and see if the disk usage 100% issue remains.
If the problem is gone, then hooray, you’ve fixed the disk usage 100% problem.
If you’ve tried all the above but the problem still remains, then it’s possible that your hard drive is failing.
If you don’t know much about hardware devices, then it’s time that you take your computer to a repair shop for the technicians to run further checks. But if you have the right skills, here are what you can try as well:
6. Check your hard drive
You can use the system tool to tell if your hard drive is failing. Here’s how you can do it:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows key and the R key together, then type cmd and hit Shift + Ctrl + Enter to run Command Prompt as administrator.
- When asked for administrator permission, click Yes to give the go-ahead.
- Copy the following and paste it into the Command Prompt window then hit Enter:
chkdsk /r c: - Type Y for yes to approve the test.
- Restart your computer for the test to begin.
- Then see if the disk usage 100% problem can be fixed together with the hard drive fix.
7. Reset your computer
If you’ve already tried all the above but the problem remains, you may need to consider resetting your computer.
If you need detailed instructions on how to reset your Windows computer, here’s a helpful doc from Microsoft: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-refresh-reset-or-restore-your-pc-51391d9a-eb0a-84a7-69e4-c2c1fbceb8dd.
If you have other suggestions that have fixed the 100% disk usage problem for you, please feel free to let us know by leaving a comment below. By way of thanks, we’ll give you a free license key for Driver Techie Pro once we verify it. 🙂
