Windows, similar to some other operating system, is probably to errors, and sometimes, it’s a bit on the considerable side. As the OS has matured over the years, the number of common errors has reduced, but unfortunately, a few ones have begun popping up. One unique error that we see on Windows 10, and that initiated with Windows 8 and 8.1, is the 100% Disk Usage Error. Efficiently, what this does is scale your hard disk utilization to full, resulting in the whole thing slowing down to a crawl and a totally unable to follow the end user.
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This article exactly discussing about Windows 10, even though the solutions can apply to previous versions of Windows as well.
What causes the 100% Disk Usage Error
There are variety of reasons behind it, generally, this error is caused by some Windows services like Superfetch, Prefetch, BITS and Windows Search. While these factors are the usual suspects, they’re not the only ones. Additionally it including malware, Flash and even a really old and slow hard drive.
Determining if you have the 100% Disk Usage Error
Determining that actually are facing this error is easy until now, because we don’t want to go around making changes to your computer for nothing. Even though slowness of your machine will be a fairly good indicator, you can verify the issue by pulling up the Task Manager in Windows 10 (just hit Start and start typing Task Manager, or press CTRL + Shift + Esc). In the Processes tab, the Disk column will be showing 100% if the error exists. if not, you’ll see something similar to the screenshot below.
How to Fix 100% Disk Usage Error in Windows 10
Fixing the 100% Disk Usage Error
Assuming your machine is suffering from this issue, here’s how you can fix it:
1. Do a virus scan of your Windows 10 computer
This may seem like a general, until now it’s critical that you perform this action as your first remedy in this case. Several times a malware infection can be the culprit and you can do whatever else you want, it won’t fix the issue. Improved to be sure earlier in this case. You can use any antivirus software for this purpose.
[ad type=”banner”]2. Disable Windows 10 Superfetch service
Superfetch is one of those Windows services that will continuously have the possible of delivering a user experience. The idea behind Superfetch is that Windows will learn from your usage habits and “guess” which applications/services you’re most likely to use next. Based on this prediction, the OS will cache those apps and programs to the RAM, so they’ll load faster. Now, in system which is the fantastic concept, but unless you’re a robot that’s programmed to follow a particular routine, Superfetch’s predictions are bound to failure from time to time. Because the service is busy pulling all those predicted app files and data from your hard disk, you get the 100% Disk Usage error.
Disabling Superfetch is simply disabling any other Windows service. In Windows 10’s search, type Services and open the Services dialog. Within here, find the Superfetch service, and right-click to get to Properties. Here, Stop the service and in Startup type, make sure it says Disabled. Press OK and restart your Windows 10 computer.
How to Fix 100% Disk Usage Error in Windows 10
3. Disable Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
BITS is another Windows 10 service that’s supposed to be helpful but can turn out to be quite the opposite. The idea behind BITS is that when your computer is idle, the bandwidth can be used for Windows Update, Windows Defender. While it usually works fine on newer machines, older hardware can actually suffer while BITS tries to decrypt when the computer is actually idle.
Disabling BITS will be simply disabling the Superfetch service, except that in this case, you won’t disable the startup altogether instead you’ll choose for Manual.
How to Fix 100% Disk Usage Error in Windows 10
4. Disable Windows Search
This is one of those “solutions” that generally not recommend unless absolutely necessary. Windows has had a very robust search function that indexes everything on your machine, making it easier to find files and all other content. While the feature is all great, one rather persistent bug has been the “search loop”, where a system running Windows will endlessly re-index files and folders done. One quick way to identify if this is the cause of 100% Disk Usage is very low CPU and Memory usage in Task Manager alongside 100% Disk Usage.
Here the drill is again the same find Windows Search in Services, right-click for Properties and Stop the service while disabling the startup.
How to Fix 100% Disk Usage Error in Windows 10
5. Disable Windows 10 Prefetch
Windows 10 packages feature to complement Superfetch. While Superfetch caches data to RAM based on estimating, Prefetch works when you launch those applications. Really, Prefetch records information on files that are used by any given application, and then pulls those files to RAM to improve app loading times.
Because it’s again intelligent guessing by the OS, there is a chance that the Prefetcher will error and it does. when it does, disabling it remains your logical choice. However, Prefetch isn’t your standard Windows service and tuning it required making changes to Windows Registry, which is why we recommend this as a very last-resort solution only.
To open the Registry Editor, type regedit in Windows 10 search bar and press Enter. In the folder tree, navigate to the following location
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\SESSION MANAGER\MEMORY MANAGEMENT\PREFETCHPARAMETERS
In the right-side pane, you’ll see an entry for EnablePrefetcher. Double-click it and change the DWORD value from 3 (default) to 0 to completely disable the service. You may also put in 1 as the DWORD value, which will keep Prefetcher partially enabled but disabled for boot files.
How to Fix 100% Disk Usage Error in Windows 10
Note: You’ll need to restart your computer for all these changes to take effect
6. Run CheckDisk
CheckDisk is one of the command line tools at the disposal of Windows users, and one that’s usually helpful. This will come in close if there’s a problem with the physical hard drive, the folder tree or anything of that nature with your Windows installation. The best approach towards running CheckDisk is to do so when your system reboots, so you’ll need to actually schedule for that.
Introduction an elevated command prompt (type cmd in Windows 10 search bar, right-click and select “Run As Administrator”) and run the following command:
CHKDSK /F’ /R C:
where C: will be replaced by whatever drive letter you’ve assigned to your Windows installation. You’ll see a message within command prompt that will ask you to confirm whether you’d like to run CheckDisk on next system reboot. Acknowledge with a Y, and restart your computer. CheckDisk might take some time to finish, but it can be very useful not just for 100% Disk Usage error but some other issues too.
7. Disable Windows Tips
Windows 10 offers tips about the operating system from time to time, and disabling those seems to have helped mitigate the 100% Disk Usage error for a variety of people. We note this here because you won’t be losing much in disabling those tips, and it’s easy to do. Just go to Settings, then to System and then Notification & Actions. Disable “Show me tips about Windows” in this list, and before you know it.
How to Fix 100% Disk Usage Error in Windows 10