100% Disk Usage - System Freezing

Hi

I have noticed for some time now that I get system freezes and always it is because HDD usage has spiked to 100% and stays there for some time. Even after eventually managing to close stuff down through task manager (also stuck because of high disk usage), the disk usage then drops rapidly only to spike again as soon as I so much as open a browser. Then all of sudden it settles down again to what I would consider a normal level if disk activity that allows me to use the machine in a pretty seamless way as I would expect. Sometimes I have resorted to a hard reboot which usually sorts the problem until it recurs again. I think it often manifests when I leave stuff open overnight and then come back to the machine in the morning. But this is by no means always the case.

Looking at the process monitor when this is happening it is difficult to pinpoint those processes that are causing the issue because they are constantly changing although at these times there a few that are causing high read write speeds jumping around at the top of the list. Often Firefox (with multiple tabs left open overnight) is has a lot of processes to its name but for most of these the disk activity shows as 0Mbps with maybe one or two showing high activity. Malware Bytes often features along with multiple 'System' processes.

I run only the O/S from this disk, all data is on a separate HDD. Specs as listed for the desktop. I am starting to look for new machine that will run windows 11.

Could the disk issues partly be updated Windows 10 software working on old hardware or do you think this is wholly a software issue? I have a sense that this has problem has worsened over time and now seems to happen regularly.

The odd thing though is that eventually it seems to settle down and I can use the PC as I would expect, with heavy multi-tasking most of the time and pretty snappy performance.

Any views/help much appreciated.

Edition Windows 10 ProVersion 20H2
Installed on ‎14/‎09/‎2020
OS build 19042.1466
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0

Hi, what's the disk transfer rate when it's an 100% usage?

There are a number of threads where a restricted transfer rate means you see 100% usage with much lower data transfer rates than your disk is capable of.

Never seen that easy to resolve though.

On the other hand if you can demonstrate a good maximum data transfer rate (task manager, Performance) then it's not that.

Hi @kevvyb

Your problem could be Disk Usage Spikes/ Lockups.

Here are a few things that might fix your issue:

1. Reinstall the SATA AHCI driver
2. Stop Windows Search
3. Disable the BITS, Superfetch, and Windows Search services
4. Check your antivirus -Your antivirus can be demanding on your resources and that can cause issues to appear.
5. Make sure that your system is up to date
6. Switch to High Performance mode
7. Reset the virtual memory
8. Try a different drive, your hdd could be dying.

If you need help with any of the above options, click here.

Hopefully this helps.

-James