How to Fix: 100% Disk Usage in Windows 10 Task Manager

Many users complain that their Windows 10 computers run slow without an obvious reason and without having any open programs. During this behavior, the Task Manager shows that the disk or the CPU is always running at 100%.In this tutorial, you’ll find detailed instructions to resolve the high CPU and Disk usage issues on Windows 10.

Method 1: Change Settings in Google Chrome

In Google Chrome, go to “Settings”< click “Advanced”< Click the “Privacy and security” category < make sure the “Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly” is turned off< and then ensure that “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” is disabled in “System” settings.

Method 2. Disable Windows Search for Improved Disk Performance

The next thing to check is whether the 100% disk usage error has anything to do with Windows Search.

A bug in Windows 10 results in a “search loop” that causes an increased load on the system drive.

To stop this and prevent it from happening during your current session (until Windows is rebooted):

Right-click Start
Select Windows PowerShell (Admin)
Enter net.exe stop “Windows search”
That should solve the most issues. If there is no change, even after rebooting, you can permanently disable Windows Search and Indexing.

Press WIN+R
Type MSC, then click OK
In the Services window that opens find Windows Search and double-click to open
In Windows, Search Properties find Startup type and select Disabled
how to reduce disk usage
You can also click Stop to abort the service
Click OK to save your changes.
A few moments after disabling Windows Search, your Windows 10 performance should improve considerably. If not, move on…

Method 3. Scan your computer for viruses.
Important: Many viruses or malicious programs can cause your Hard disk to work at 100%. So, before you continue to troubleshoot the hard disk’s 100% usage issue, use this Malware Scan and Removal Guide to check and remove viruses or/and malicious programs that may be running on your computer.

Method 4. Windows update going wild

Every few months, Microsoft releases new Windows 10 updates. Those download in the background and at some point install automatically. Since Windows is replacing literally tens of thousands of files, everything else will slow down during the update process. In some cases, Windows may even become unresponsive.

To figure out whether an update is in progress, open the Start menu and click on Settings. From there, select Updates and Security. If you see the phrase “You’re up to date,” then you need to figure out what else could be causing Windows 10 to reach 100% disk usage.

Windows Update popup showing you’re up to date.

But if the image you see looks like that shown below, with an update for some program downloading or installing, then you’ve isolated the problem. In this case, sit back and let Windows Update do its job.

Method 5: Change Energy Options from Balanced to High Performance
According to the feedback provided by the suffers, changing energy options from Balanced to High Performance works well on 100 percent disk usage Windows 10. Please do the following:

Go to Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings, then choose High performance from the drop-down box and make sure all plan settings are on default.

choose High performance in Power Options
Reboot your computer and check if this helps lower disk usage.

Method 4. Rebuild Search Index.
– Another solution to resolve the 100% high usage issue on your hard disk, CPU or Memory is to rebuild the Index.

1. Navigate to Windows Control Panel and open Indexing Options.*

* If you don’t see the Indexing Options, set the View (View by) to Small icons.

2. At Indexing Options click Modify.

3. Uncheck Offline Files* and press OK.

4. Then click Advanced.

5. At the Troubleshooting section, click the Rebuild button.

index rebuild

6. Press OK to rebuild the Index.

7. Wait until the index rebuilding is completed and then restart your computer.

That’s all! Did it work for you?

Please leave a comment in the comment section below or even better: like and share this blog post on social networks to help spread the word about this solution.

Method 6. Disk Usage at 100%? Switch Web Browsers
It may not be Flash that is impacting your browser performance.

Another cause could be the browser itself, particularly if you’re using Google Chrome.

The obvious option is to choose a different browser. Windows 10 already has two browsers built-in. You probably don’t want to use Internet Explorer, but Microsoft Edge is an adequate replacement for Chrome.

Several browsers are available, some better than others.

Method 7.A defective hard disk
A structural or physical defect can also be responsible for 100% disk usage in Windows 10. To check your disk for errors, try AVG Disk Doctor, another custom built-in feature in AVG TuneUp.

To launch Disk Doctor, open AVG TuneUp and click on the All functions option in the Action Center. Fire up Disk Doctor and run a check.

The Disk Doctor tool in AVG TuneUp

If it finds an error, it will fix it automatically. But if Disk Doctor doesn’t work, or if it keeps attempting to fix an issue, then you might be looking at a defective hard disk. To prevent data loss, get your files off that disk as quickly as possible. Copy them to an external hard disk and replace the drive with a new one. Now you can fix high disk usage on startup windows 10.