Disk usage is always at 100%

Question

I have noticed that recently my computer has been slowing down. For example opening a folder would take around 20 seconds to load, moving a folder (from the same drive) would take a minute or so. When you move a folder it would stay at 0 bytes per second, then after 1 minute, it would speed up and move the folder.I can barely work with MS Word because it would hang. And using Chrome was hard because Chrome consumes a lot of memory as many of you know.

I figured out there was something wrong with my computer; it could be a virus or a program that is hogging all the memory. But it couldn't be a virus because I have an antivirus and I do not go to risky sites nor do I download. After checking my task manager, it seems that the disk usage is always at 95%~100%. When I sorted it by from biggest to smallest disk consumption, and found that the program that was consuming the biggest disk usage (Kaspersky) was only using 0.6 MB/s which is very small. All other program each amount to 0.1 MB/s. All other usage such as memory, CPU, and network are below 10%.

The problem is I'm running on an i7 2.40 GHz processor and an 8 GB ram so 0.6 MB/s should not be consuming 100% in disk usage. Furthermore, I have recently bought the laptop and so all parts are new. Anyway what I did was I reformatted the laptop (twice actually), and the problem still persists. When I upgraded it to Windows 10 (and inevitably reformatting the drive) the problem was still there.

TL;DR: Disk usage is always at 100%. Tried to reformat drive but problem still persisted.

Answer 1

It seems unbelievable, but this is a known issue even seven years later, I have also had a computer with this problem since a year, now end of 2022, never took the time to fix it though.

Check the Microsoft Community, 100% Disk Usage on Windows 10. It was asked in March 2021, and it is now a locked thread, 3K marked it as helpful, thus, you are not the only one.

The core change that helped me getting rid of this 100% disk usage for the running session was to run

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

in admin mode of the command prompt. This takes a few minutes.

This is also one step of many more in the main answer of the Microsoft thread, but it seems to be the only one that is needed. I let it run, and coming back, the computer was in stand-by mode. When I then opened the task manager, it dropped from 100% to almost 0% disk usage. I do not think that the stand-by is needed, since I did not need it the last time when I ran the same command. This was already the second test of it.

Strangely, this does not fix it for longer than the session. After restarting the computer, it may be at 100% again. That is why it seems best to run a full defragmentation of the disk on top of this, as a few other answers say it in the thread (untested).

PS: I also got it down to 0% by the clean boot (without any non-Windows services at start-up, see "Perform Clean Boot" in the main answer), but that fixed it also just for the next restart, not beyond that. Since I need those services, I do not think that this is the way to go.

PSS: I also followed all of the steps of the main answer in one workflow:

SFC /scannow
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth 

That still did not fix it for longer than the session, and the main drop of disk usage happens still just after DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.

UPDATE 20230208

Testing this answer the third time: I had to run the four commands, not just the last one. The DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth was stuck at Abbildversion 10.0.19045.2486. Thus, it might sometimes be not enough to run only the last command, perhaps since there were damaged files that had to be repaired (the scannow took hours):

C:\WINDOWS\system32>SFC /scannow
Systemsuche wird gestartet. Dieser Vorgang kann einige Zeit dauern.
Überprüfungsphase der Systemsuche wird gestartet.
Überprüfung 100 % abgeschlossen.
Der Windows-Ressourcenschutz hat beschädigte Dateien gefunden und erfolgreich repariert.
Bei Onlinereparaturen finden Sie Details in der CBS-Protokolldatei unter
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Beispiel C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Bei Offlinereparaturen
finden Sie Details in der durch das /OFFLOGFILE-Kennzeichen angegebenen Protokolldatei.

Then:

C:\WINDOWS\system32> DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
Tool zur Imageverwaltung für die Bereitstellung
Version: 10.0.19041.844
Abbildversion: 10.0.19045.2486
Es wurde keine Komponentenspeicherbeschädigung erkannt.
Der Vorgang wurde erfolgreich beendet.

And this one brought disk usage down to almost 0% again:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Tool zur Imageverwaltung für die Bereitstellung
Version: 10.0.19041.844
Abbildversion: 10.0.19045.2486
[==========================100.0%==========================] Es wurde keine Komponentenspeicherbeschädigung erkannt.
Der Vorgang wurde erfolgreich beendet.

In the screenshot, it again goes up to 100%, but later, it stays at almost 0%.

Thus, this run was already what was needed, disk usage down to almost 0%:

Then, better also run the following since it is on the list. This command can be enough as the only command if you do not have damaged files. It took roughly 20m:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Tool zur Imageverwaltung für die Bereitstellung
Version: 10.0.19041.844
Abbildversion: 10.0.19045.2486
[==========================100.0%==========================] Der Wiederherstellungsvorgang wurde erfolgreich abgeschlossen.
Der Vorgang wurde erfolgreich beendet.

Yet another UPDATE 20230313

When I ran the computer once again after a month, disk usage was around 95%, but not at the full 100% all the time. This went on for over an hour, I did not work on the computer. When the screen went black and I woke it up later, it was at low levels again. Could be automatic updates perhaps? But I did not see any needed updates. Anyway, not the full 100% problem as before. But the disk noise gets on your nerves. I ran DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth again, which took half an hour, and that stopped the noise and brought the disk usage down to near 0.

When I started the computer again the next day, the 100% problem was back. I had to run that DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth command again. Luckily, after doing this another time again, the disk has been healthy again for a week, seems as if you just need patience.

Programs that might have led to this:

• Docker for Desktop
• Oracle VM
• PostgreSQL services (which I later changed to a manual start at Windows startup following Stop PostgreSQL from starting on Windows?).

20230403

At startup, the disk was again at roughly 100% for some minutes, and then, around 95% for half an hour.

If it is not at 100% all the time for longer, you should wait this out. It is not an update. Seems to be an automatic disk cleaning at startup ongoing. Perhaps, it does the same as one of the commands above, since after half an hour, it looks again as it should look:

20231222

The disk sped up two hours after the startup. Though I ran DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth, it was not finished when the disk was healthy again. Perhaps, the command was not needed and waiting this out for even two hours can fix it (?).