How to fix 100% disk usage in Windows 10

[JamieKavanagh]

Quite a few upgraders to Windows 10 have found that when performing routine tasks Windows will freeze before resuming the operation. When checking, Task Manager shows 100% disk usage. So what causes it and what can we do about it? Quite a lot actually. Here’s how to fix 100% disk usage in Windows 10.

Fact finding 100% disk usage in Windows 10
First we need to find out what’s going on.

1. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete or right click the task bar and access Task Manager.
2. Check the Disk column and click where it says Disk 100% to order it in priority of which processes are using the disk.
3. Check for apps, programs or processes utilizing the majority of the disk. Sometimes nothing will show, that’s fine.
4. If a program is hogging the disk, right click it and select ‘End task’.
5. If your disk usage goes down, check the app or program for errors and reinstall if necessary.

Task Manager won’t always flag up a program or process that it utilizing all your disk so you may need to play a little. First, run an antivirus scan to ensure it isn’t malware or Bitcoin miner using your disk. Then run a malware scan if you have one just to make sure.

Troubleshooting 100% disk usage in Windows 10
If your disk is still showing 100% utilization, try one or all of the following.

• Disable Windows Search by opening a CMD windows as an administrator and typing or pasting ‘net.exe stop “Windows search”’.
• Disable Superfetch by opening a CMD windows as an administrator and typing or pasting ‘net.exe stop superfetch’.
• Check it isn’t Flash playing up by right clicking Adobe Flash Player in Task Manager and selecting End Task.

There are dozens of reasons why your disk might be sitting at 100% usage and none of them good. Here I have covered the most common. While there are many others, the principles here can be applied to all apps and processes.

We have plenty of troubleshooting tutorials here at Toms Hardware. Try these:
How to get out of Windows 10 repair loop
How to get into advanced startup options in Windows 10
How to run the SFC Command at boot in Windows 10

View all of our Windows 10 Tutorials