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

Anonymous
2015-08-16T12:25:27+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-14T02:54:35+00:00

    This totally worked for me:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D\_XTinqqULg

    Before disk usage always ended up 100%, froze the computer, very frustrating.  Problem solved.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-05-14T02:55:09+00:00

    This totally worked for me:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D\_XTinqqULg

    Before disk usage always ended up 100%, froze the computer, very frustrating.  Problem solved.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-14T13:26:36+00:00

    I tried many of the things in this topic with no or ill effect mostly.  Didn't try to disable superfetch.  

    What I did do is rename a file that stalled a virus scan -- a system file called perfh009.dat.  (Perflib was where a registry scan kept stalling -- coincidence?)

    I tried to copy it first, but it could not be read from the disk to copy.  So now I'm running without this file, and so far it's not been missed.  The good news.... so far no 100% disk usage.

    I'm not sure how to do chkdsk to mark bad sectors -- but I expect this file contains a bad sector.  I wanted to move it, by copying elsewhere... But it seems, so far (knock wood) unnecessary.  Did somebody say bloatware?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-16T19:58:22+00:00

    Hello everyone.

    I have good news for the SO many people struggling to fix the 100% hdd usage.

    You see i've been a victim of that issue myself.

    For the last two days i tried every so called solution that i read on the web. Even crazy stuff. Nothing worked. Nothing at all (especially the silly suggestions like the chrome and skype ones, i don't even have chrome installed).

    I was so frustrated i was seriously considering buying a new pc!  yes that frustrated.

    As a last resort i opened a chat with Microsoft support.

    I had little hope the support person would suggest anything effective but to my surprise it worked immediately (yeah, i know, if you are here, you've read that promise before, but THIS IS THE REAL DEAL!).

    Enough talking. Here's what you should do:

    open msconfig (simply type msconfig in the search field)

    and go to the Boot tab.

    There click the Advanced button.

    You will see a checkbox with the text "number of processors". Check the box and make it 1.

    To the right of that there is another checkbox that says maximum memory. Check that box too and set a value equal to the size of your RAM.   For example my laptop has 4GB RAM so i set it to 4096.

    Click ok, apply,ok, and it will restart.

    The 100% problem will not bother you anymore!  :)

    You can send me a "thank you Greek guy"  :)

    Kisses from Greece,

    Anastasios

    UPDATE:  Although the method solves the 100% hdd usage issue, changing the number of processors to 1 will impact performance. I've now unchecked the number of processors checkbox and only used the maximum memory one.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-05-16T21:00:54+00:00

    "thank you Greek guy"  :)

    As you say SOOO many issues with heaps of different threads all about the same or very similar issue. Great to have a simple solution.

    Bill

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