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[FIX] WINDOWS 10 100 PERCENT DISK USAGE PROBLEM

190 Comments · Updated: August 13, 2016 · 04:23 PM · By Kapil Arya · Applies to:
Troubleshooting, Windows 10

Sometimes, your Windows may became unresponsive due to high use of disk
resources. Learn how to fix Windows 10 100 percent disk usage problem, in this
post.

Earlier, we have seen how to fix low memory problem on Windows 10 in following
article:

Fix: ‘Your computer is low on memory’ error in Windows 10

As far as low memory problem is concerned, it might happen due to high use of
resources by some of the programs. Today, in this article, we will talk about
yet another similar issue in which you found that your Windows system is
consuming 100% disk space. We recently came across this situation in one of the
Windows 10 Pro running system. In the Task Manager, under Performance tab, the
disk utilization reaches to 100% due to which system became lagging and
unresponsive. It started freezing in few moments and this keeps happening until
disk usage reduces from 100%. This can be observed in following screenshot:

If you’re also facing this problem, it is very important that you fix it asap.
Because lagging machines shows poor productivity and gives worst user
experience. According to Microsoft, the reason behind this issue is presence of
Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) mode which is enabled by default. When MSI is
active, Solid State Drives (SSDs) are unable to complete input/output (I/O)
requests under a period of time and Windows storage stacks have to reset disk
devices after waiting indefinitely for read/write responses. These resets makes
Windows to consume 100% of disk space which affects other resources on machine
and hence system becomes unresponsive.

The issue can be fixed by disabling MSI mode for your Advanced Host Controller
Interface (AHCI) used by StorACHI.sys driver. Here are the complete steps:

FIX : WINDOWS 10 100 PERCENT DISK USAGE PROBLEM

1. Press + R and type devmgmt.msc in the Run, hit Enter key to open Device
Manager snap-in.

2. In the Device Manager window, expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and right
click on Standard SATA AHCI Controller, select Properties.

3. In the property sheet, switch to Driver tab and click Driver Details.

4. If the Driver File Details window shows storahci.sys driver listed there, it
means you’re running inbox driver and hence it is possible to disable MSI mode.
Click OK.

5. Back on the property sheet, switch to Details tab. Against Property, select
Device instance path from drop-down and note down the Value mentioned there.

Registry Disclaimer: The further steps will involve registry manipulation.
Making mistakes while manipulating registry could affect your system adversely.
So be careful while editing registry entries and create a System Restore point
first.

6. Press + R and put regedit in Run dialog box to open Registry Editor (if
you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, then click here). Click OK.

7. In the Registry Editor window, navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\<AHCI Controller Value>\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties

*Substitute <AHCI Controller Value> we got in step 5.

8. In the right pane of MessageSignaledInterruptProperties key, look for the
registry DWORD (REG_DWORD) named MSISupported which should be corresponding to
Value 1 as its Data. Double click on the DWORD to modify its value:

9. Finally, set the Value data as 0 and click OK. Close Registry Editor and
reboot. After restarting your machine, the 100% disk usage problem should
disappear.

Check this video to illustrate this fix:

FYI: If the above method doesn’t works, you can try disabling Superfetch in
Windows 10. This has been helped a few users to get rid of this problem.

Hope this helps!

Related: Fix high CPU usage problem in Windows 10.

READ THESE ARTICLES NEXT

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* Fix: 100% Disk Usage in Windows 11

* Fix: Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write
protected

* Fix: The disk check could not be performed because Windows can’t access the
disk

* Recover permanently deleted files with Windows File Recovery

* How to remove drive letter in Windows 10

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* How To Format A Drive In Windows

* FIX: Multiple Recovery Partitions In Windows 10

* Remove Previous Windows Installation Files In Windows 10

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This post is written by Kapil Arya, Microsoft MVP.

ABOUT KAPIL ARYA

Kapil is presently a Microsoft MVP in Windows IT Pro expertise. He is Windows
Insider MVP as well, and author of 'Windows Group Policy Troubleshooting' book.
In 2015, Microsoft India accomplished him as 'Windows 10 Champion'. Being
passionate Windows blogger, he loves to help others on fixing their system
issues. Kapil has worked with official Microsoft Community Engagement Team (CET)
on several community projects. You can subscribe him for news/updates and fixes
for Windows.

190 Comments

Add your comment
Ken Lilly

6 years ago

Was hoping this might lead me to a solution but mine did not have storahci.sys,
instead it was iaStorA.sys

Still having issues, sigh.

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ Try the steps for iaStorA.sys and see if it works.

Doug Noyce

6 years ago

Hello Kapil
I am not the originator of this post, but had the same issue (I am on Win10 Pro,
WIP v.1607, b.14959). The Wiki fix certainly did help, (I also had iaStorA.sys)
dropping CPU usage for 100+ to about 35%. I do not know if it is related, but
after doing a restart, it took 3-4 times longer to complete the bootup sequence,
before having full access to the machine. Other than this, I have seen no other
effects of this change, other than actual usage seems much faster in response,
once full access was established. Thanks for the fix, but I would like to know
is, what is the actual impact is of disabling the MSISupported interrupt, which
is on by default?

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ The impact of MSISupported is already mentioned in article, re-read it.

Nick

6 years ago

hey guys, what if after all these steps in the target place I see only (default)
REG_SZ, no MSISupported?

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ You can create it the MSISupported value manually. Right click in blank space
on left pane and select New > DWORD Value.

Rodolfo Olvera

6 years ago

Hello Kapil,

You seem to be the expert on this issue. I tried the solution, step by step, but
I still get the same issue. Right now I really would like to go back to windows
7 but the time to do that has already passes (I upgraded to Win 10). Is there
any other way to solve it? I’m using a Sony VAIO, so there is not too much
support form them. Also a hybrid HDD, could that be the issue? I don’t really
understand what the “disk usage” means. I would format my computer but I have
plenty of programs as well as a dual boot, together with no spare time for all
that.

I would really appreciate if you could help me.

I have tried many other solutions out there but did not solve the issue btw.

Thank you very much in advance.

Rodolfo

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ I suggest you to Refresh Windows 10, in case if it helps you:
https://www.kapilarya.com/reinstall-windows-10-without-affecting-personal-files

Calvin

6 years ago

This fix only applies to SSD. What’s the fix for same issue, however Standard
HDD ?

Also, tested a different laptop with a SSD, did not have IDE ATA/aTAPI
controller option. And checked the Driver details for my SanDisk HDD and did not
have the storahci.sys driver listed.

Silver

6 years ago

“hey guys, what if after all these steps in the target place I see only
(default) REG_SZ, no MSISupported?”

I had the same problem as Nick. It was related to my permissions. The values
were there but I could not see them until I gave myself permissions. Google
registry permissions to see how. Once you give yourself full permissions, you
should be able to see the values.

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ Thanks for your inputs 😊

Rishabh Madan

6 years ago

IT DIDNT HELP ME OUT. I HAVE A HDD AND MY PC BECOMES SLOW AS HELL. PLEASE HELP
ME OUT WITH SOME ANOTHER SOLUTION. EVEN THE MICROSOFT TECH TEAM ASKED ME TO
RESET MY PC BUT THIS PROBLEM ARISES EVERY TIME. I HAVE RESET MY PC SEVERAL TIMES
IN A SINGLE YEAR BUT STILL THE PROBLEM WAS ALWAYS THE SAME. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT
THAT THERE’S FAULT IN MY HDD.
SPECS
I3 5005U @2.0GhZ
8GB DDR3
1TB HDD @ 7200RPM–TOSHIBA
ACER ASPIRE E5-573G
WINDOWS 10 HOME —OEM

I would love to hear from you

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ You may try clean install, in case if it helps you:
https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-make-clean-install-of-windows-10

sheila

6 years ago

I have the problem but my driver is uptodate and not the same as the one you
listed I have iaStorA,sys Any advice?

John

6 years ago

My Pc has windows 10 I want to reinstall windows 10 because of this issue, but
My PC did not come with a windows 10 disk or dvd it was preinstalled at the
factory I guess.Is there a way to reinstall without the disk or dvd?

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ Yup, here is the way:
https://www.kapilarya.com/reinstall-windows-10-without-affecting-personal-files.
But before that, try steps mentioned here and see if they helps.

Stephen Penny

6 years ago

I am afraid I followed the steps and set MSISupported to 0; However the 100%
disk utilization still persists. So while I look for other fixes – should I set
MSISupported back to 1 ?
Stephen

Jonas

6 years ago

Thanks!

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ 👍

Kathleen

6 years ago

Thanks so much, you really saved me. I got to the point I was thinking of doing
a refresh or even a reset.
I have iaStorA.sys on a laptop that came with Windows 8 installed. I had
upgraded the operating system on that laptop to 8.1, 10, and then, the
anniversary edition. I have a second laptop that came with Windows 10 installed.
The 100% disk usage problem occurred only on the upgraded laptop.
I tried stopping 100% disk usage by disabling prefetch and superfetch and
changing their values to 0. That wasn’t enough to stop the problem. Changing the
MSISupported value to 0 did solve the problem. Since changing the MSISupported
value to 0 solved the problem, I went back and changed the prefetch and
superfetch values back to their defaults. On restarting the boot went on
forever. So, I forced a shut down and changed those two values back to 0. Now my
laptop boots fast and runs like a dream. It seems I had to have prefetch,
superfetch, and MSISupported values at 0.

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ Thanks for awesome feedback 😊

Nisha

6 years ago

After following the above steps, the disk still shows 100%. Could you please
help me with this?

Israel

6 years ago

Did not work for me :-(

Windows Guy

6 years ago

If your windows 10 PC is undergoing 100% disk usage, then disable search
services by opening services in taskbar search , opening services manager and
disable windows search service. You may also disable windows update service, but
you have to enable it after few days, as disabling windows 10 update service is
not recommended. Also disable superfetch and Background apps.
To disable background apps just go to settings – privacy – background apps and
disable background apps.

jimc

6 years ago

Been there. Done that. The more I use windows 10 the more I like linux.

Sema

6 years ago

After I followed the steps the activity decreased to zero and start working
normally, BUT after restart the PC it didn’t work . I have blue screen says
RECOVERY and your PC needs to be repaired.

I didn’t create system restore point :( any thing I can do??

Kapil Arya

6 years ago

^^ Try to revert MSISupported DWORD Value to 1.

Vir

5 years ago

I have the exact same issue but I have HDD so need a solution for it. If you
have one. Thanks!

Michael Narine

5 years ago

This issue is so common that we need to start a Class Action Suit against
Microsoft

mcnly

5 years ago

I get to Step 7, and the AHCI Controller Value (from step 5) does not have a
folder titled “MessageSignaledInterruptProperties.” What do I do from here?

bryan

5 years ago

good day mine is “amdide64” not storahci.sys or iaStorA.sys and i tried located
the msi but nothing shows up in reg edit i follow all the steps
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\”device
instant”\Device Parameters\

at device parameter it only shows channel 0 and channel 1 the inside of this
folder is only reg_sz only both of them

anyone can help me?

Esam

5 years ago

The reg_dword i have are
Configflags and set to 0
And capabilities and also set to 0

Pratik Jain

5 years ago

hi Kapil,

I don’t see storahci.sys but i have iastora.sys. still the same MSi changes
didn’t work for me.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Pratik

esflorida

5 years ago

It’s work man good work thank. I follow everything i and found everything you
said thank man really

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ Glad to help!

Tony

5 years ago

Fixed, thnx dude!!

graphicman

5 years ago

Nothing of this worked. All I have to do is to make a clean reinstall of Windows
10. Now I have to reinstall all my software.

Ian Webber

5 years ago

I do not have the StorACHI.sys driver. And the registry values do not appear
anything like those you have described. My task manager strongly indicates that
windows update and module installer are accounting for a high percentage of use,
with some also due to incessant activity by search indexer and finally also
Norton 360.

Geoff

5 years ago

Followed the above procedure exactly seemed to take longer than normal to
reboot. When desktop appeared, I immediately fired up task manager and disc
usage was showing 0%. Then after few seconds it shot up to 100% again.

Glen

5 years ago

You have something else? I have the same problem however, I do not have Standard
SATA AHCI Controller, listed in my device manager. Also tried everything I could
find on this issue and nothing seems to work. It won’t let me reset, I can’t
access the control panel System section, it errors everytime I go to update,
Malwarebytes doesn’t find anything, Windows Defender finds nothing… I am at a
loss, this laptop was purchased with Windows 10 on it. I am just about at a
point of wiping the machine and installing a Linux on there. This is a work
Laptop that is a year and a half old. It is an Hp, we have several of these and
this is the only one giving us grief.

Steve

5 years ago

So, I have tried disabling prefetch before. Somehow it came back. My original
hard drive was a hybrid. That would explain this option being enabled. My
relacement is not a hybrid. I replaced it after several warnings of an impending
crash. Well, my friend, in spite of my hesitation to touch the registry, this
fix worked. THANK YOU!

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ Happy to help, Steve 😎

David Nitzsche-Bell

5 years ago

I tried everything in here and more suggestions I found on other sites, but
nothing worked. But, here’s what *did* work for me.

The problem was Google Chrome (63.0.2329). When I started Chrome, disk usage
went up to 100% and stayed there. When I “quit” Chrome, there were still 1-3
Chrome tasks in the Task Manager. When I quit those processes, disk usage fell
to 3-5% and stayed there. I was able to repeat this process.

I updated to Chrome 64.0.xxxx and also changed the “Continue running background
apps when Google Chrome is closed” setting.

The problem no longer occurs.

Gordon Pow

5 years ago

I have been trying to fix this issue for months, without success. FINALLY, by
following your instructions, I have fixed it! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I’ve no idea
what I’ve done or why it works, but my computer is useful again.

My computer had iaStorA.sys rather than storahci.sys. And I had a hard time
navigating down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\\Device
Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties and found it
was best just to type it into the address bar. Other than those issues, your
instructions were clear and easy to follow.

Again, thank you!

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ Glad we could help, Gordon 😎

PrinceRoss

5 years ago

Tried everything. still didn’t worked out. disabled superfetch, windows search.
fixed STorachi.sys. Please help me

Max

5 years ago

Had this problem a few months ago, did what you suggested. It worked fine until
recently. So I went to repeat the fix, no longer have
MessagedSignalledInterruptProperties showing in the dropdown list.
Any further suggestions for why this problems has stated up again?

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ If the problem occurs again, try to disable Superfetch:
https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-disable-superfetch-in-windows-10

Vijesh

5 years ago

I can go till
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_3581103C&REV_05\3&11583659&0&FA\Device
Parameters\Interrupt Management as per the steps. But couldn’t find
MessageSignaledInterruptProperties key. I can see ONLY affinity Policy, affinity
policy -temporal and routing info. Help me.

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ Are you sure storahci.sys present on your device? Please recheck the “Device
instance path”.

shady

5 years ago

thanks, you solved my problem. the laptop was very slow because of this problem.

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ Glad to help, shady 😎

Dan PH

5 years ago

I do not have Standard SATA AHCI Controller, only the Intel(R) 7 series chipset
family SATA AHCI Controller. What should I do in this situation, please?

5 years ago

Thank you. worked great.

Steve

5 years ago

This prblem has been driving me mad for ages, a fix at last! thanks Kapil this
sorted out my PC and now its rocking! One thing I would add. If like me you have
had this problem for a while lots of programmes have been trying to update etc.
having been prevented by the slow response. Once the fix has been applied be
patient there will still be a lot of activity with the PC trying to catch up so
leave your machine on overnight to sort itself out.

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ Happy to help Steve!

MarkR

5 years ago

Worked for me. Thanks.

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ Thanks for your feedback MarkR 😊

Rick Marrale

5 years ago

Hello-

when I got to driver details my screen showed
….Drivers\iaStorA.sys
not the screen storahci.sys shown on your instructions not sure what this means?
Checked driver- says I have the latest!

I have disabled superfetch
ran: trouble shooting, sfc/scan
dism/restore health, chkdskc:/r/scan/perf

two problems in troubleshoot were fixed. No problems found on all other checks.

I have spent hours on this for a month. Been to all the community posts-bla bla
bla

I can have no windows open and edge will show 10-13 processes running in the
background.
It will work fine for a while and then locks up. Eventually recovers after
waiting 3-4 minutes.

I use Norton security
I worked with their tech support to limit their process from running accept when
scheduled once a
day.
Crazy! About to give up. Not sure why Microsoft hasn’t dealt with this. been
around along time.
Maybe the solution is
to buy an Apple
Thanks- end of my rope

Rick Marrale

5 years ago

A follow-up

I switched to Chrome: restarted
no problems- disk stabilized in 1-2 minutes
been on for 45 minutes
background processes 70-74,windows processes 88, 23 chrome processes 6 tabs open
plus quicken and task
manager. dick usage 1-3 %- unreal

switched to edge- restarted
86 background processes(why), 88 windows processes,9 edge processes, one tab
open– disk slammed at 100%
??????

Amazing that Chrome is running better than edge.

Stian

5 years ago

Hey!
Thank you for putting a lot of time and effort into helping us! It is
appreciated.
I did as you said, step by step. Reinstalled windows, step by step. I even
rebooted my whole PC, and I still have the issue. Any ideas?

Mastah Yakamuto

5 years ago

Try to Disable Superfetch & Windows Search in services.

Adarsh

5 years ago

Thanks dude.. Was using 8.1.. When it occurred first time I reinstalled my
system.. After a while it still occurred.. Tried all the “superfetch” things..
nothing had worked.. but this one was a real life saver..
didn’t find the mentioned sys file.. in regedit under PCI I googled everything
and find corresponding key to AHCI.. changed MSI supported value from 1 to 0..
Vola!! it worked..
Thank you so much. .

Kapil Arya

5 years ago

^^ Glad to help Adarsh 😎

SuNNy1y

4 years ago

I tried this so far so good. Thanks

Kapil Arya

4 years ago

^^ Thanks for your feedback!!

David

4 years ago

I stop Windows Update service search service soft thinks Agent ,the disk back to
5%. Thank you for all

Morteza

4 years ago

My HDD active time in Windows 10 was on 100% almost all the time. Any
application or process (e.g. Chrome, System, Service Host, Superfetch, …) caused
100% disk active time.
This method (disabling MSI) solved my problem.
Thanks

Kapil Arya

4 years ago

^^ Glad to help Morteza 😎

Dan M

4 years ago

This is still useful 3 years later, and was a clear enough to do quickly — it
just resurrected a 2012 Dell XPS machine that runs on Windows 7. Thanks!

Kapil Arya

4 years ago

^^ Happy to help Dan!

mufaddal

4 years ago

100% Disk Usage on Windows 10: The “MessageSignaledInterruptProperties” is
missing from the registry

Kapil Arya

4 years ago

^^ Create it manually.

Deniel Kh.

4 years ago

Hi Kapil,

Got hit by this issue a few days ago and tried using your fix. The problem is
that in my Device Manager no such thing as “Standard SATA AHCI Controller”
exists, the only thing I see below the “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers” is “Intel(R)
300 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller”. I checked it out and I have no
such thing as “storahci.sys” but instead “iaStorAC.sys”. Is it the same thing
with a different name? Or is it actually something different?

I am really not understanding anything about this issue.

Kapil Arya

4 years ago

^^ As ‘Standard SATA AHCI Controller’ doesn’t exists on your system, the fix is
not applicable to you. Try disabling Superfetch and see if that helps:
https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-disable-superfetch-in-windows-10.

Stewart

4 years ago

Wow thank you for these steps. I had reset my Windows 10 machine due to some
errors with my graphics card. When I did that things were incredibly slow. This
fixed it! My computer runs faster than ever. I probably could have done this
months ago and it would have saved me a big headache!

Thanks!

Kapil Arya

4 years ago

^^ Glad to help Stewart 😎

Doug

3 years ago

I have a i7 ThinkPad using iaStorA.sys. The disk busy has been at 100% for
months rendering the laptop useless. I applied your fix and it was a miracle.
Within minutes, the disk busy dropped to 20% and then down to less than 5%.
Thank you!!

Kapil Arya

3 years ago

^^ Glad I could help Doug 😊

cris

3 years ago

It help me , thank you a lot

Kapil Arya

3 years ago

^^ Cool 😊

Rajan Verma

3 years ago

I just defragmented the C: drive and disk usage came down to 0-5%.

Kapil Arya

3 years ago

^^ Thanks for adding this!

Mahit

3 years ago

Hi Kapil,
in last stage when i do MSISupported value to 0 from 1 and hit OK, after
restarting system MSISupported value still shows 1. please help

Kapil Arya

3 years ago

^^ Try disabling Superfetch and see if that helps you:
https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-disable-superfetch-in-windows-10.

Mahit

3 years ago

Hi Kapil,
I did what you suggested, but didn’t get good result. actually Disk is
fluctuating like (3–14—90-100) when i click to open 3-4 apps /tabs and after few
time Disk automatically start decreasing from 100.
1) Is this common issue which i am getting ?
2) if i improve my RAM from 4gb to 8gb should i get good performance? as my
machine is new and have configuration (AMD Ryzen 3 /Pre-loaded Windows 10 Home
Memory & Storage: 4GB DDR4 RAM, Storage: 1 TB 5400 rpm SATA)

Kapil Arya

3 years ago

^^ This could depending upon type of apps you open. Some apps may take much disk
allocation, and its normal. As far as increasing RAM is concerned, it may help
you to improve system performance a little bit.

Babalizm

3 years ago

For those who still unsolved:
Check your sata cable, Sometimes it simply just needed to replace cable :)

Kapil Arya

3 years ago

^^ Thanks for adding this!

Simon Kravis

3 years ago

Hi Kapil
The 100% disk active for ~5 minute periods, has recently become evident,
especially after resuming from sleep/hibernation on a heavily used machine with
a 7-year old SSD drive (SanDisk SSD U100 124 Gb) running Windows 10. I have been
unable to connect the disk activity with any application visible in Task Manager
or resource Monitor. Is the 100% active state caused by the storage doing error
checking and correction? I believe that SSD storage wears out after a certain
number of read-write cycles, and it may be that longer period of 100% activity
are due to the failing storage.

Kapil Arya

3 years ago

^^ Simon, have you tried the methods presented in the article?

Simon Kravis

3 years ago

No, I am reluctant to change basic storage operation parameters. The problem was
very apparent when storage had 3% free space, but after a restart, pagefile.sys
is much smaller and with 15% free space, the 100% disk active problem does not
appear.

kingshuk basak

3 years ago

Thanks, it worked.
I had to check Intel SATA driver.

Kapil Arya

3 years ago

^^ Glad to help!

JBL

2 years ago

Tried doing this and got to step 9. Once computer attempted to restart it stuck
on the “Asus” logo with the loading circle. After about 30 secs screen goes
black and then returns back to the logo with spinning circle and says diagnosing
PC.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Are you sure you have Standard SATA AHCI Controller at step 2?

Adrian

2 years ago

It worked on an Assus VovoBookwith Win 10, thanks for your help

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help Adrian!

Vip Kumar

2 years ago

This change in registry could not help my system,
I am using Dell .. Disk Still shows 100,, even with 0.2Mb/s.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Try to disable Superfetch:
https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-disable-superfetch-in-windows-10.

Tony K.

2 years ago

I have a Dell XPS 8910 Intel i7 Quad Core Processor Desktop PC with a 8 TB SATA
HDD, 64 GB of RAM. It has the Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller
using the iaStorAC.sys driver.

After spending literally weeks following pretty much all the tips that were
listed online, none of them resolved the issue like making this one change. I
e.g., doubled the RAM, got a new HDD, disabled windows services (Superfetch,
Windows Search) + windows settings, etc.

Note: updating the driver (in Device Manager) to version 17.5.31026 dated
07.23.2019 caused the issue to re-occur. So, I rolled back the driver, version
16.8.3.1003 dated 07.15.2019.

Thanks, Kapil!

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Tony, was the issue resolved after you rolled back the driver?

Tony K.

2 years ago

Kapil, yes, the issue was resolved after rolling back the drivers. It’s been
over a week now and I’m back to normal. I’ve tried again since then.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help Tony!

Alex

2 years ago

I have 4 values, each containing the file mentioned for the fix. Should I do it
for all of them?

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Please mention the exact step number you’re at, so I can help you with this.

Alex

2 years ago

In step 7, it tells you to reset the number to zero. The thing is, in the
controllers tab, I had 4 AHCI controllers with four different keys. They all
appear in the editor, all with the MSI value.

Alex

2 years ago

Also, when I was looking at my drive, it was my T: drive that was at 100%. I do
not see a backup restore point for that drive, so what is my next step?

Imam Mateen Siddiqui

2 years ago

thank you!

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ You’re welcome!

Prashant Kachhap

2 years ago

Nice work Kapil ..!! followed all the steps provided and disabled windows search
in services.msc and it worked for me . Thank you

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help!

Nicholas

2 years ago

IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers do not appear in Device Manager, is that an issue in
itself?

A Cooper

2 years ago

Dude, thank you so much. You saved me!

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help!

2 years ago

I don’t have SATA ACHI. Now what??

Laurie Miller

2 years ago

Thank you. I too had iaStorA.sys. It took a while for me to understand the
instructions but I finally got it and wham – it worked! It did take a while for
the disk usage to go down after I restarted, but it ended up around 40%.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help Laurie!

J Solomon

2 years ago

Thank you! I too had iaStorA.sys. Works like a charm! I was thinking about
buying another laptop! Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help!

Pushendu Chauhan

2 years ago

Good Article, mast solution diya. Worked, cheers n thanks!!

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help!

Patrick

2 years ago

Replacing the SATA cable fixed it for me! Thanks to Babalizm’s suggestion in the
comments! I had extra SATA cables that came with my purchase. I also switched
SATA ports to a different one on the motherboard. Windows booted up dramatically
more quickly, and now my PC is running perfectly smoothly with no freezing at
all, and disk usage calm and close to 0. Bizarre to me that the cable (or maybe
the port) would cause these symptoms. Now I know.

This issue happend on my previous SSD as well, which prompted me to buy a new
SSD, and many months later similar symptoms started on this one too (using the
same bad SATA cable). Long frequent freezes coinciding with disk usage going to
100%, not being able to track down what process is using all the disk, and then
blue screens starting.

Listing some things I had tried that did NOT work for me: the MSISupported
regedit fix in this article (I have storahci.sys), disabling Superfetch/Sysmain,
disabling search indexing, uninstalling a third party software that was using a
lot of disk (Backblaze). On my previous SSD, I had also troubleshooted and tried
many things (I don’t remember which anymore), and none of them helped.

Thank you Kapil Arya for the helpful article and comments, and thank you to
Babalizm and other commenters for sharing your experiences here!

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Thanks Patrick for your experience, glad the issue is sorted for you 😊

Sumanta Chatterjee

2 years ago

Thank you so much. Issue resolved.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help Sumanta!

NightStorm1000

2 years ago

Solution to my Problem was switching the BIOS Setting of my AMD X570 Chipset
Mainboard from AHCI to RAID and using the AMD RAID Driver.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Thanks for sharing, will be helpful to others 😊

Gammerz

2 years ago

Use the advanced option in window’s disk clean-up utility to clear large system
files, especially windows update files.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Thanks for this tip!

Danish

2 years ago

Kapil, this is a great article. However my children PCs do not have SATA/ACHI
controller and there is no superfetch service either. any ideas what I should be
looking for?

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Using SSD or HDD?

2 years ago

This problem was surprising in the worst way, like chronic sickness that keep
coming back again and again, just when if seems you finally found the right
cure. After butting my head against this problem for days and trying some 10
different solutions, this one finally solved it.
My driver was under: [Storage Controllers > Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller,
Driver Details > iaStorAVC.sys] But setting MSISupported=0 worked!

Update: A day later, disk usage is back at 100%(!), this time the culprit was
Diagnostic Policy Service:
had to delete %WinDir%\System32\sru\SRUDB.dat .
Everything is good… so far.

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help, thanks for sharing your feedback 😎

Joe

2 years ago

I love you, brother! I am very skeptical about any guides that change the
registry so I put this off for a few days but when I couldn’t take it anymore I
finally tried it. After waiting for my PC to restart for 5 minutes and loaded
back up instantly! No more slow PC and everything is loading very fast again.
Thank you!

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ Glad to help Joe 😎

Rafael

2 years ago

Does It work to on Intel(R) chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller it apiers
s\iaStorAC.sys

Rafael

2 years ago

well I tried still 100% disk this is making me crazy cant almost use the pc
cause is so slowwww even to just open 1thing

Kapil Arya

2 years ago

^^ What you’re using – HDD or SSD?

V Pradeep

2 years ago

i tried all the steps diabling prefetch turning off index search running SFC
Scan and other scans disabling start up tasks and services still doesnt work.
Also under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers i have Intel(R) 6th Generation Core
Processor Famil Platform I/O SATA AHCI Controllers no other options? Please help
me to fix this issue

G Palma

2 years ago

I haven’t tried any of these instructions yet but I’ve noticed that when I
opened task manager and clicked on ‘view’ followed by ‘expand all’ the disk
usage percentage drops dramatically. Does anyone know what is causing that? I’d
like to find a way to stop this without having to expand the Task Manager view
for every session.

Kev

1 year ago

Chrome was the culprit for me. It installed two service. A ‘Google Crash
Handler’ service and ‘Google Chrome Elevation’ service. I disabled those, then
rebooted and the problem was solved. Disk usage came down from 100% to idle
around 10%. I got the hint to it from a user’s comment higher up in the chat
thread.

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Thanks for sharing 😎

Meth

1 year ago

Will the above solutions work for Intel(R) 6th Generation Core Processor Family
Platform I/O SATA AHCI Controller? I followed the steps and went into the
registry editor and found that my msi value was indeed ‘=1’. However, I am not
sure whether I should implement those fixes since it might cause problems. Plus,
that is the only option I have under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers on my laptop
running on an hdd.

Martin

1 year ago

Made my mom VERY happy with this fix on her Windows 10 Lenovo T480 with SSD :-)
Laptop was unworkably slow, choking in Windowns updates and many other processes
trying to access the SSD. Found a link to this post here:
answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/100-disk-usage-on-windows-10/17e3aa7e-4a2a-4927-97bd-bdb2f7dbe04b
after trying several other suggestions made there without any improvement.
Though the machine is running iaStorA.sys instead of storahci.sys I decided to
try your fix anyway because it sounded very plausible to me. And indeed – it
resolved the problem :-)
All is fast and snappy again and a whole list of problems she had written down
for me was fixed at once because they were all due to the 100% hard disk usage.
So, thank you very much!

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Glad to help Martin 😊

venkat pandir

1 year ago

I dont have that ATA at all how do i fix it. Please let me know *Email removed
for privacy*.
I would greatly appreciate it and also if you need fees let me know i can pay.

spyder

1 year ago

thanks for the help

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Glad to help spyder!

Peter

1 year ago

Thank you Kapil. My Lenovo S440 had being plagued with disk utilisation issues
for long time. The problem manifested at start-up and would take 10 to 15
minutes for the disk utilisation to drop down below 100%. I had tried on and off
to find way to fix it but had no luck – suggestions that chrome, skype or
OneDrive were causing the problem led me nowhere. However, between your advice
(including turning of superfetch) and the following link *Third-party link
removed* (up to the third step given in the link) the problem has gone away.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to post it.

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Glad to help!

Prasad

1 year ago

Kapil.. I must say.. you are a savior.. I had been facing this high disk
utilization issue after having this new laptop bought 4 yrs back.. Never used it
much coz of this issue.. followed different blogs to disable few services but
issue persisted…. Alas… stumbled upon your article and it seems my issue is
resolved.. using it for last 2 days.. and not seeing the high disk issue
anymore… Thanks a lot man!!!!

Although the driver/device name didn’t match exact but changed the same property
for my own disk driver and it indeed worked. :)

Prasad

1 year ago

For others to benefit, I have Inspiron 5000 series i5 8th gen.. there is NO SSD…

Under device manager:
storage controller -> Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller.

Updated the registry parameter MessageSignaledInterruptProperties for driver
file: iaStorAC.sys

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Glad to help Prasad 😊

jero

1 year ago

Hi,
I’ve tested ALL THE PROCEDURES listed here and everywhere on the web and this
issue is still NOT fixed…
32gb of ram, i7 CPU, all my drives are SSD…. I am STUCK with that ****.

BItdefender didn’t find any malware, viruses etc… So i think the only virus is
…windows 10…

I remember the time where my computer booted within 10 seconds… Can’t imagine
why it is now more than 20 minutes to complete a boot what a shamefull
technology that windows 10…

Lawrence Hammond

1 year ago

Worked great!! Thanks so much!

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Glad it worked 😎

Ketan

1 year ago

It worked. Thank you!!

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Glad to help 😎

Sriyans

1 year ago

Hi Kapil,
Tried both your solutions, but they did to make an impact.
Seems like there are no processes running still disk is at 100%.

This started almost a week back and is continuing.
Had a similar issue on my previous old laptop years ago.

What is a core reason for this issue, what bug is making the disk work 100% with
no processess?

Neko99

1 year ago

Hi Kapil,
i have that problem, its not happen with my C disk but with DEF those 3 are all
HDD. I want to know if i could use your solution under no false or broke
something?,
thank you

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Well, you can try and see if it works, else revert changes!

Tibule

1 year ago

I don’t have ITE/ATA ATAPI controller as an item when I launch device manager.

Here are the list of items I have:
Audio inputs and Outputs
Bluetooth
Computer
Disk Drives
Display adapters
DVD/CD-ROM drives
Firmware
Human Interfaces Devices
Keyboards
Mice and other ppinitng devices
Monitors
Network adapters
print queues
processors
Security devices
Software components
Software devices
Sound, video and game controllers
Storage controllers
System devices
Universal Seral Bus controllers

Any guidance?

Ian B.

1 year ago

Followed this guide exactly on both the controllers listed in my device managers
and it has worked perfectly. Previously my PC was getting bogged down with
constant disk activity and getting very slow to open programs. Now, resting disk
activity is zero (or almost), and PC is snappy and responsive again. Many
thanks!

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Glad to help Ian 😊

David Eastman

1 year ago

I have been struggling with this problem for MONTH! I’ve searched everywhere and
tried everything, to no avail. Finally, I stumbled across this article this
evening and gave it a try. My drive is working correctly at least, with no more
100% usage problem. It’s incredible to me that five years after this article was
written, this continues to be an issue. And all it took to fix it was change a 1
to a 0. Thank you so much!

Kapil Arya

1 year ago

^^ Glad to help David 😎

Asherk

9 months ago

I follow the steps verbatim and made sure everything matched perfectly. I then
restarted my computer and it’s been saying “getting windows ready don’t turn off
your computer” for 30 minutes now. It normally boots in less than 5 minutes. How
long should I wait?

Kapil Arya

9 months ago

^^ This depends on the system. I can’t tell exactly how long you need to wait.

Varun Aggarwal

7 months ago

Thanks a ton bro.. you are the real MVP.. you saved me a lot of trouble..

Kapil Arya

7 months ago

^^ Glad to help 😎

Mike

6 months ago

This fix did the trick for me–disk usage is now back down to normal. Thanks for
the solution!

Kapil Arya

6 months ago

^^ Glad to help 😎

Takura Klein Mapira

6 months ago

Hey, I’ve just been scrolling past these comments and I just want to say I
admire the dedication and commitment, It’s astonishing that this article was
written 6 years ago and you still take some time out to respond.

Kapil Arya

6 months ago

^^ Yes, this is still a valid solution. Keep reading, we need readers like you!

Ron Ventura

6 months ago

Kapil.
I have the same problem, but I have a HDD, not SSD. Will this work for my drive?

Kapil Arya

6 months ago

^^ Switching to SSD may help in that case.

174M4R

5 months ago

I tried the proposed solutions and they didn’t really helped. I then put it all
back to the default values including allowing PCI message signalled interrupts
to HDD.

The only solution that solved it for my Dell Inspiron 5559 with Toshiba HDD and
8GB RAM :
Manually set the paging file size on disk 16-16000 MB (as long as the HDD is not
full).

Browse to Control Panel.
Select System and Security.
Select System.
Select Advanced System Setting.
Under Performance, Select Setting .
Select the Advanced Tab.
Select Change.
Set the Custom sizes to initial 16 MB
Set the Maximum to 16000 MB
Select Apply.
Select OK.
Restart the computer.

Kapil Arya

5 months ago

^^ Thanks for sharing!

James

5 months ago

This worked immediately!! Thank you!

Kapil Arya

5 months ago

^^ Glad to help 👍

Shannon

3 months ago

6 years (2022) later and STILL a problem. Just downloaded Windows 10 (last of
the hold outs). I was hoping years later Microsoft would have solved this, and
other, problems. But Noooo. In the device mgr, I only have “Intel”. Am missing
“Standard”. Will spend countless hours trying to solve this problem. Thanks
alot.

Pujo

3 months ago

Tried this on 3 office pc, all in HDD and all had same problem. The disk usage
is still 100% on startup (probably due to software/antivirus) but the pc is
responding quicker to input. Thats all that matter i guess to be able to had a
decent work condition.

Scot M

3 months ago

This fix worked for my disk problem, so thank you for that! :) Im not sure if it
has any relevance to the fix but since doing this (and i followed it exactly so
i know i didnt hit anything else) none of my bluetooth devices are available for
playback hahah would this have anything to do with it?

Kapil Arya

3 months ago

^^ Glad to help! Well, it doesn’t relates to Bluetooth. Still if you like, you
can see this fix:
https://www.kapilarya.com/fix-bluetooth-not-working-in-windows-10.

Randy

2 months ago

Hello!
I see this article is 6 years old and you are still helping users with this
issue. Thank you for the time you have invested in this issue and in helping
others.
I have an HP Envy 7th gen i7 and I upgraded the HDD to an SSD. After
reinstalling Windows 10 home I was happy with the improved response as expected.
However, after using it for a few days I get an update that sends my SSD into
the 100% state (like your screenshot of the taskmanager) and makes the system
unusable.
I’m on my 7th reinstall of windows. I made the change you suggested (note I’m
using iaStoreAC.sys and the GUID was slightly different). and hope the update
doesn’t crash my system.
Thanks for being here.

Choicey1NDallas

2 months ago

Thanks so much for this post. I’ve googled this problem before and never got a
solution. This time I saw your post and followed the directions and Wa La! even
before the reboot, my disk usage changed from 100% to 96%. Got bless you!

Kapil Arya

2 months ago

^^ Glad to help!

William Battline

3 weeks ago

Check indexing options in the control panel. Mine got turned on somehow and
slowed my PC down. Turn indexing off and the activie time went back to normal
after a few minutes.

HN Chaudhary

2 weeks ago

Hello Sir!
Please help me. I am not having SATA AHCL controller but still disk usage is
100%. I have tried all other methods provided on google like disk check, clean
reboot, etc.

THANK YOU

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