Windows 8 using 100% of HDD with high average response times and low read/write speed

Hello,

I would like to try clean up my registry too. How can I do that on Windows RT (Surface)? Thanks.

I would like the share HAPPILY THAT I HAVE CHANCED UPON A POTENTIAL SOLUTION to this problem. That is optimizing the registry !. While installing a Bluetooth device driver I got a 183 error and while searching the solution suggested was to clean up registry. When I analysed the registry, I was amazed to notice that it was rather like a junk yard (3000 bad entries) than a vital storage necessary to run a complex OS & its apps. It means that many of the applications that we install and uninstall, including those from Microsoft (like Silverlight) leave some debris that affect the performance of the registry, it seems.

I used the CCleaner discussed in the link http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/free-registry-cleaner-programs.htm. Take a back up of the registry using the Export menu in the 'RegEdit' program before running the cleaner. 

After this, the random spikes in disk usage is almost not there since the last 6 days. Others may please try this and share your experience.

1. The spike in the disk usage and consequent lock up of the PC for 4-5 minutes has been happening as randomly as just clicking on a tab of the IE or opening a small PDF  or even moving the mouse. Simply there was no pattern at all. I have tried disabling the Antimalware executable, disabling search indexing, increasing the virtual memory, upgrading to Win 8.1, removing all unwanted software, disconnecting network, etc. None of these have helped.
2. In two instances the disk usage definitely spikes even now. (a) If the auto update is on (I have kept it off now), (b) if the Windows has been idle for quite some time. In the later instance it appears that the MSMPENG.exe takes over and starts scanning the machine for virus / malware. To test this, start the Task manager (TM) window and switch of the monitor while the machine is on. Immediately you can seen that the red light glows indicating the spike in HDD use. When you switch the monitor on you can see the result in the TM.
3. Many times under the Processes in the TM, the System (ntoskrnl.exe) or one of the Service Host (Svhost.exe) processes show high Disk Usage while in Details tab one can see that the I/O read of the MSMPENG or IE or some other process goes up. It makes me think that the issue is inherent in the internals of the OS and it is time Microsoft looks deeper into this.
4. I am not quite sure why cleaning the registry would resolve this issue but that is breakthrough I have seen after struggling with this for over 10 months.

There are literally over a 100 threads in different forums, including 20+, in this forum about the high disk usage in Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 on PCs or laptops of different brands, configurations, types of HDD, etc. I suggest that Microsoft engineers take this serious and work towards a solution.

Bingo I have same problem wit h 8.1 its strange because I have had it installed since end of September and no problems till the other day 

I used my custom refresh image for a refresh and it sorta gone but the system still feels slow and sense patch Tuesday October I have lost my laptop internal can and with the refresh still gone

I'm on a dell xps 17 3D model

12gig ram a nvidia 555m 3gig ram

With a 2760q quad

700gig HD Hitachi 7200rpm

There's no reason this system should come to a crawl out of no where's doing simple web browsing

Has any one found any better fixxes as most here tryed still don't solve problem

True (: it doesn't help. The pagefile.sys and the swapfile.sys is writing furiously always when the lag happens.

Possibly not relevant here given that Surface RT's use Windows RT, and have an SSD not an HDD.