Fixing 100% disk usage in Windows 10 with Chrome and Skype running

Anonymous

How to fix 100% disk usage in Windows 10

This is caused by a common combination of Skype as well Google Chrome. Similar issue with other programs could also cause 100% disk usage. To fix this do the following:

Google Chrome:

In Google Chrome, go to Settings > Show Advanced Settings ... > Privacy > Prefetch resources to load pages more quickly

and untick it. See Figure-1 below:

Figure-1

Skype:

Make sure you have exited Skype and it is not running in the taskbar (if it is running in the taskbar then quit it).

Open Windows Explorer and open the following folder:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone"

Now right click "Skype.exe" file and then click "Properties" and open the "Security" tab.

Click the "Edit" button and then highlight "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" and place a tick in the "Write" box.

Click "Apply" and then "OK" and then "OK" again. See Figures-2 to Figure-6 below:

This is it, now run Skype and check the Disk Usage in Task Manager and it will no longer show you 100% disk usage anymore:-

I hope this helps people. I spent a long time in finding a solution to this problem.

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491 answers

Anonymous

2016-01-29T02:02:01+00:00

I'll say once again to you guys-

See my earlier comments above regarding the following:

Check your hard drive- is it an SSD or a whirling disk?

What does S.M.A.R.T. say? And are you monitoring the disk hardware?

Bah! I am outa this thread
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Anonymous

2016-01-29T01:55:23+00:00

have you installed the driver manually?

or are you using intel installer?
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Anonymous

2016-01-29T01:41:48+00:00

I had HORRIBLE problems with 100% disc use, at startup and then it would also fluctuate for a while after startup, again going up to 100%. My machine would then be unstable for many minutes afterward. I'm watching the HDD light during startup and it's staying bright as day. The culprits were Service Host--System, Host Process for Windows Tasks, and System and Compressed Memory. Oh yeah, and my firewall trying to load in there edgewise. This came up after installing Intel chipset drivers, so if anyone can relate, maybe this helps you.

--Disable Superfetch, as others have stated.

--Wait up to one minute or longer for your Internet setup to warm up and fully make contact with your machine. I unplug my stuff after shutting down for security reasons but if you leave yours connected, then this wouldn't apply, I guess.

I have a router and modem and I've learned that waiting is necessary, I'd rather wait for 45- 60 seconds before boot than watch my hard drive get assaulted and beaten up by various Windows services for too long a time. With Windows 8.1, I didn't have the connectivity issues like I do with Windows 10, but apparently, it's a widespread problem.
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Anonymous

2016-01-29T01:06:16+00:00

have you checked the disk controller on the device manager? whatever system you are running, if the disk controller driver states as Standard SATA with driver date 2006 and version 10.x

your disk is going to 100%.

install a better driver manually from the chipset manufacturers website. Ive fixed this problem on 5 PCs with or without Skype and various hardware configuration.
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Anonymous

2016-01-28T18:34:41+00:00

I'm running Windows 10 on an HP Touchsmart with an i5 and 4gb of RAM. My HDD is a hybrid with the OS running on the SSD (or so I understand). After I've been using my machine for a few hours I suffer episodes during which disk usage reaches 100% and renders the machine almost unusable. The curious thing about this is that the processes tab in Task Manager only shows about 50% disk usage, while the graphic display on the performance tab shows 100%, which corresponds to the performance problems I'm suffering. The obvious explanation for such anomalous behaviour would be malware of some sort, but scans by AVG and IObit Malware Fighter both come up clean. I've disabled prefetch in Chrome and made the changes to Skype as suggested earlier in this thread. I also tried disabling Windows superfetch but disk activity hit 100% again almost immediately, so I've re-enabled it. Rebooting the machine does work for a while but it's hardly a sustainable solution. I'd be enormously grateful for any suggestions. If my specific issue has been addressed somewhere in the previous 10 pages of this thread and I've missed it, I do apologise.
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