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

2017-04-09T05:18:07+00:00

Tried every suggestion in this entire thread but no avail. The did usage remained at 100%.

One suggestion "Set the compatibility of IDE controller to windows 8" caught my attention. Essentially I downgraded the driver of the device SATA AHCI controller to a windows 8 driver, one prior to windows 10 release. Voila!!!

It works!!! The disk usage is now absolutely normal and my laptop has its life back.

For all those who have tried all other options (services, registry settings, power options, chrome, firefox, prefetcher, skype, windows search, windows superfetch, etc.) and disk usage is still high, I suggest you try this.
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Anonymous

2017-04-11T04:43:58+00:00

You, my good sir, are a golden god among men.

Thanks a ton.
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Anonymous

2017-04-11T06:38:09+00:00

Did uninstall the driver first? I am showing driver series 8 SATA AHCI Controller. Is this the one you are referring to. Oh holy one.
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Anonymous

2017-04-11T12:00:31+00:00
Apologies, I should have documented detailed steps:
1. Use the Device Manager to get the hardware ID of your IDE controller.
1. Use this ID (in the picture above, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8C03&CC_010601) and search for a driver on devID.info (http://devid.info/en/search?text=PCI%5CVEN\_8086%26DEV\_8C03%26CC\_010601)
2. You will see a list of drivers compatible with different versions of windows, select 8.1 tab.
3. Select the driver from 2015, ensure that that it does not show Win10 as a compatible OS.
4. Download the zip, ensure that you download the correct zip. The website will inform you that there is a later version of the driver. Do not download that.
5. Unzip the drive, use the "Update Driver" -->>"Browse My Computer for driver Software" -->> "Let me pick from a list of available drivers" --> "Have Disk" --> Select the folder where you have unzipped the driver and choose the right .sys file.
In my case I chose iaStorAC.inf
1. Restart and check the task Manager. Here are my results.
Note: You might have to try a few drivers to get the desired results. But 2015-Nov drives with windows 8.1 compatibility should work. I have a Asus GL552JX laptop.
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Anonymous

2017-04-19T14:26:35+00:00

Don't even have skype installed, do you know any other programs that can cause this?
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