Reasons for hard drive loading at 100. Windows services and processes

Updated: 12/22/2019 Published: September 24, 2016

Description

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

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

Cause

1. Active use of the paging file by the system.
2. A process that actively uses disk system computer.
3. Severe fragmentation.
4. Logical or physical errors of the media.
5. Viruses.

Solution

1. Disable the swap file

In the majority modern computers A large amount of RAM is used, so there is no need for a swap file.

To disable it in Windows 10 / 8.1, click right click mouse by 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 Advanced System Settings:

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

Go to the tab Additionally:

And press Change In chapter Virtual memory:

Now uncheck Automatically select paging file size and place a pointer to the disk with the swap file:

Just below we set the choice on the item No swap file and press Set:

The system will issue a warning about the inability to create debugging information when critical error. We 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 is loaded by the system process

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

Typically this occurs due to Windows services:

• Snupchat;
• Superfetch;
• Windows Search;
• Windows Update;
• IPsec Policy Agent;
• Windows Update;
• Diagnostic Policy Service;
• Client for tracking changed connections;
• KtmRm for 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, the Windows Firewall may be the problem. Let's try to turn it off.

3. Check the physical condition of the media

Physical failure of the disk is also possible and affects the response speed of the media.

Process Explorer:

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

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

5. Optimize the media

When using a HDD (not an SSD), data fragmentation (their physical scattering across the surface of the disk) plays a big role in performance. For optimal performance defragmentation needs to be done. For SSD drive Or you can perform optimization - filling the free space with zero data. Defraggler can easily handle these two tasks.

Frequent defragmentation spoils the disk - the HDD is physically depreciated, and the SSD loses read/write resource. Frankly speaking, it will not help much for the latter, since data fragmentation does not reduce its performance. It is worth defragmenting sparingly when necessary.

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 section to check.

7. Perform an anti-virus scan

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

Myself installed antivirus may also be the cause of the problem - we try to update it, temporarily disable it, delete it.

8. Disable hibernation mode

If the computer loads the disk system for some time after waking it from sleep mode, try disabling hibernation - to do this, run command line from administrator and enter:

We reboot the computer and test the PC for some time. Later, hibernation mode can be enabled again:

9. Removing disk utilities

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

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

Excessive disk load is very common immediately after reinstalling the system. Services are launched 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 cope with this problem.

Automatic disk defragmentation starts at some time and optimizes the hard drive. This process can significantly slow down your computer.

To disable automatic disk defragmentation, go to home screen Windows 8 or from the Start menu in Windows 7 and type “defragmentation” in the search bar. The “Defragment and optimize your disks” feature should appear in the search results.

Click on the found entry. The disk optimization window will open. Click on “Customize schedule” in Windows 7 or “Change settings” in Windows 8.

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

Disable file indexing

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

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

In the list of services with right side Need to find Windows service Search. Double-click on it and in the window that opens, click on “Stop”. Then set the “Startup Type” field to “Disabled”. Thanks to this, file indexing will not be enabled automatically.

Disable preloading of data into RAM (Prefetcher)

Preloading data into RAM is another system service whose task is to speed up the operation of the operating system and reduce the loading time of programs, but in many cases it works the other way around.

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

In the editor, go to the following 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 on Windows 7).

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

Turn off diagnostic and usage data (Windows 10)

Windows 10 has a built-in feature that collects and sends diagnostic data from the system to Microsoft. These are statistics regarding using Windows, which are transmitted 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 this problem, there are no less important technical ones, namely... disk loading.

After updating KB3201845, it turns out that the diagnostics and information collection function launches additional services related to monitoring Windows performance. In short, this update causes the so-called Windows Performance Recorder (WPR) service to launch, 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 about it?

First, you need to make sure that it is Windows Performance Recorder that is causing excessive disk load. To do this, right-click on Start and select “Command Prompt (Administrator)” 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 can delay the WPR (Windows Performance Recorder) service. If the message “There are no trace profiles running” appears on the screen, this means that WPR did not work, i.e. 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 load decreases after a while, then this means that WPR was actually working in background and started every time after the system was rebooted.

The solution is to limit data collection in Windows 10.

To do this, go through the Start button to Settings and select the “Privacy” section.

In the side menu, scroll down to Reviews and Diagnostics and find the Diagnostics and Usage Data option on the right. Set the Send device information to Microsoft field to Basic Information.

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

Conflict between Skype and Chrome programs in Windows 10

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

We have already looked at how to solve high disk load 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 users who have purchased 100% disk loading are faced with new laptop with Windows 10. The system starts up and works quickly, but after about 5 minutes the computer slows down significantly. The problem occurs when installing two programs on a laptop with Windows 10 - 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 high disk load. To avoid this, you need to make changes to Chrome settings and Skype.

Chrome

In the Chrome browser you need to go to additional settings. To do this, in the upper right corner of the window, click on the “Settings and Control” button (indicated 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 additional settings...”.

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

You need to uncheck this item, since in some cases this option can cause problems with disk loading.

Skype

Now you need to make changes to Skype. First, you need to completely close it 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 in which Skype is installed. If you haven't changed anything, then the default path is:

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 access rights separate groups. Select the “All application packages” group in the list. You can now manage permissions for this group using the bottom position.

In the “Allow” capital, check the “Write” field to allow the “ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES” group to record data. Save the changes to OK. Now you can turn on Skype again and use Chrome browser, disk load should be significantly reduced.

In this article I will talk about all the reasons why a disk in Windows can boot 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 your computer in Windows, there are several services that provide this. These are file search and indexing services; these services should work fine, but often they cause problems with disk load up to 100%. Disabling these services helps a lot. To disable them we do:

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

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

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 PerfLogs folder fundamentally system disk. And after that, the Superfetch service has no data on the operation of the disk and it begins to collect it again, thus loading the disk at 100%. There are two ways out: either add the PerfLogs folder to the exceptions in the cleaners, or disable the Superfetch service, do it like this:

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

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

Windows Update

Many people have noticed that when updating Windows, their computer begins to freeze. The problem is the same; when updating, the disk can be loaded at 100% because Windows OS gives high priority for installing updates. In general, such freezes go away quite quickly, but for those with weak computers or damaged disks, the process can last for hours. In this case, you can either wait until all updates are installed and always wait until new ones arrive. Or disable Windows updates once and for all, you can do it like this:

• Control Panel - Administration - Services - find the Windows Update service ( Windows update)" and turn it off

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. Windows often signals such problems, but users either do not notice or ignore these problems. Have you ever noticed a black disk check screen before booting into Windows? Many people skip this check to avoid wasting time. But they do it in vain. This is a chkdsk disk check, it runs before Windows boot and after loading, but 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 recommend two solutions to the problem - check all the disks completely or simply replace the disk since it probably already has problems. If you don’t want to change the disk and wait, 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 scan the disk and fix errors on it automatically.

Viral activity

Everything is simple here, viruses that have entered the computer actively carry out their activities, so they can load the disk up to 100%; most often, this problem arises due to worms and ransomware viruses. To reduce the load on the disk, you need to remove all viruses from your computer, you can do this using our wonderful tool, which has already helped millions of our readers!

Antivirus activity

There is another side to the coin: an antivirus, when checking a disk for viruses, can also load it 100%. It’s easy to check and get rid of this problem; you can turn off disk check and look at 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 an antivirus tries to neutralize a virus on a computer, but cannot do this, the load on the disk increases. In this case, the check should be performed either safe mode, or from under the resuscitator, or special boot anti-virus utilities, for example, .

Recently, many people have been writing about problems with Defender on Windows 10. The Defender service loads the disk at 100%. Most often, this problem occurs on already infected computers. A complete, total cleaning of viruses will help, or maybe my little comrades will bring the defender’s operating algorithms to normal mode.

Synchronization with the cloud

Many people 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.

Installing drivers

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

Severe fragmentation of files on the disk

If you haven’t defragmented your disk for over 100 years, then you are 100% guaranteed to have a disk load problem! When files are scattered in parts throughout the disk, it is difficult for the system to find them and open them quickly. Just defragment it.

Using torrents

If you use a torrent to download files to your computer, then while the torrent is running and files are being distributed, the disk can also be heavily loaded! Do not leave a large number of torrents on distribution, this will slow down your disk. As a last resort, you can turn off the torrent program altogether.

Serious hardware problems with the drive

And lastly, if your disk has a lot of slow sectors, and even worse bad sectors(badov). So you shouldn’t expect normal operation from such a disk. Check your disk for problems using . In this article you will learn how to check your disk for errors, bad and slow sectors.

In this article, I collected all the problems known to me that can cause the disk to become loaded, and also provided methods for solving these problems. Don't forget to like and repost if the article helped. Well, if you have any questions, write them in the comments.

One of the most difficult issues to resolve with Windows 10/8.1 is when it suddenly stops responding or responds slowly. There can be many reasons, but the most common one is when the disk is loaded at 100 percent in the task manager. Many began to pay attention to the persistent workload hard drive after updating Windows 7 to 8.1 and 10.

In this guide, we will look step by step at various solutions to fix this problem after studying and implementing the methods described by others, as well as our own experiments. Many forums and sites mention methods such as disabling superfetch, prefetch and service bits, but I will not recommend the same. I mean, you can actually disable it to solve the 100% hard drive usage problem.

Ways to solve when the disk is 100 percent loaded in Windows 10/8.1

1. Windows update, can lead to high hard disk usage. Just close all programs and wait for Windows to install updates, then restart your computer.

2. Using the control panel, remove all browsers except EDGE and Internet Explorer. This isolates the problem with plugins (browser extensions). Another suggestion is to remove the plugins one by one from each browser and check. Adobe Flash and Shockwave player are common culprits of hard drive load. Knowing the fact that browsers can be re-installed in a matter of seconds, then delete the "TEMP" folder by typing in Explorer (my computer) %Temp%. Empty folder Prefetch(preload files) along the path C:\Windows. If the folders are not completely cleared, then I recommend that they be completely cleared. Reboot the system and wait 12 minutes; if the problem is resolved, you can reinstall the deleted browsers.

3. It's worth considering the impact of diagnostic tracking in Windows 10. Many users blame the service DiagTrack at 100% hard disk load. If you see this in the task manager in the disk load usage, then disable it. Run command line as administrator and enter the commands there one after another:

sc config "DiagTrack" start= disabled

sc stop "DiagTrack"

4. Run Command Prompt as Administrator. Type in search, near start, cmd and right-click run as administrator. In CMD enter the following command chkdsk. This command will fix errors on your hard drives.

If this does not help, then we will run this procedure with enhanced functions. Type the following command and press Enter:

chkdsk.exe /f /r

• /F corrects detected errors.
• /R identifies bad sectors and tries to recover information.

5. Open and disable cloud protection and look at disk loading.

6. Windows Search Indexer is one process that could be the culprit behind your 100 percent disk utilization problem. If you don't use Windows search, you can check if the problem is resolved.

7. Disable Print Manager, which in turn works for all users at once. Press the keyboard shortcut Win+R and enter services.msc. Your printer will stop working after this. But at least you can check if this is the reason or not. If the reason is this point, then try connecting another printer or update the drivers.

8. The setting will help you reduce the load on your hard drive.

9. Update your drivers to the latest versions.

10. Open a command prompt and type sfc /scannow to check the integrity of system files.

11. Open a Command Prompt, type the following command and press Enter to run the Performance Troubleshooter.

12. Virtual memory is a combination of RAM and hard drive space and can be the reason your hard drive is being overused. If there is not enough RAM to complete a task, the hard drive is used to supplement the RAM. The data moved to the hard drive is then returned to RAM. Try setting up the swap file and playing with the size. Set the paging file to 1.5 times larger than your installed RAM on your computer and check, if it doesn’t help, then see more.

13. If all else fails, then you can reset windows. You can do this to come back later.

14. Standard power modes are more susceptible to 100% disk usage, but switching to high performance often solves the problem. Click Win + X and select " Power management", then click on " Additional power options" and turn on " ".

15 . The disk may be 100 percent loaded due to scheduled defragmentation. Dial in search windows "task Manager" and run the application. Disable all scheduled disk defragmentation tasks.

16. Otherwise, if Task Manager shows 100% disk usage on Windows 10 devices with Interrupt Mode and Signal Message (MSI) enabled, see: in the support article .

Advice: Hard drive wear and tear is the main culprit behind freezing and booting at 100%. If your drive is already 7 years old, then most likely it will have to be replaced. SSD drive is very popular these days, replace it with your hard drive HDD. An increase in speed is guaranteed.

In Windows 10, there are often problems with disk utilization at 100%. The computer starts to work slowly and when we go to the task manager, we notice that the disk is 100% loaded. What could be the reasons for this and what should be done in this case?

We reinstalled the system, the disk is in perfect order, only a basic set of programs is installed, everything seems to be fine, but not quite. But simply put, the hard drive is frozen, and in the task manager we can see that the disk load has increased to the maximum 100%.

Let's figure out why the disk is so heavily loaded and check whether this is a short-term situation caused by running programs or whether the problem is long-term and how to solve it. Increased disk utilization can be caused by many factors, so there is no single universal method to solve it.

Windows Search and File Indexing

In Windows 8, 8.1 or 10, the reason may be a situation where the search engine is drawn into a loop, resulting in increased disk load when searching for files. Fortunately, it can be disabled manually by stopping the search.

To do this, right-click on the Start button and select “Command Prompt (Admin)”. Or in search bar In the Start menu, enter the command “cmd”, and then click on it and select “Run as administrator”.

To temporarily stop the search engine Windows systems type in the command line window:

NET STOP "Windows Search"

The Windows Search service will be stopped and the looped process will be closed. Now go to the task manager and check whether the load has decreased and how loaded it is. If this method worked and the problem does not appear on the next search, then there is nothing else you need to do.

However, the problem may recur after a while, especially if the computer has an old disk installed or the system has problems indexing files. Then you can completely disable indexing, despite the fact that this will to some extent slow down the process of searching for files in the system.

To disable indexing, press Win + R to open the Run window. Then enter the command:

services.msc

A services window will open, where you need to find “Windows Search” in the list.

Double-click on it to change its launch options. If the service is running, stop it by clicking the Stop button, and then change the startup type from Auto to Disabled.

Disabling this service will bring some benefit, especially for older computers where indexing greatly slows down the system.

SuperFetch Service

The disk may be heavily loaded by the SuperFetch service. Her influence on Windows operation is twofold. In most cases, SuperFetch has a positive effect on system performance, as in the latest Windows versions 8.1 and 10, as well as in earlier Vista and “seven”. But on some computers it causes problems, including excessive disk load.

SuperFetch can be completely disabled in the same way as file indexing, in the system services section, which is called using the services.msc command.

In the list we find the “SuperFetch” service. Then open it by double-clicking the mouse, stop it with the “Stop” button and set the “Startup Type” to “Disabled”.

Antivirus scan

Often the hard drive is 100% loaded due to the computer being infected with malware. software. In the dispatcher Windows tasks 8.1 or 10, you can sort the loaded processes in the disk usage column. To do this, simply click on "Disk" to sort the different processes.

If the disk is loaded at 100 by some unknown process, then you can try to disable it. If you know which program is responsible for this process, you can remove it. However, if it's unknown EXE file and, especially, its process cannot be terminated due to “Access Denied”, you should scan your computer with an antivirus.

The reason itself may be antivirus program, which we install after Windows installations 10 – it may be scanning the disk in the background at this moment. In this case, wait until it completes the scan and see how busy it is. If the antivirus is constantly loading heavily hard drive, then it should be replaced with another one.

Disk check chkdsk

Heavy loading can be caused by damaged files. If there are errors reading files and folders, this will most likely lead to the above-mentioned looping process during the search. What to do if you have damaged files?

You should scan the disk with the chkdsk command with additional parameters to not only identify problems, but also try to fix them. To do this, launch Command Prompt in Administrator mode and enter the following command:

chkdsk.exe /f /r

After scanning, reboot the computer and check what percentage of the drive is loaded.

The source of the problem may be the disk itself. If you are using an old hard drive that may be damaged, it may boot Windows system and cause your computer to slow down. It should be checked for bad sectors, e.g. Victoria program or MHDD, and then see how loaded it is. In case of multiple damages, you should consider buying a new one. Sometimes the problem is caused by a faulty SATA cable, so that should also be checked.