Windows 8 keeps slows down to 100% disk usage and hangs.

If you are having 100% HDD utilization problems the following actions should definitely fix it, unless your problem is machine specific.

The following have been identified as the sources of unnecessary HDD utilization in Windows 8 and 8.1. These actions are safe to take. Taking these actions will very likely resolve all your HDD over-usage issues.

A) Uninstall Windows Messaging APPIn Windows 8 and 8.1 there is a background service called LiveComm.exe. This executable is installed as part of the Windows Live Essentials package which is preloaded into Windows 8. This background service is one of the reasons why many of you have hard drive utilization problems. This executable starts running randomly and for no reason and it starts to read and write to some unknown files without being permitted to. It is installed as part of the Windows "Messaging" app which is basically the Metro App version of the Windows Live Messenger. This file can cause massive read write issues to your hard drive and at times consumes up to 1.5GB of you ram for no apparent reason even though non of the those apps may be running. Removing LiveComm.exe does not cause any issues for your windows as it is not part of windows. However to remove it you must uninstall the "Messaging" app from windows. Also, thanks to Microsoft, in order to uninstall the Messaging app you have to also uninstall the "Calender" and the "Mail".  So if you don't mind not having those apps, then it is highly recommended that you remove all 3 of them as this will alleviate a good portion of your hard drive problems. If you like to have a calender app there are many alternative free ones on Windows store which are superior to the Microsoft one.

**B) Disable Windows Search Indexing:**The indexing service searches your files and their contents on a regular basis in order to make searches faster for you. To put it very shortly, the Indexing service is in most cases (for most people) more of a burden than an asset. It utilizes your HDD for long periods reading and writing large files to your hard drive without need. You are better off either disabling it completely or limiting it only to the locations you wish to index.

To disable Indexing you can follow the instructions on **this page**. A quick search in google will also find you many other pages explaining the process.

Alternatively If you don't want to disable it completely you can limit it only to the areas that you use the most and wish to be indexed for faster search results (places like your user folder and all its contents).

Do limit the Indexing, do the following:

• simply go to "Computer"
• Right click on you main drive (usually "C:") and click "Properties"
• At bottom of page you'll see an option that says: "Allow Files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties". Un-check the box for this option so that its off.
• Now click "OK" to close the properties window.
• Now all the file paths will be removed from the indexing list. This will take a minute or two. Be patient. You will get a message saying some files could not be modified, and asks you what to do. Simply click "Ignore".
• Now do this for all your other Hard Drives (or partitions) in the system.
• Now go to "Control Panel" and then "Indexing Options".
• Here you can specifically select and add any location you wish to be indexed.
• You are done.

C) Disable SuperFetch and Prefetch:

Superfetch and prefetch are systems to enable quicker loading of programs you use regularly. Superfetch preloads them into memory. However this causes HDD read and writes when you are not expecting them and without your knowledge. Disable them. This is a safe action and can be easily undone if you change your mind. For instruction on how to do this please search on google. There is plenty of information on this.

D) Disable Automatic Disk Defragmentation:

Disk defragmentation is automatically scheduled to run in Windows. You can disable this or change the schedule to a time that you like so that it doesn't interfere with your daily usage. For instructions please search google, there is plenty of good "how to.." pages.

E) Reduce/Disable Virtual Memory:

"Virtual Memory" is used to extend your total available memory by using the Hard Drive. This is important only in cases where the total memory required by all the running applications exceeds your total amount of RAM, This can happen if you are doing professional tasks like video editing or high-volume photo editing, playing high-end video games, or if you have a very high number if web-pages open (70+) in your browser. Now if this happens and you don't have enough memory the system will get very slow and eventually one of the programs will crash and the memory it was using will get released to the system again. Windows does this automatically, it terminates one of the programs to prevent itself from crashing. To avoid this windows uses the hard drive as extra space to give memory to those apps. This is called Virtual Memory.

If you have enough RAM in your computer it is not a good idea to have virtual memory enabled because windows starts to use the much slower virtual memory on your hard drive (even though it doesn't need to) instead of using the much superior RAM. This is due to poor memory management by windows and many applications. Therefore by disabling Virtual memory or limiting it's size you are preventing windows from using the HDD needlessly when it has plenty of RAM.

If you have 6GB or 8GB of RAM (or higher) in your system you are totally safe to completely disable Virtual Memory as it is almost impossible to run yourself out of memory by regular daily tasks. To re-assure you, VM has been disabled on my system for over a year now on my system with 4GB of RAM and I have never experienced a problem. Unless you have 5GB of files open in photoshop and have a zillion web pages open at the same time and playing a video game too, you shouldn't have any concerns. If you have 4GB of RAM you are still safe to disable VM (as I have on my system) as long as you keep your ram usage in check. I use photoshop and often have up to 30  content-heavy webpages open at the same time, but no problem. When I need VM I enable it. If you play high-end video games though it is recommended to keep some VM according to the recommendation set below.

Alternatively, If you have less than 4GB of RAM or you want to be safe then, you should edit the Virtual Memory policies by changing it from "System Managed" to "Custom Size". Set the Minimum size to 256MB, and set the Maximum size to 1024MB". (For instructions on editing VM do a google search or read back within this thread). This will ensure that in the event of a need for VM you system will automatically use more and more VM according to its need. You could technically set the VM maximum higher, but it is not a good idea. Why would you want to run over 1GB of data from Virtual Memory on your HDD? you computer will become VERY VERY SLOW. You should instead close some application and stay within the size of your Physical Memory (RAM). Virtual Memory should only serve to prevent a system crash for you, not to actually run programs off of.

If you've found this article helpful please flag it so other users see it. Thank you. Best of luck.