I recently installed windows 8 pro on my hp Probook 4530s. i am having problem that system gets freeze for 5-10 min. during this feeze hard disk acivity light constantly remains on. i checked from resource monitor. Disk Highest Active Time remains 100%. CPU Usage remians normal 5-10%, RAM usage remain normal 40%. No application is running, Some system files keep the system busy. I cannot under stand whats going on.

Can any body help.

• Edited by Hassan Shabir Monday, January 14, 2013 11:27 AM

Hi,

make a xperf trace [1] to diagnostic HDD activity. You can find in the Wiki a "how to" to install the tools [2]. Please upload the XperfSlowIOcir.etl to your SkyDrive [3] and post a link here.

I'll take a look at it.

Andr

[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ntdebugging/archive/2009/08/17/xperf-to-investigate-slow-i-o-issues.aspx
[2] http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4847.install-the-windows-performance-toolkit-wpt.aspx
[3] http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/4fc10639-02db-4665-993a-08d865088d65

Hi Andr,

I've got Windows 8 (not pro) with the same 100% disk-usage problem. For as far as I can see, it's the System process and I've noticed you're the one to turn to with this problem.

I've installed the SDK, but when running the xperf batch-script I get a "xperf: error: NT Kernel Logger: Toegang geweigerd. (0x5)." (dutch for Access Denied). Could you help me getting the xperf trace and to the root of the problem?

You must run it from a command prompt which is running with admin rights (elevated).

Please also add +DISK_IO after DRIVERS, so see if the FileIO also causes DIsk IO.

Ok, I've run the xperf trace, but .. where's the etl-file?

Edit: Found it and uploaded it into SkyDrive. Thanks so far and I hope you can make anything of it.

• Edited by Klaas van der Weij Thursday, February 28, 2013 7:23 PM

you must post the link to your SkyDrive here.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=AEDCD60B437E35EA!111&authkey=!AI_fV_jS-bD9Fz0

I think Superfetch is causing the 100% DISK usage. Your Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 is not the fasted HDD and so the drive is busy.

consider an upgrade to a SSD (Samsung 830 or 840 Pro).

Well, the question is what keeps the drive busy? After a while of rattling, the HDD activy drops to a decent 2-20% and this laptop is fast again. 

Well, the question is what keeps the drive busy? After a while of rattling, the HDD activy drops to a decent 2-20% and this laptop is fast again. 

? I already told you that Superfetch is the cause. After it fetches all important data to RAM, it stop and the HDD activity goes down.

read here what Superfetch is:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.03.vistakernel.aspx

Ah, I totally misread that. Thanks for finding this out.

I will probably replace my optical drive with a SDD later on, then.

Andre this cannot be a serious recommendation. I think Microsoft should really investigate this issue thoroughly. I have a brand new Samsung All in one desktop computer (with an admittedly slow 5400 rpm hard drive) facing the same 100% disk usage every time I return to my computer after having left some programs idle. The fact that superfetch does not recognize that it should stop superfetching and hand back the resources to the user is a serious flaw and it just goes against its own raison d 'etre, i.e. making my computer faster. Instead it stalls it for minutes by generating disk i/o operations...

Upgrading my harddrive, serious? 

• Edited by Gyorgy Gyomai 18 hours 56 minutes ago