However, some commands and system parameters may vary.
Below are a few of the most common solutions.
Windows 10 collects data about the way you use it in the background.
Disabling the service responsible can help give the hard drive a rest.
Disable Windows search indexing.
Disable search indexing to decrease stress on the drive.
SuperFetch can use a lot of system resources, including writing to the drive frequently.
Disable it to stop the process from running behind the scenes and writing to the drive.
Turn off Windows Tips and see if it improves your system performance.
Give Skype write permissions.
To change permissions, right-clickSkype.exeinC:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone, then go to theSecuritytab and selectEdit.
Next, chooseAll app Packages, then select theWritecheck box underAllow.
Finally, to close, selectOK.
Disable prefetch in Chrome.
A few features in Chrome speed up your browsing experience.
However, this service puts an extra load on your system and the hard drive.
In Firefox, disable prefetching by visitingabout:configin the address bar and setting thenetwork.prefetch-nextvalue tofalse.
Fix the AHCI driver.
Microsoft acknowledges a known bug with some Advanced Host Controller Interface PCI-Express models on Windows 10.
If your rig is affected, you’ll experience 100% disk usage problems.
To fix it, do the following as described below.
First, check that your box has the AHCI driver byopening the gear Managerand looking at the itemIDE ATA/ATAPI.
If you seeSATA AHCI Controller, open it and selectProperties.
Under theDrivertab, chooseDriver Details.
Here, look for the driverstorahci.sys.
If you see it, then your PC could be susceptible to this known bug.
Next,open Regedit and browsetoHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI.
Expand the folder of the value you saved in a text editor.
Inside this folder, openDevice Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties, double-clickMSISupported, and change its value to0.
Editing inside the registry opens the door to inadvertent, significant configuration errors.
Changing the wrong values may destabilize your setup.
RAM is one of the easiest upgrades on any PC, and it’s relatively inexpensive.
Plus, your box will be able to multitask more efficiently as a result.
Disable automatic Windows Updates.
Another common cause of high disk utilization sources from Windows Updates taking place at random times, automatically.
Stop Windows from updating at random, and you’ll stop the drive from maxing out.
If you disable automatic Windows Updates, run manual updates frequently.
This process ensures you receive important security updates that keep your box safe from viruses and malware.
If all else fails, there’s a chance your setup could have a virus or malware.
One common cause is swapping or paging.
It uses a file on the hard drive called swapfile.sys to hold it.
As Windows works with that information, it constantly reads and writes to swapfile.sys, driving up disk usage.
Many applications can behave this way, including antivirus software and some utilities that are installed with Windows.
