100% Disk Usage

[Supernu]

I need help, please.

I upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7 and the system is basically un-useable due to disk usage. I have installed this windows 10 upgrade on 10 computers and had no problems, most of them never needed any of the below settings turned off or disabled, while some needed, but that usually resolved the disk usage, except for this one computer, nothing I have done will make a difference.

It's same issue under:

administrator
user

I have completed the following tips and the tricks:

disabled and stopped services:

superfetch
prefetch
windows search
background intelligent transfer service

turned off settings:

show me tips about windows
show app notifications
show notifications

chrome:
uninstalled it and resintalled it
disabled flash
unchecked Prefetch resources to load pages quickly

page file:

I tried letting windows manage it
I set page file size

malware and viruses:
Ive updated defender and ran it
I've run hijackthis (anaylzed reported, zero issue found)
ran malwarebyte, registry cleaner
uninstalled many programs

The computer

Intel i5-3570 CPU @ 3.40GHZ
24GB of ram
1 TB drive with over 800gb free.

It's only used for outlook 2010, word, excel, pdf viewer, acrobat, and sometimes autocad 2016.

The disk usage is always 100% and the ram usage is always below 5%. I don't understand why Windows 10 does not use more ram and less disk space. There's nothing in task manager that is using over 25MB at maximum and momentarily.

I can tell you from having installed this upgrade on over 10 computers, they all performed differently but generally they all perform faster, except for this one pc. Nothing makes a difference. I wana pull my hair.

What can I do?

 

[ryuk7533]

In task manager, click the disk usage tab to organize the programs that are using the drive from most to least.

 

[leo2kp]

I had a similar issue when I upgraded but it was my network adapter that was at 100%. It might be worth doing a clean reinstall. Since then, I've had accurate readings.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Something in task manager has to be running your disk at 100%, you need to sort by that and see what it is.

Often svchost is corrupt, or even Windows Defender gets corrupt as well and causes this issue. Sometimes its malware related but often not.

This would be definitely corrected by wiping the computer and re-installing windows. You could also try booting from install media and doing a repair.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, Supernu!

Amazing job with the troubleshooting so far! If uninstalling and reinstalling all the software programs that might be causing the spikes of disk usage didn't help, I'd recommend you to use the HDD manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic tool to check up on the health and SMART status. You should be able to find this utility on their official website. If not, you can refer to some third-party testing tool suggestions from the community.
It is possible that the issue is hardware-related, rather than software-related.

Give it a try and let us know what are the SMART results.
Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Supernu]

Something in task manager has to be running your disk at 100%, you need to sort by that and see what it is.

Often svchost is corrupt, or even Windows Defender gets corrupt as well and causes this issue. Sometimes its malware related but often not.

This would be definitely corrected by wiping the computer and re-installing windows. You could also try booting from install media and doing a repair.

First thing first, I accidentally voted down your response and didn't meant o do that, sorry! It wont let me reverse it.

I looked up windows media tool

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-10-media-creation-tool-create-installation-media-upgrade

Is this the one? It says I need to have purchased a key to install and I don't have a key.

If not, please post a link to a tool that lets me REPAIR. Whenever I try to do a system reset, it reboot, shows lenovo system repair, I click next after selecting language, and it errors out YOU HAVE TO BE LOGGED IN and reboots to windows. Happened twice under USER and under ADMIN.

I also forgot to add in my first post that I even disabled all TASK SCHEDULE items to no avail, 100% disk usage.

Another thing, I cant even go back to windows 7, despite having done this yesterday. It says files not found!

 

[dudeman509]

Has it caught up on all Windows updates yet? That has always been the thing that pegs my disk usage in W10.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Something in task manager has to be running your disk at 100%, you need to sort by that and see what it is.

Often svchost is corrupt, or even Windows Defender gets corrupt as well and causes this issue. Sometimes its malware related but often not.

This would be definitely corrected by wiping the computer and re-installing windows. You could also try booting from install media and doing a repair.

First thing first, I accidentally voted down your response and didn't meant o do that, sorry! It wont let me reverse it.

I looked up windows media tool

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-10-media-creation-tool-create-installation-media-upgrade

Is this the one? It says I need to have purchased a key to install and I don't have a key.

If not, please post a link to a tool that lets me REPAIR. Whenever I try to do a system reset, it reboot, shows lenovo system repair, I click next after selecting language, and it errors out YOU HAVE TO BE LOGGED IN and reboots to windows. Happened twice under USER and under ADMIN.

I also forgot to add in my first post that I even disabled all TASK SCHEDULE items to no avail, 100% disk usage.

Another thing, I cant even go back to windows 7, despite having done this yesterday. It says files not found!

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Yeah this, you don't need to do an install, you can do a system repair when it starts up. Also because Windows 10 is registered to your system it can detect that and bypass that part, not requiring you to use a Key (should you end up in the worst case scenario of re-installing).

Also as mentioned double check that its not downloading updates and running them, although at this point I think its not likely, its possible (or the upgrader is corrupted and stuck).

That said, this could be some sort of hard drive failure, but we should rule out everything else before going there....

 

[dudeman509]

If Windows Update is stuck:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-update-stuck-downloading-updates

 

[Supernu]

Something in task manager has to be running your disk at 100%, you need to sort by that and see what it is.

Often svchost is corrupt, or even Windows Defender gets corrupt as well and causes this issue. Sometimes its malware related but often not.

This would be definitely corrected by wiping the computer and re-installing windows. You could also try booting from install media and doing a repair.

First thing first, I accidentally voted down your response and didn't meant o do that, sorry! It wont let me reverse it.

I looked up windows media tool

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-10-media-creation-tool-create-installation-media-upgrade

Is this the one? It says I need to have purchased a key to install and I don't have a key.

If not, please post a link to a tool that lets me REPAIR. Whenever I try to do a system reset, it reboot, shows lenovo system repair, I click next after selecting language, and it errors out YOU HAVE TO BE LOGGED IN and reboots to windows. Happened twice under USER and under ADMIN.

I also forgot to add in my first post that I even disabled all TASK SCHEDULE items to no avail, 100% disk usage.

Another thing, I cant even go back to windows 7, despite having done this yesterday. It says files not found!

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Yeah this, you don't need to do an install, you can do a system repair when it starts up. Also because Windows 10 is registered to your system it can detect that and bypass that part, not requiring you to use a Key (should you end up in the worst case scenario of re-installing).

Also as mentioned double check that its not downloading updates and running them, although at this point I think its not likely, its possible (or the upgrader is corrupted and stuck).

That said, this could be some sort of hard drive failure, but we should rule out everything else before going there....

Windows 10 upgrade somehow gotten corrupted.

I was unable to do anything with REPAIR WINDOWS or REVERT BACK TO WINDOWS 7 as all windows 7 files got deleted somehow (was suppose to be on system for 1 month at least per Microsoft.)

Removed internal C drive, plugged it into an HD dockstation on another system, formatted it, put it back in machine and reinstalled Windows 7 and upgraded to Windows 10.

Only reason I had to install Windows 7 first, is because I made a mistake and did not record the Windows 10 install Serial Number, and didn't want to risk installing Windows 10 only to realize I have no Serial and now have to buy it.

This is literally the first Workstation that gave me this problem from 14 machines that's been upgraded to Windows 10.

Go figure, eh!

 

[Rogue Leader]

Great glad it worked out.