In my experience with Windows 8.1, I have encountered the frustrating issue of 100% disk usage. This article aims to provide practical solutions to fix this problem and improve the overall performance of your system.
Disable Culprit Services to Fix High Disk Usage
To fix high disk usage in Windows 8.1, you can try disabling culprit services. These services may be running in the background and consuming a significant amount of disk resources.
To disable culprit services, follow these steps:
1. Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard.
2. Click on the “Services” tab in the Task Manager window.
3. Look for the services with high disk usage. They may be listed under the “Disk” column.
4. Right-click on the service and select “Open Services” from the context menu.
5. In the Services window, locate the service you want to disable.
6. Right-click on the service and select “Properties” from the context menu.
7. In the Properties window, click on the “Stop” button to stop the service.
8. Change the “Startup type” to “Disabled” to prevent the service from starting automatically.
9. Click “Apply” and then “OK” to save the changes.
10. Repeat the above steps for any other services with high disk usage.
Disabling culprit services can help alleviate high disk usage issues in Windows 8.1.
Increase Virtual Memory to Fix High Disk Usage
To fix high disk usage on Windows 8.1, one solution is to increase virtual memory. Virtual memory is a feature that allows your computer to use a portion of your hard disk drive as additional memory when your RAM is full.
To increase virtual memory on Windows 8.1, follow these steps:
1. Open the Control Panel by clicking on the Start menu and selecting “Control Panel.”
2. In the Control Panel, click on “System and Security.”
3. Under the “System” section, click on “System.”
4. In the System window, click on “Advanced system settings” on the left-hand side.
5. In the System Properties window, go to the “Advanced” tab.
6. Under the “Performance” section, click on the “Settings” button.
7. In the Performance Options window, go to the “Advanced” tab.
8. Under the “Virtual memory” section, click on the “Change” button.
9. Uncheck the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” checkbox.
10. Select the drive that you want to increase virtual memory for (usually the C: drive).
11. Choose the “Custom size” option and enter a larger value for the initial size and maximum size of the virtual memory. The recommended size is usually 1.5 times the amount of RAM installed on your computer.
12. Click on the “Set” button and then click on “OK” to save the changes.
Increasing virtual memory can help alleviate high disk usage on Windows 8.1 by providing additional memory resources for your computer to use.
Disable MSI Mode in StorAHCI Controller to Fix High Disk Usage
To fix high disk usage in Windows 8.1, you can disable MSI mode in the StorAHCI Controller. This can help improve performance and resolve issues related to disk usage. Here’s how you can do it:
1. Press the Windows key + X and select “Device Manager” from the menu.
2. In the Device Manager window, expand the “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers” category.
3. Right-click on the “Standard SATA AHCI Controller” (or a similar name) and select “Properties.”
4. Go to the “Driver” tab and click on “Driver Details.”
5. If you see “storahci.sys” in the list of driver files, it means you can proceed with disabling MSI mode. If not, this method may not be applicable to your system.
6. Go back to the “Driver” tab and click on “Disable Device.”
7. A warning message will appear. Check the box that says “Delete the driver software for this device” and click “Yes.”
8. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
After disabling MSI mode in the StorAHCI Controller, check if the disk usage has improved. If the issue persists, you may need to try other troubleshooting methods or seek further assistance.
Turn off Notifications and Disable Application Experience & Disk Defrag Tasks to Fix 100% Disk Usage
- Open the Settings app by pressing the Windows key + I on your keyboard.
- Click on System.
- Select Notifications & actions from the left-hand menu.
- Toggle the Get notifications from apps and other senders switch to Off.
Disable Application Experience & Disk Defrag Tasks
- Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc on your keyboard.
- Click on the Startup tab.
- Scroll down the list and locate Application Experience and Disk Defragmenter tasks.
- Right-click on each task and select Disable.
