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How To Fix 100% Disk Usage In Windows 10


Recently we shared a post on upgrading your old PC and notebooks to latest Windows 10 legally. You should upgrade your PC/laptop to Windows 10 because it is highly secured and gets timely security updates. If you are using Windows 10 that your computer is safe from ransomware, viruses, and other software vulnerabilities. Indeed Windows 10 is a great and possibly the best operating system today, I won't talk about MAC OS here. But like its predecessors, Windows 10 also comes with several system-level problems. Some of these problems will stay forever if not fixed. First of all, if you have not got your free copy of new Windows 10 then read this post.

Recently I have encountered a serious problem on my Windows 10 notebook which is related to the disk usage. I noticed it a few days back and found that the system performance was ultra slow due to 100% disk usage. The Windows 10 system was using the disk resources completely and no spare resources were left for other programs. The notebook was booting very slowly and the programs took ages to load. So, I started some research on the internet and found that most of the tech websites blamed several internal Windows 10 services for 100% disk usage. But unfortunately none of the listed solutions worked for me and the disk usage remained 100% even after applying the fixes.

So, if your Windows 10 system is eating up your disk resources and making the disk usage to 100% then don't waste time in searching the internet for fixes. I am telling several fixes that you'll find on most websites and those fixes don't work at all.

7 Fixes That Don't Fix The 100% Disk Usage in Windows 10

  • Disable Windows search
  • Disable Superfetch
  • Check antivirus software
  • Disable flash plugin in browsers like chrome or firefox
  • Disable or uninstall Skype
  • Check PCI-Express Firmware Bug (storahci.sys)
  • Disable diagnostic tracking

If you are going to try any of the above non-working fixes then it would be a waste of time. I am unable to get it why Windows search will elevate the disk usage to 100%. Most people also blame superfetch for 100% disk usage but it is also not true. Based on my investigations I found that the flash plugin, Skype, storahci driver, and the diagtrack are not responsible for the 100% disk usage. However I will suggest you scan your computer for viruses with your antivirus, I recommend Avast Internet Security. But my antivirus didn't find any virus and the disk usage was still 100%. I also recommend you to scan your computer with adwcleaner to remove any potentially unwanted program, get adwcleaner here.

task manager disk 100 windows 10

So what actually is causing this problem? Finally, I found that the Windows update service (cleanup) was causing the 100% disk usage problem. It doesn't matter whether your computer using an HDD or SSD as both kinds of drives are affected. Windows update service downloads many updates frequently. So it will also create a lot of junk files on your system. The size of these junk would be in GBs. Windows update downloads new updates and replaces older files with new files and creates a backup of old files. This backup is almost useless and should be deleted. You can find and delete Windows update junk files via 'Disk cleanup'.

How To Fix 100% Disk Usage In Windows 10

The tutorial tells the solution in two parts. So we will first discuss about the part 1 then move on to part 2.

➜ Part 1

  • Go to 'My PC'. Right click on C:\ drive and click 'Properties'. Then click 'Disk cleanup'.
  • Wait for few seconds till the second dialog box opens. Click 'Clean up system files'.
  • If you see 'Windows update cleanup' then check it. Also check other junk files except the 'Windows error reporting'.


  • After selecting the files click 'OK'. Then another dialog box will open. Click 'Delete Files' to delete the junk files.

➜ Part 2

Now you have deleted the junk files. Now Part 2 starts here. In this part we will first stop the Windows update service and then delete the 'SoftwareDistribution' folder. Follows the steps below.
  • Press the Windows key+X and select 'Command Prompt (Admin)'.
  • In the command prompt type the following command below.
net stop wuauserv
  • If this command fails then press Windows key+R and type 'services.msc' and hit enter.
  • Here find 'Windows update'. Right click on it and select 'Stop'. After stopping the service right click on it and click 'Properties'.
  • In 'Startup type' select 'Disabled'.Click 'OK' and close the services management console.
  • If somehow the Windows update service fails to stop then restart your computer and use any of the method above to stop it.
  • After stopping the service go to 'My PC' and open 'C:\Windows'.
  • Find the 'SoftwareDistribution' folder here and delete it.


➜ Important Note: Do not skip the steps below. The steps below tell how to start Windows update service. You should never keep Windows update disabled otherwise your computer won't receive any updates from Microsoft.

  • After deleting this folder press Windows key+R and type 'services.msc' then hit enter.
  • Here find the Windows update service. Right click on it and click 'Start'.
  • After the service gets started again click on it to select 'Properties'.
  • Make sure in 'Startup type' 'Manual' is selected. Click 'OK' and exit.
  • Restart your computer.

After applying this above mentioned fix the 100% disk usage problem will be fixed. You can check it yourself by opening the task manager. To open the task manager press Windows key+X and select 'Task Manager'. Here check the disk usage it would be less than 10% and sometimes 0%.

FAQ 1: My Disk Usage Is Still 100% Even After Applying The Fix

Well the disk usage will be 100% if you transfer data from the hard disk or write on to it. You may see high disk usage after initial booting. However this effect will be there for only few minutes. After that the disk usage will return to normal. If even after applying the fix the disk usage is 100% then check Windows update. Use the following commands to fix this issue.

  • Press Windows key+X and click 'Command Prompt (Admin)'.
  • Type 'net stop wuauserv'.
  • If the service doesn't get stopped then re-execute the command.
  • After the service gets stopped type the command 'net start wuauserv' to start the Windows update service.

So we have fixed the 100% disk usage problem in Windows 10 for any HDD or SSD. So if you find this article useful then please take two minutes to share it.


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