What to do if Windows 10 loads the system drive 100%

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We increase system performance and reduce disk load.

One of the issues that Windows 10 users often experience is disk 100 percent utilization. Windows 10 has issues that affect both hard drives and solid state drives. At the same time, the performance of the system 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

Windows 10 Indexing Service allows you to quickly search for your files, but it can also create a high load on your hard drive.

To stop the service for the duration of the current session (before rebooting), open a command prompt. To do this, click "Start" → "All Programs" → "Accessories". Right-click on 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. Under Startup Type, select Disabled and Stop to terminate the service. Click "OK" to save the changes.

A few seconds after disabling Windows Search, Windows 10 performance should be significantly improved.

Disable Windows Update

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

• Just leave the computer to update. Wait for all the update files to download, then restart Windows and let it install them. This can take a long time.
• Restart your computer and wait for Windows Update to fix the problem.
• Disable Windows 10 Updates to make sure Windows Update is loading the drive 100%.

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

Disable 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 Registry Editor. In the registry, open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Policies / Microsoft / Windows / DataCollection.

Right click on the 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 cause of high disk utilization is the Windows 10 Diagnostic 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 Get Windows Tips, Tricks & Suggestions. This can also reduce the load on the disk.

Virtual memory

Windows writes some of the data from RAM to virtual memory to reduce the consumption of RAM. The 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 clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.

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 the temporary files in virtual memory. Press Windows + R and enter temp. When 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 launch of the applications you use most often. In practice, it can cause a high load on the disk.

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

net.exe stop superfetch

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

chkdsk.exe / f / r

Your computer must be restarted to complete the disk check.

PCI-Express problem

A 100% disk load may also be associated with incorrect operation of the PCI-Express driver. Open Device Manager and expand the list of IDE ATA / ATAPI Controllers. Double-click the AHCI controller, click the Driver tab and select Driver Information.

If the path to the driver looks like C: /Windows/system32/DRIVERS/storahci.sys, then 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, in Notepad.

Then press Windows + R and type regedit. In the Registry Editor, look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet / Enum / PCI / your_device_instance_path. In it, expand 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.

Note that it is a good idea to make a copy of the registry before making any changes to the registry.

High performance

Last try. Try changing your Windows 10 power settings. In standard power mode, the drive is often 100% loaded. Switching to high performance mode can fix this problem. This will cause your computer to use more power, which may decrease 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.

We hope that one of these tips will help you. If you know other ways to solve the problem, share in the comments.