How to Fix Windows Hanging Due to the 100% Disk Usage Error

Are you facing the common Windows freezing episode? Is your Windows hanging on a new computer? This is a very common issue that affects almost all Windows users from time to time. Unfortunately, there has been no patch to fix this error that mostly affects Windows 8.x and 10. This step by step guide will offer you several ways to fix the 100% disk usage issue, depending on the origin of the bug.

How to Find Out If Your Computer Has The 100% Disk Usage Error

When your computer is lagging, you need to determine if it has a disk usage overload. You need to press ‘Windows key + x’ and select ‘Task Manager’. If your result looks like the image below, then this guide is for you.

The above image shows that the computer is using 100% disc usage.

Method #1: Disable the SuperFetch Service.

SuperFetch is simply responsible for loading Windows applications faster by ensuring that app data is read from the RAM instead of the ROM. The SuperFetch service is a potential cause of the disc usage issue in Windows 8.x and 10. Therefore in this method we are going to disable the superfetch service using the command prompt.

Step 1

Open the command prompt and paste the code below:

net.exe stop superfetch

Check on the task manager to see if the disc usage has reduced. If SuperFetch was the issue, you should be good to go. However, if nothing has changed, move to method 2.

Method #2: Disable the Windows Search

The Windows search has been proved to cause disk usage issues because of the ‘search loop’ bug. For this method, it is recommended to disable the Windows search temporarily first. If you determine that Windows search is the culprit behind your 100% disk usage error, you can proceed to permanently disable it.

Step 1

Open Command prompt (Admin) and paste the code below:

net.exe stop “Windows search”

This will disable windows search until you reboot your computer. Check the Task Manager to see if the disk usage error is fixed. If the disk usage has improved, you can now proceed to the next step.

Step 2

Press ’Windows key + R’ then run ‘services.msc’ as shown below:

Step 3

Locate ‘Windows Search’ entry and open it to configure. Set the ‘Startup type’ as ‘Disabled’. Click on the ‘Stop’ button to stop the service then click on ‘Apply’ then ‘OK’ to save changes.

You have now disabled Windows Search permanently. If you still are experiencing disk usage issues, go to method 3

Method #3: Fix the PCI-Express Firmware Bug

Disk usage issues may be caused by unresponsive drivers. StrAHCI.sys driver has been proved to cause the 100% disk usage error. This method will help you resolve the bug associated with the StorAHCI.sys driver.

Step 1

Open run and run ‘devmgmt.msc’.

Step 2

Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPU controller and open the AHCI entry available. On the Driver tab, click on ‘Driver Details’. If the result is as shown below, then your disk usage issue may be as a result of the bug mentioned earlier.

Step 3

Switch to the ‘Details’ tab and change the ‘Property’ to ‘Device instance path’. You then need copy and paste the value where you can view it e.g. on notepad

Step 4

Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the path below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\(your path)/ Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties 

Note: You need to replace ‘your path’ with the value you had pasted on notepad earlier.

Click on ‘MSISupported’ to configure as shown below:

Step 5

Edit the ‘Value data’ to 0 then click ‘OK’ to save changes.

Your disk usage and performance should now be significantly improved.

Conclusion

If you followed all the steps, you should have fixed your computer disk usage error. If there is no change, you should consider a hardware solution such as replacing the hard drive.