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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.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Just to make it clear:
We are talking about a Disk staying at 100%. When I restart new computers the Hard Drives are all staying at 100% for about 5 minutes. My laptops at home with Windows 10 are doing the same thing, and after 5 minutes goes down to 0% to 10%.
I have a 1 year old, HP Pavilion AMD A-10, Windows 10, 64 bit, 8 GB RAM, and a 1 TB Hard Drive. After 2 minutes my Hard Drive usage goes down to almost 0. After 5 minutes, right now, when I look at Task Manager my Hard Drive is fluctuating between 5%-8%.
The Microsoft Store installed Windows 10 on my laptop. The laptop first after the install was staying at 100% for 10 minutes, and then would go down from there. They kept it for 1 week. After I took it home, it was going at 100% for 10 minutes and then go down to the 5%-8%. Doing that Google trick as the 1st poster suggested lowered the 100% to 2 minutes, and then it drops almost to 0%.
I finally called Microsoft support and to their credit the tech spent 1.5 hours with me trying to troubleshoot the problem. The tech was very thorough and tried many of these same recommendations to no avail. Finally recommended reverting back to Win7. Unfortunately, the system is so crapped out that it keeps locking up when trying to revert back. It looks like I'll have to install a whole new fresh install.
The only thing that worked for me was to disable the Windows Defender. It will be enabled again after sometime, and then the disk usage goes up to 100%.
But there should be another solution, Windows Defender is a MS application and I should not be disabling it to bring down disk usage.
The laptop I am using is a MS Signature edition Dell i7347-10051sLV with 8GB RAM
Its not working, I don't have skype and chrome install but system hang with 100% disk activity
