I am running a Toshiba Satellite C855D-S5110. 12 GB Ram, 456 GB HD with 311 GB free, CPU Max speed 2.7 GH. My computer, as many other W8 and W8.1 users seem to suffer, is nearly constantly at 100% disk usage (apparently I have seen many claims as to what causes this; some even say it involves a bad HD. However, I do not think my HD is bad because 1. My HD was fine before I got 8.1, to the best of my knowledge ( was on 8 prior to 8.1) 2. Most importantly, when my computer isn't in the 100% phases, it seems to work absolutely fine!
I would like help in figuring out what to do about this problem, as well as why it occurs and why it works the way it does (i.e. seemingly just going away for long periods of time). It is extremely difficult to work when my computer is being very slow, and not knowing when it will happen or what makes it stop happening is frustrating. I will provide below a list of measures I have taken, edited to include new things tried. 1. Adding RAM 2. Increasing pagefile 3. Running programs to clean up clutter, fix registry problems, free up memory, etc (specifically, Iolo System Mechanic) 4. Disabling the Windows Search Indexing service 5. Checking for updates 6. Running Microsoft Security Scanner (it found nothing) 7. Disabling Live Tiles (of which I only had one in the first place!) 8. One person claimed that their problem went away when they ran Skype, of all things. I tried this, though it did not do the trick. 9. Booting in Safe Mode. 10. Clean Boot. 11. My drive is 0% fragmented. --- 12. Trying to repair the Windows Image does nothing, as it comes up as being healthy when scanned.

13. sfc /scannow did not fix the problem either.
14. Running Microsoft's performance scanner and uploading the .etl file got me a reply blaming Chrome, which is impossible because the problem occurs with no programs running. I will try another recording and put it up; the link will be edited in.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=DD4BA6A3F312AE94!945&authkey=!APrxfxQeNw14igc&ithint=file%2c.etl

• Edited by FiveTwoThree Saturday, December 21, 2013 3:07 AM

Hi

May I know when this issue start happen?

Many suggestion from the internet, lets try all

http://superuser.com/questions/649862/windows-8-hard-disk-usage-100

http://superuser.com/questions/591250/windows-8-extremely-high-disk-usage-and-slow-io?rq=1

You can also try this tools

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ntdebugging/archive/2009/08/17/xperf-to-investigate-slow-i-o-issues.aspx

• Edited by Andy NugrahaMicrosoft contingent staff Wednesday, December 18, 2013 7:13 AM

Having the exact same problem on a computer after the Windows update installed from 8.0 to 8.1. 

Even after reloading the computer  from scratch.

The drive activity goes WAY up when booting  - to 100%.  It then seems to calm down but randomly will go up and down throughout the day peaking at 100%. Even when nothing is open except a MSWord page into which  I am typing.

If other programs are open such as Excel and/or Internet Explorer they will display the file name at the top as usual with (Not Responding) at the end. The screen will fade to an opaque look. This lasts for up to approx. 15 minutes at times and the computer responds to no keyboard or mouse clicks. The mouse pointer on the screen still moves but nothing happens when I click on anything.

I managed to keep the Task Manager visible and it clearly shows less than 20% memory use and less than 5% CPU use when this occurs. But the HDD is at 100%.

The fact that it was fine prior to updating to 8.1 indicates an issue with 8.1 to me. Absolutely nothing else has changed on this machine - aside from Windows Update.

This is a know fault and I hate W8.1. Once it finishes whatever it is doing then there are a bunch of screen flashes as it catches up to what ever and where ever I had clicked with the mouse while it was frozen. It is like it is catching up because W8.1 is causing the HDD to ???????????

Another issue I encounter is the stupid Automatic Maintenance that cannot be disabled. I have found nothing to accomplish this that actually works no matter what anyone has posted on MS sites. It last rendered my computer today useless for approx. +1 hour today!!! I had been using the computer and it was never idle for more than 1 or 2 minutes but yet it started. It is set to run at 1:00 am but it was only approx. 5:00 pm.!!

The Automatic Maintenance is not running however, when the computer freezes and uses 100% HDD as indicated by Task Manager.

Also I can disconnect the computer from the modem or power off the modem and the HDD remains at 100%! So it is not sending nor receiving anything at that time.

• Edited by IKanIKan Friday, May 02, 2014 3:10 AM

It's runtime blocker & windows module installer & Disable superfetch in Services.msc. It's not chrome, chrome also bring more % disk usage if you open many tabs.

Open Task manager> Processes: end task of Module Installer & Runtime blocker...They may appears sometime, close them again. Then windowskey + R > services.msc & stop Superfetch. I say that microsoft should get a fix for this for users that don't know how to do this..I have instal my windows 8.1 3 time to resolve this and my disk usage became 1% and some time up to 22%.

• I use Avg & Chrome & Mawarebytes at the same time =60% disk usage
• I use Avg & Advanced Sytemcare & Mawarebytes =100% Disk usage

Attention Don't instal Advanced system care it's advanced systemcare who brings this to your pc, if you unistal it your disk usage will remain 100%. you should do that i say. Disable etc..

• Proposed as answer by ANDREW PINEDA AGUIRRE Wednesday, March 04, 2015 12:36 PM
• Unproposed as answer by ZigZag3143xMVP, Moderator Wednesday, March 04, 2015 1:14 PM

I hav a simular issue with my laptop. Once started, If I run certain programs the laptop is unresponsive.

If I have Task manager running it indicates 100% disk usage. I can see no reason for this.

After some searching, I stopped (but did not disable)  the BITS service and the issue seems to go away.

However BITS is used by windows update, so is needed I think for windows updates, so I am going to have to stop it as required for now until i find a better solution.

See http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1658680/prevent-100-disk-usage-windows.html

May also try disableling the superfetch service for simlular reasons.