Running Barely Anything: Disk At 100%

DankMemer · 13 Dec 2016

Hey! I've run into a bit of a problem with my computer.
My C: D: disk seems to always be stuck at 100%. I noticed the problem about a month ago, but it was very minor. A few spikes, mainly when I was gaming. Now, it will never go down. I've done extensive research but nothing seems to be working. Things I've tried:

Net _stop spooler
Windows antivirus disabled
Apps notifications disabled
Disk Clean up
Show me tips about windows disabled
Uninstalling everything I don't use
(and more that I can't remember off the top of my head)

I checked to see what was causing the problem, but everything was labeled as either 0 MB/s or 0.1 MB/s

Stats:
Windows 10
i7-4720HQ 2.60Ghz processor
8 Gigs of ram (7.89 usable)
Nvidia GTX 960M

Large Disk eating programs:
Battlefield 4, Battlefield 1, Starwars Battlefront, Sony Vegas Pro 14

Thanks in advance for the help!

dalchina · 14 Dec 2016

Hi, suggest you start with basics:
From an admin command prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Make sure the result is clear or fixed- else do not proceed.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
How do I see the results of a CHKDSK that ran on boot? - Ask Leo!

Now check in Safe Mode and after a clean boot whether your disk is being used and advise.

Please post a screenshot of your task manager in normal mode, organising columns appropriately by clicking on a column header to show highest resource use at the top.

If, after a clean boot, your disk usage is (hopefully) 0, then you may be able to diagnose the problem by progressively allowing startups.

DankMemer · 14 Dec 2016

That fix didn't seem to work for me unfortunately. It did what all fixes I've tried previously. I get immediate results which end up being anywhere from 0-15% but, after a few minutes its back up to 100%.

Here is a picture of task manager before the restart:

Running Barely Anything: Disk At 100%-cap3ture.jpg

Now here is one about five minutes after restart:

Running Barely Anything: Disk At 100%-capt2re.jpg

Also, I don't know if this was supposed to happen but I got this error message before having to manually restart.

Running Barely Anything: Disk At 100%-capture.jpg

dalchina · 14 Dec 2016

Hi, thanks for the screenshots.

Please understand, nothing I posted previously was intended to be a fix. These were simply preliminary steps and information gathering. Nothing more. As such, I will ask the same (unanswered) questions again and would be grateful if you could answer them.

1. Chkdsk. What was the result? Looks like you haven't run it yet. It can't run on your system disk/partition while Windows is running 'cos the disk is in use which is what the message is telling you. Please respond Y, reboot, and examine and report the result.

2. Now boot to Safe Mode and advise disk usage.

3. Now do a clean boot (see Tutorial section or as Google or similar if unsure how) and advise disk usage.

Hopefully your disk usage is near zero in these two cases.

Turning to your t. manager screenshots:

Trend is active in both, presumably in response to the disk activity.
I would suggest, as an experiment, that you disconnect your internet (for safety), disable Trend, and note the effect. I have found in a couple of cases it was necessary to change the AV (I preferred Avast) as one step in reducing resource consumption and resolving issues. However, I can't necessarily conclude that here.

In the second, I am puzzled that Settings should be implicated. Did you specifically open Settings?

Windows Problem Reporting will cause disk activity. Is it normal that this happens after a restart? That needs resolving first.

Have a look at your Reliability History (type Reli into Cortana's search bar) and examine the reports. Is anything repeated? Regularly occurring after a restart?

Please post a screenshot after a normal boot, without Windows Problem Reporting running, and without launching any further programs yourself.

DankMemer · 14 Dec 2016

I did actually press Y, the second screenshot was after the restart and a normal boot. The clean boot did the same kind of thing. 0% for about 5 minutes then went back up to 100%. As for the settings task, no I did not open it. Windows problem reporting, I haven't specifically looked at it, but the icon seems very familiar and I believe that is a regular occurrence. Trend doesn't seem to be much of a problem, I disabled it and it went to between 85-95% which isn't much better.

Now I actually confused here. I was playing a round of Battlefield, and I check the task manager and the disk is at 15%. But after I close it to respond to you, it's back up to 100%

DankMemer · 14 Dec 2016

Also, here is a couple screenshots that might help:

Reliability history:

Task Manager with Without windows problem report:

Running Barely Anything: Disk At 100%-capt2ure.jpg

dalchina · 14 Dec 2016

DankMemer said:

Also, here is a couple screenshots that might help:

Thanks, the second screenshot is a lot more meaningful, however, diagnosing svchost.exe usage is relatively difficult. There will be multiple instances of svchost.exe running for different purposes.

You will need to do some detailed work to diagnose this- I can only point you to relevant sites which you can use for guidance.

I would suggest you do this from a clean boot, to simplify things, or even safe mode if the problem occurs there.
Have as little running as you reasonably can.

I don't think you've yet commented on your disk usage in Safe Mode.

What Is svchost.exe and Why Is It Running?
(Ignore the fact it's Vista - it's been updated).
How do I troubleshoot high usage in Windows 7? - Super User
- you need to download and use the free Sysinternals Process explorer

Most detailed- ok this is about CPU use, but there are good tips on how to identify the svchost.exe processes.
How to Fix Svchost.exe High CPU Usage

Turning to your error report and your reliability history- you need to click on the red x's to show the details below. The screenshot per se only shows that there are some reports. All I can see is that you have some sort of possibly regular failure from your screenshot. This may be unconnected with the disk usage issue, and so perhaps be two different things. I wouldn't expect a Windows error report routinely- if that's what's happening- after a restart and log in.

You can also look at your event log and your event viewer to examine reports, but start with the reliability history.