Earlier, we have seen how to fix low memory problem on Windows 10 in following article:

Fix: ‘Your computer is low on memory’ error in Windows 10

As far as low memory problem is concerned, it might happen due to high use of resources by some of the programs. Today, in this article, we will talk about yet another similar issue in which you found that your Windows system is consuming 100% disk space. We recently came across this situation in one of the Windows 10 Pro running system. In the Task Manager, under Performance tab, the disk utilization reaches to 100% due to which system became lagging and unresponsive. It started freezing in few moments and this keeps happening until disk usage reduces from 100%. This can be observed in following screenshot:

FIX Windows 10 100 Percent Disk Usage Problem

If you’re also facing this problem, it is very important that you fix it asap. Because lagging machines shows poor productivity and gives worst user experience. According to Microsoft, the reason behind this issue is presence of Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) mode which is enabled by default. When MSI is active, Solid State Drives (SSDs) are unable to complete input/output (I/O) requests under a period of time and Windows storage stacks have to reset disk devices after waiting indefinitely for read/write responses. These resets makes Windows to consume 100% of disk space which affects other resources on machine and hence system becomes unresponsive.

The issue can be fixed by disabling MSI mode for your Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) used by StorACHI.sys driver. Here are the complete steps:

FIX : Windows 10 100 Percent Disk Usage Problem

1. Press  W8K + R and type devmgmt.msc in the Run, hit Enter key to open Device Manager snap-in.

Device Manager Windows 10

2. In the Device Manager window, expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and right click on Standard SATA AHCI Controller, select Properties.

FIX Windows 10 100 Percent Disk Usage Problem

3. In the property sheet, switch to Driver tab and click Driver Details.

FIX Windows 10 100 Percent Disk Usage Problem

4. If the Driver File Details window shows storahci.sys driver listed there, it means you’re running inbox driver and hence it is possible to disable MSI mode. Click OK.

FIX Windows 10 100 Percent Disk Usage Problem

5. Back on the property sheet, switch to Details tab. Against Property, select Device instance path from drop-down and note down the Value mentioned there.

FIX Windows 10 100 Percent Disk Usage Problem

Registry Disclaimer: The further steps will involve registry manipulation. Making mistakes while manipulating registry could affect your system adversely. So be careful while editing registry entries and create a System Restore point first.

6. Press W8K + R and put regedit in Run dialog box to open Registry Editor (if you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, then click here). Click OK.

Windows 10 Registry Editor

7. In the Registry Editor window, navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\<AHCI Controller Value>\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties

*Substitute <AHCI Controller Value> we got in step 5.

FIX Windows 10 100 Percent Disk Usage Problem

8. In the right pane of MessageSignaledInterruptProperties key, look for the registry DWORD (REG_DWORD) named MSISupported which should be corresponding to Value 1 as its Data. Double click on the DWORD to modify its value:

FIX Windows 10 100 Percent Disk Usage Problem

9. Finally, set the Value data as 0 and click OK. Close Registry Editor and reboot. After restarting your machine, the 100% disk usage problem should disappear.

Check this video to illustrate this fix:

FYI: If the above method doesn’t works, you can try disabling Superfetch in Windows 10. This has been helped a few users to get rid of this problem.

Hope this helps!

Windows 11 users can refer this fix.

201 Comments

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  • Ken Lilly

    Was hoping this might lead me to a solution but mine did not have storahci.sys, instead it was iaStorA.sys

    Still having issues, sigh.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Try the steps for iaStorA.sys and see if it works.

  • Doug Noyce

    Hello Kapil
    I am not the originator of this post, but had the same issue (I am on Win10 Pro, WIP v.1607, b.14959). The Wiki fix certainly did help, (I also had iaStorA.sys) dropping CPU usage for 100+ to about 35%. I do not know if it is related, but after doing a restart, it took 3-4 times longer to complete the bootup sequence, before having full access to the machine. Other than this, I have seen no other effects of this change, other than actual usage seems much faster in response, once full access was established. Thanks for the fix, but I would like to know is, what is the actual impact is of disabling the MSISupported interrupt, which is on by default?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ The impact of MSISupported is already mentioned in article, re-read it.

  • Nick

    hey guys, what if after all these steps in the target place I see only (default) REG_SZ, no MSISupported?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ You can create it the MSISupported value manually. Right click in blank space on left pane and select New > DWORD Value.

  • Rodolfo Olvera

    Hello Kapil,

    You seem to be the expert on this issue. I tried the solution, step by step, but I still get the same issue. Right now I really would like to go back to windows 7 but the time to do that has already passes (I upgraded to Win 10). Is there any other way to solve it? I’m using a Sony VAIO, so there is not too much support form them. Also a hybrid HDD, could that be the issue? I don’t really understand what the “disk usage” means. I would format my computer but I have plenty of programs as well as a dual boot, together with no spare time for all that.

    I would really appreciate if you could help me.

    I have tried many other solutions out there but did not solve the issue btw.

    Thank you very much in advance.

    Rodolfo

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ I suggest you to Refresh Windows 10, in case if it helps you: https://www.kapilarya.com/reinstall-windows-10-without-affecting-personal-files

  • Calvin

    This fix only applies to SSD. What’s the fix for same issue, however Standard HDD ?

    Also, tested a different laptop with a SSD, did not have IDE ATA/aTAPI controller option. And checked the Driver details for my SanDisk HDD and did not have the storahci.sys driver listed.

  • Silver

    “hey guys, what if after all these steps in the target place I see only (default) REG_SZ, no MSISupported?”

    I had the same problem as Nick. It was related to my permissions. The values were there but I could not see them until I gave myself permissions. Google registry permissions to see how. Once you give yourself full permissions, you should be able to see the values.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for your inputs 😊

  • Rishabh Madan

    IT DIDNT HELP ME OUT. I HAVE A HDD AND MY PC BECOMES SLOW AS HELL. PLEASE HELP ME OUT WITH SOME ANOTHER SOLUTION. EVEN THE MICROSOFT TECH TEAM ASKED ME TO RESET MY PC BUT THIS PROBLEM ARISES EVERY TIME. I HAVE RESET MY PC SEVERAL TIMES IN A SINGLE YEAR BUT STILL THE PROBLEM WAS ALWAYS THE SAME. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THAT THERE’S FAULT IN MY HDD.
    SPECS
    I3 5005U @2.0GhZ
    8GB DDR3
    1TB HDD @ 7200RPM–TOSHIBA
    ACER ASPIRE E5-573G
    WINDOWS 10 HOME —OEM

    I would love to hear from you

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ You may try clean install, in case if it helps you: https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-make-clean-install-of-windows-10

  • sheila

    I have the problem but my driver is uptodate and not the same as the one you listed I have iaStorA,sys Any advice?

  • John

    My Pc has windows 10 I want to reinstall windows 10 because of this issue, but My PC did not come with a windows 10 disk or dvd it was preinstalled at the factory I guess.Is there a way to reinstall without the disk or dvd?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Yup, here is the way: https://www.kapilarya.com/reinstall-windows-10-without-affecting-personal-files. But before that, try steps mentioned here and see if they helps.

  • Stephen Penny

    I am afraid I followed the steps and set MSISupported to 0; However the 100% disk utilization still persists. So while I look for other fixes – should I set MSISupported back to 1 ?
    Stephen

  • Jonas

    Thanks!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ 👍

  • Kathleen

    Thanks so much, you really saved me. I got to the point I was thinking of doing a refresh or even a reset.
    I have iaStorA.sys on a laptop that came with Windows 8 installed. I had upgraded the operating system on that laptop to 8.1, 10, and then, the anniversary edition. I have a second laptop that came with Windows 10 installed. The 100% disk usage problem occurred only on the upgraded laptop.
    I tried stopping 100% disk usage by disabling prefetch and superfetch and changing their values to 0. That wasn’t enough to stop the problem. Changing the MSISupported value to 0 did solve the problem. Since changing the MSISupported value to 0 solved the problem, I went back and changed the prefetch and superfetch values back to their defaults. On restarting the boot went on forever. So, I forced a shut down and changed those two values back to 0. Now my laptop boots fast and runs like a dream. It seems I had to have prefetch, superfetch, and MSISupported values at 0.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for awesome feedback 😊

  • Nisha

    After following the above steps, the disk still shows 100%. Could you please help me with this?

  • Israel

    Did not work for me :-(

  • Windows Guy

    If your windows 10 PC is undergoing 100% disk usage, then disable search services by opening services in taskbar search , opening services manager and disable windows search service. You may also disable windows update service, but you have to enable it after few days, as disabling windows 10 update service is not recommended. Also disable superfetch and Background apps.
    To disable background apps just go to settings – privacy – background apps and disable background apps.

  • jimc

    Been there. Done that. The more I use windows 10 the more I like linux.

  • Sema

    After I followed the steps the activity decreased to zero and start working normally, BUT after restart the PC it didn’t work . I have blue screen says RECOVERY and your PC needs to be repaired.

    I didn’t create system restore point :( any thing I can do??

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Try to revert MSISupported DWORD Value to 1.

  • Vir

    I have the exact same issue but I have HDD so need a solution for it. If you have one. Thanks!

  • Michael Narine

    This issue is so common that we need to start a Class Action Suit against Microsoft

  • mcnly

    I get to Step 7, and the AHCI Controller Value (from step 5) does not have a folder titled “MessageSignaledInterruptProperties.” What do I do from here?

  • bryan

    good day mine is “amdide64” not storahci.sys or iaStorA.sys and i tried located the msi but nothing shows up in reg edit i follow all the steps Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\”device instant”\Device Parameters\

    at device parameter it only shows channel 0 and channel 1 the inside of this folder is only reg_sz only both of them

    anyone can help me?

  • Esam

    The reg_dword i have are
    Configflags and set to 0
    And capabilities and also set to 0

  • Pratik Jain

    hi Kapil,

    I don’t see storahci.sys but i have iastora.sys. still the same MSi changes didn’t work for me.

    Any help is appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Pratik

  • esflorida

    It’s work man good work thank. I follow everything i and found everything you said thank man really

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • Tony

    Fixed, thnx dude!!

  • graphicman

    Nothing of this worked. All I have to do is to make a clean reinstall of Windows 10. Now I have to reinstall all my software.

  • Ian Webber

    I do not have the StorACHI.sys driver. And the registry values do not appear anything like those you have described. My task manager strongly indicates that windows update and module installer are accounting for a high percentage of use, with some also due to incessant activity by search indexer and finally also Norton 360.

  • Geoff

    Followed the above procedure exactly seemed to take longer than normal to reboot. When desktop appeared, I immediately fired up task manager and disc usage was showing 0%. Then after few seconds it shot up to 100% again.

  • Glen

    You have something else? I have the same problem however, I do not have Standard SATA AHCI Controller, listed in my device manager. Also tried everything I could find on this issue and nothing seems to work. It won’t let me reset, I can’t access the control panel System section, it errors everytime I go to update, Malwarebytes doesn’t find anything, Windows Defender finds nothing… I am at a loss, this laptop was purchased with Windows 10 on it. I am just about at a point of wiping the machine and installing a Linux on there. This is a work Laptop that is a year and a half old. It is an Hp, we have several of these and this is the only one giving us grief.

  • Steve

    So, I have tried disabling prefetch before. Somehow it came back. My original hard drive was a hybrid. That would explain this option being enabled. My relacement is not a hybrid. I replaced it after several warnings of an impending crash. Well, my friend, in spite of my hesitation to touch the registry, this fix worked. THANK YOU!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Happy to help, Steve 😎

  • David Nitzsche-Bell

    I tried everything in here and more suggestions I found on other sites, but nothing worked. But, here’s what *did* work for me.

    The problem was Google Chrome (63.0.2329). When I started Chrome, disk usage went up to 100% and stayed there. When I “quit” Chrome, there were still 1-3 Chrome tasks in the Task Manager. When I quit those processes, disk usage fell to 3-5% and stayed there. I was able to repeat this process.

    I updated to Chrome 64.0.xxxx and also changed the “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” setting.

    The problem no longer occurs.

  • Gordon Pow

    I have been trying to fix this issue for months, without success. FINALLY, by following your instructions, I have fixed it! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I’ve no idea what I’ve done or why it works, but my computer is useful again.

    My computer had iaStorA.sys rather than storahci.sys. And I had a hard time navigating down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties and found it was best just to type it into the address bar. Other than those issues, your instructions were clear and easy to follow.

    Again, thank you!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad we could help, Gordon 😎

  • PrinceRoss

    Tried everything. still didn’t worked out. disabled superfetch, windows search. fixed STorachi.sys. Please help me

  • Max

    Had this problem a few months ago, did what you suggested. It worked fine until recently. So I went to repeat the fix, no longer have MessagedSignalledInterruptProperties showing in the dropdown list.
    Any further suggestions for why this problems has stated up again?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ If the problem occurs again, try to disable Superfetch: https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-disable-superfetch-in-windows-10

  • Vijesh

    I can go till Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_3581103C&REV_05\3&11583659&0&FA\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management as per the steps. But couldn’t find MessageSignaledInterruptProperties key. I can see ONLY affinity Policy, affinity policy -temporal and routing info. Help me.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Are you sure storahci.sys present on your device? Please recheck the “Device instance path”.

  • shady

    thanks, you solved my problem. the laptop was very slow because of this problem.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help, shady 😎

  • Dan PH

    I do not have Standard SATA AHCI Controller, only the Intel(R) 7 series chipset family SATA AHCI Controller. What should I do in this situation, please?

  • e

    Thank you. worked great.

  • Steve

    This prblem has been driving me mad for ages, a fix at last! thanks Kapil this sorted out my PC and now its rocking! One thing I would add. If like me you have had this problem for a while lots of programmes have been trying to update etc. having been prevented by the slow response. Once the fix has been applied be patient there will still be a lot of activity with the PC trying to catch up so leave your machine on overnight to sort itself out.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Happy to help Steve!

  • MarkR

    Worked for me. Thanks.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for your feedback MarkR 😊

  • Rick Marrale

    Hello-

    when I got to driver details my screen showed
    ….Drivers\iaStorA.sys
    not the screen storahci.sys shown on your instructions not sure what this means?
    Checked driver- says I have the latest!

    I have disabled superfetch
    ran: trouble shooting, sfc/scan
    dism/restore health, chkdskc:/r/scan/perf

    two problems in troubleshoot were fixed. No problems found on all other checks.

    I have spent hours on this for a month. Been to all the community posts-bla bla bla

    I can have no windows open and edge will show 10-13 processes running in the background.
    It will work fine for a while and then locks up. Eventually recovers after waiting 3-4 minutes.

    I use Norton security
    I worked with their tech support to limit their process from running accept when scheduled once a
    day.
    Crazy! About to give up. Not sure why Microsoft hasn’t dealt with this. been around along time.
    Maybe the solution is
    to buy an Apple
    Thanks- end of my rope

  • Rick Marrale

    A follow-up

    I switched to Chrome: restarted
    no problems- disk stabilized in 1-2 minutes
    been on for 45 minutes
    background processes 70-74,windows processes 88, 23 chrome processes 6 tabs open plus quicken and task
    manager. dick usage 1-3 %- unreal

    switched to edge- restarted
    86 background processes(why), 88 windows processes,9 edge processes, one tab open– disk slammed at 100%
    ??????

    Amazing that Chrome is running better than edge.

  • Stian

    Hey!
    Thank you for putting a lot of time and effort into helping us! It is appreciated.
    I did as you said, step by step. Reinstalled windows, step by step. I even rebooted my whole PC, and I still have the issue. Any ideas?

  • Mastah Yakamuto

    Try to Disable Superfetch & Windows Search in services.

  • Adarsh

    Thanks dude.. Was using 8.1.. When it occurred first time I reinstalled my system.. After a while it still occurred.. Tried all the “superfetch” things.. nothing had worked.. but this one was a real life saver..
    didn’t find the mentioned sys file.. in regedit under PCI I googled everything and find corresponding key to AHCI.. changed MSI supported value from 1 to 0.. Vola!! it worked..
    Thank you so much. .

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Adarsh 😎

  • SuNNy1y

    I tried this so far so good. Thanks

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for your feedback!!

  • David

    I stop Windows Update service search service soft thinks Agent ,the disk back to 5%. Thank you for all

  • Morteza

    My HDD active time in Windows 10 was on 100% almost all the time. Any application or process (e.g. Chrome, System, Service Host, Superfetch, …) caused 100% disk active time.
    This method (disabling MSI) solved my problem.
    Thanks

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Morteza 😎

  • Dan M

    This is still useful 3 years later, and was a clear enough to do quickly — it just resurrected a 2012 Dell XPS machine that runs on Windows 7. Thanks!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Happy to help Dan!

  • mufaddal

    100% Disk Usage on Windows 10: The “MessageSignaledInterruptProperties” is missing from the registry

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Create it manually.

  • Deniel Kh.

    Hi Kapil,

    Got hit by this issue a few days ago and tried using your fix. The problem is that in my Device Manager no such thing as “Standard SATA AHCI Controller” exists, the only thing I see below the “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers” is “Intel(R) 300 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller”. I checked it out and I have no such thing as “storahci.sys” but instead “iaStorAC.sys”. Is it the same thing with a different name? Or is it actually something different?

    I am really not understanding anything about this issue.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ As ‘Standard SATA AHCI Controller’ doesn’t exists on your system, the fix is not applicable to you. Try disabling Superfetch and see if that helps: https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-disable-superfetch-in-windows-10.

  • Stewart

    Wow thank you for these steps. I had reset my Windows 10 machine due to some errors with my graphics card. When I did that things were incredibly slow. This fixed it! My computer runs faster than ever. I probably could have done this months ago and it would have saved me a big headache!

    Thanks!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Stewart 😎

  • Doug

    I have a i7 ThinkPad using iaStorA.sys. The disk busy has been at 100% for months rendering the laptop useless. I applied your fix and it was a miracle. Within minutes, the disk busy dropped to 20% and then down to less than 5%. Thank you!!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad I could help Doug 😊

  • cris

    It help me , thank you a lot

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Cool 😊

  • Rajan Verma

    I just defragmented the C: drive and disk usage came down to 0-5%.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for adding this!

  • Mahit

    Hi Kapil,
    in last stage when i do MSISupported value to 0 from 1 and hit OK, after restarting system MSISupported value still shows 1. please help

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Try disabling Superfetch and see if that helps you: https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-disable-superfetch-in-windows-10.

  • Mahit

    Hi Kapil,
    I did what you suggested, but didn’t get good result. actually Disk is fluctuating like (3–14—90-100) when i click to open 3-4 apps /tabs and after few time Disk automatically start decreasing from 100.
    1) Is this common issue which i am getting ?
    2) if i improve my RAM from 4gb to 8gb should i get good performance? as my machine is new and have configuration (AMD Ryzen 3 /Pre-loaded Windows 10 Home Memory & Storage: 4GB DDR4 RAM, Storage: 1 TB 5400 rpm SATA)

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ This could depending upon type of apps you open. Some apps may take much disk allocation, and its normal. As far as increasing RAM is concerned, it may help you to improve system performance a little bit.

  • Babalizm

    For those who still unsolved:
    Check your sata cable, Sometimes it simply just needed to replace cable :)

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for adding this!

  • Simon Kravis

    Hi Kapil
    The 100% disk active for ~5 minute periods, has recently become evident, especially after resuming from sleep/hibernation on a heavily used machine with a 7-year old SSD drive (SanDisk SSD U100 124 Gb) running Windows 10. I have been unable to connect the disk activity with any application visible in Task Manager or resource Monitor. Is the 100% active state caused by the storage doing error checking and correction? I believe that SSD storage wears out after a certain number of read-write cycles, and it may be that longer period of 100% activity are due to the failing storage.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Simon, have you tried the methods presented in the article?

  • Simon Kravis

    No, I am reluctant to change basic storage operation parameters. The problem was very apparent when storage had 3% free space, but after a restart, pagefile.sys is much smaller and with 15% free space, the 100% disk active problem does not appear.

  • kingshuk basak

    Thanks, it worked.
    I had to check Intel SATA driver.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • JBL

    Tried doing this and got to step 9. Once computer attempted to restart it stuck on the “Asus” logo with the loading circle. After about 30 secs screen goes black and then returns back to the logo with spinning circle and says diagnosing PC.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Are you sure you have Standard SATA AHCI Controller at step 2?

  • Adrian

    It worked on an Assus VovoBookwith Win 10, thanks for your help

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Adrian!

  • Vip Kumar

    This change in registry could not help my system,
    I am using Dell .. Disk Still shows 100,, even with 0.2Mb/s.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Try to disable Superfetch: https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-disable-superfetch-in-windows-10.

  • Tony K.

    I have a Dell XPS 8910 Intel i7 Quad Core Processor Desktop PC with a 8 TB SATA HDD, 64 GB of RAM. It has the Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller using the iaStorAC.sys driver.

    After spending literally weeks following pretty much all the tips that were listed online, none of them resolved the issue like making this one change. I e.g., doubled the RAM, got a new HDD, disabled windows services (Superfetch, Windows Search) + windows settings, etc.

    Note: updating the driver (in Device Manager) to version 17.5.31026 dated 07.23.2019 caused the issue to re-occur. So, I rolled back the driver, version 16.8.3.1003 dated 07.15.2019.

    Thanks, Kapil!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Tony, was the issue resolved after you rolled back the driver?

  • Tony K.

    Kapil, yes, the issue was resolved after rolling back the drivers. It’s been over a week now and I’m back to normal. I’ve tried again since then.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Tony!

  • Alex

    I have 4 values, each containing the file mentioned for the fix. Should I do it for all of them?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Please mention the exact step number you’re at, so I can help you with this.

  • Alex

    In step 7, it tells you to reset the number to zero. The thing is, in the controllers tab, I had 4 AHCI controllers with four different keys. They all appear in the editor, all with the MSI value.

  • Alex

    Also, when I was looking at my drive, it was my T: drive that was at 100%. I do not see a backup restore point for that drive, so what is my next step?

  • Imam Mateen Siddiqui

    thank you!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ You’re welcome!

  • Prashant Kachhap

    Nice work Kapil ..!! followed all the steps provided and disabled windows search in services.msc and it worked for me . Thank you

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • Nicholas

    IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers do not appear in Device Manager, is that an issue in itself?

  • A Cooper

    Dude, thank you so much. You saved me!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • al

    I don’t have SATA ACHI. Now what??

  • Laurie Miller

    Thank you. I too had iaStorA.sys. It took a while for me to understand the instructions but I finally got it and wham – it worked! It did take a while for the disk usage to go down after I restarted, but it ended up around 40%.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Laurie!

  • J Solomon

    Thank you! I too had iaStorA.sys. Works like a charm! I was thinking about buying another laptop! Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • Pushendu Chauhan

    Good Article, mast solution diya. Worked, cheers n thanks!!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • Patrick

    Replacing the SATA cable fixed it for me! Thanks to Babalizm’s suggestion in the comments! I had extra SATA cables that came with my purchase. I also switched SATA ports to a different one on the motherboard. Windows booted up dramatically more quickly, and now my PC is running perfectly smoothly with no freezing at all, and disk usage calm and close to 0. Bizarre to me that the cable (or maybe the port) would cause these symptoms. Now I know.

    This issue happend on my previous SSD as well, which prompted me to buy a new SSD, and many months later similar symptoms started on this one too (using the same bad SATA cable). Long frequent freezes coinciding with disk usage going to 100%, not being able to track down what process is using all the disk, and then blue screens starting.

    Listing some things I had tried that did NOT work for me: the MSISupported regedit fix in this article (I have storahci.sys), disabling Superfetch/Sysmain, disabling search indexing, uninstalling a third party software that was using a lot of disk (Backblaze). On my previous SSD, I had also troubleshooted and tried many things (I don’t remember which anymore), and none of them helped.

    Thank you Kapil Arya for the helpful article and comments, and thank you to Babalizm and other commenters for sharing your experiences here!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks Patrick for your experience, glad the issue is sorted for you 😊

  • Sumanta Chatterjee

    Thank you so much. Issue resolved.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Sumanta!

  • NightStorm1000

    Solution to my Problem was switching the BIOS Setting of my AMD X570 Chipset Mainboard from AHCI to RAID and using the AMD RAID Driver.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for sharing, will be helpful to others 😊

  • Gammerz

    Use the advanced option in window’s disk clean-up utility to clear large system files, especially windows update files.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for this tip!

  • Danish

    Kapil, this is a great article. However my children PCs do not have SATA/ACHI controller and there is no superfetch service either. any ideas what I should be looking for?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Using SSD or HDD?

  • R

    This problem was surprising in the worst way, like chronic sickness that keep coming back again and again, just when if seems you finally found the right cure. After butting my head against this problem for days and trying some 10 different solutions, this one finally solved it.
    My driver was under: [Storage Controllers > Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller, Driver Details > iaStorAVC.sys] But setting MSISupported=0 worked!

    Update: A day later, disk usage is back at 100%(!), this time the culprit was Diagnostic Policy Service:
    had to delete %WinDir%\System32\sru\SRUDB.dat .
    Everything is good… so far.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help, thanks for sharing your feedback 😎

  • Joe

    I love you, brother! I am very skeptical about any guides that change the registry so I put this off for a few days but when I couldn’t take it anymore I finally tried it. After waiting for my PC to restart for 5 minutes and loaded back up instantly! No more slow PC and everything is loading very fast again. Thank you!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Joe 😎

  • Rafael

    Does It work to on Intel(R) chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller it apiers s\iaStorAC.sys

  • Rafael

    well I tried still 100% disk this is making me crazy cant almost use the pc cause is so slowwww even to just open 1thing

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ What you’re using – HDD or SSD?

  • V Pradeep

    i tried all the steps diabling prefetch turning off index search running SFC Scan and other scans disabling start up tasks and services still doesnt work. Also under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers i have Intel(R) 6th Generation Core Processor Famil Platform I/O SATA AHCI Controllers no other options? Please help me to fix this issue

  • G Palma

    I haven’t tried any of these instructions yet but I’ve noticed that when I opened task manager and clicked on ‘view’ followed by ‘expand all’ the disk usage percentage drops dramatically. Does anyone know what is causing that? I’d like to find a way to stop this without having to expand the Task Manager view for every session.

  • Kev

    Chrome was the culprit for me. It installed two service. A ‘Google Crash Handler’ service and ‘Google Chrome Elevation’ service. I disabled those, then rebooted and the problem was solved. Disk usage came down from 100% to idle around 10%. I got the hint to it from a user’s comment higher up in the chat thread.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for sharing 😎

  • Meth

    Will the above solutions work for Intel(R) 6th Generation Core Processor Family Platform I/O SATA AHCI Controller? I followed the steps and went into the registry editor and found that my msi value was indeed ‘=1’. However, I am not sure whether I should implement those fixes since it might cause problems. Plus, that is the only option I have under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers on my laptop running on an hdd.

  • Martin

    Made my mom VERY happy with this fix on her Windows 10 Lenovo T480 with SSD :-)
    Laptop was unworkably slow, choking in Windowns updates and many other processes trying to access the SSD. Found a link to this post here:
    answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/100-disk-usage-on-windows-10/17e3aa7e-4a2a-4927-97bd-bdb2f7dbe04b
    after trying several other suggestions made there without any improvement.
    Though the machine is running iaStorA.sys instead of storahci.sys I decided to try your fix anyway because it sounded very plausible to me. And indeed – it resolved the problem :-)
    All is fast and snappy again and a whole list of problems she had written down for me was fixed at once because they were all due to the 100% hard disk usage.
    So, thank you very much!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Martin 😊

  • venkat pandir

    I dont have that ATA at all how do i fix it. Please let me know *Email removed for privacy*.
    I would greatly appreciate it and also if you need fees let me know i can pay.

  • spyder

    thanks for the help

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help spyder!

  • Peter

    Thank you Kapil. My Lenovo S440 had being plagued with disk utilisation issues for long time. The problem manifested at start-up and would take 10 to 15 minutes for the disk utilisation to drop down below 100%. I had tried on and off to find way to fix it but had no luck – suggestions that chrome, skype or OneDrive were causing the problem led me nowhere. However, between your advice (including turning of superfetch) and the following link *Third-party link removed* (up to the third step given in the link) the problem has gone away. Thank you for taking the time and effort to post it.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • Prasad

    Kapil.. I must say.. you are a savior.. I had been facing this high disk utilization issue after having this new laptop bought 4 yrs back.. Never used it much coz of this issue.. followed different blogs to disable few services but issue persisted…. Alas… stumbled upon your article and it seems my issue is resolved.. using it for last 2 days.. and not seeing the high disk issue anymore… Thanks a lot man!!!!

    Although the driver/device name didn’t match exact but changed the same property for my own disk driver and it indeed worked. :)

  • Prasad

    For others to benefit, I have Inspiron 5000 series i5 8th gen.. there is NO SSD…

    Under device manager:
    storage controller -> Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller.

    Updated the registry parameter MessageSignaledInterruptProperties for driver file: iaStorAC.sys

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Prasad 😊

  • jero

    Hi,
    I’ve tested ALL THE PROCEDURES listed here and everywhere on the web and this issue is still NOT fixed…
    32gb of ram, i7 CPU, all my drives are SSD…. I am STUCK with that ****.

    BItdefender didn’t find any malware, viruses etc… So i think the only virus is …windows 10…

    I remember the time where my computer booted within 10 seconds… Can’t imagine why it is now more than 20 minutes to complete a boot what a shamefull technology that windows 10…

  • Lawrence Hammond

    Worked great!! Thanks so much!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad it worked 😎

  • Ketan

    It worked. Thank you!!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help 😎

  • Sriyans

    Hi Kapil,
    Tried both your solutions, but they did to make an impact.
    Seems like there are no processes running still disk is at 100%.

    This started almost a week back and is continuing.
    Had a similar issue on my previous old laptop years ago.

    What is a core reason for this issue, what bug is making the disk work 100% with no processess?

  • Neko99

    Hi Kapil,
    i have that problem, its not happen with my C disk but with DEF those 3 are all HDD. I want to know if i could use your solution under no false or broke something?,
    thank you

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Well, you can try and see if it works, else revert changes!

  • Tibule

    I don’t have ITE/ATA ATAPI controller as an item when I launch device manager.

    Here are the list of items I have:
    Audio inputs and Outputs
    Bluetooth
    Computer
    Disk Drives
    Display adapters
    DVD/CD-ROM drives
    Firmware
    Human Interfaces Devices
    Keyboards
    Mice and other ppinitng devices
    Monitors
    Network adapters
    print queues
    processors
    Security devices
    Software components
    Software devices
    Sound, video and game controllers
    Storage controllers
    System devices
    Universal Seral Bus controllers

    Any guidance?

  • Ian B.

    Followed this guide exactly on both the controllers listed in my device managers and it has worked perfectly. Previously my PC was getting bogged down with constant disk activity and getting very slow to open programs. Now, resting disk activity is zero (or almost), and PC is snappy and responsive again. Many thanks!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help Ian 😊

  • David Eastman

    I have been struggling with this problem for MONTH! I’ve searched everywhere and tried everything, to no avail. Finally, I stumbled across this article this evening and gave it a try. My drive is working correctly at least, with no more 100% usage problem. It’s incredible to me that five years after this article was written, this continues to be an issue. And all it took to fix it was change a 1 to a 0. Thank you so much!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help David 😎

  • Asherk

    I follow the steps verbatim and made sure everything matched perfectly. I then restarted my computer and it’s been saying “getting windows ready don’t turn off your computer” for 30 minutes now. It normally boots in less than 5 minutes. How long should I wait?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ This depends on the system. I can’t tell exactly how long you need to wait.

  • Varun Aggarwal

    Thanks a ton bro.. you are the real MVP.. you saved me a lot of trouble..

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help 😎

  • Mike

    This fix did the trick for me–disk usage is now back down to normal. Thanks for the solution!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help 😎

  • Takura Klein Mapira

    Hey, I’ve just been scrolling past these comments and I just want to say I admire the dedication and commitment, It’s astonishing that this article was written 6 years ago and you still take some time out to respond.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Yes, this is still a valid solution. Keep reading, we need readers like you!

  • Ron Ventura

    Kapil.
    I have the same problem, but I have a HDD, not SSD. Will this work for my drive?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Switching to SSD may help in that case.

  • 174M4R

    I tried the proposed solutions and they didn’t really helped. I then put it all back to the default values including allowing PCI message signalled interrupts to HDD.

    The only solution that solved it for my Dell Inspiron 5559 with Toshiba HDD and 8GB RAM :
    Manually set the paging file size on disk 16-16000 MB (as long as the HDD is not full).

    Browse to Control Panel.
    Select System and Security.
    Select System.
    Select Advanced System Setting.
    Under Performance, Select Setting .
    Select the Advanced Tab.
    Select Change.
    Set the Custom sizes to initial 16 MB
    Set the Maximum to 16000 MB
    Select Apply.
    Select OK.
    Restart the computer.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for sharing!

  • James

    This worked immediately!! Thank you!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help 👍

  • Shannon

    6 years (2022) later and STILL a problem. Just downloaded Windows 10 (last of the hold outs). I was hoping years later Microsoft would have solved this, and other, problems. But Noooo. In the device mgr, I only have “Intel”. Am missing “Standard”. Will spend countless hours trying to solve this problem. Thanks alot.

  • Pujo

    Tried this on 3 office pc, all in HDD and all had same problem. The disk usage is still 100% on startup (probably due to software/antivirus) but the pc is responding quicker to input. Thats all that matter i guess to be able to had a decent work condition.

  • Scot M

    This fix worked for my disk problem, so thank you for that! :) Im not sure if it has any relevance to the fix but since doing this (and i followed it exactly so i know i didnt hit anything else) none of my bluetooth devices are available for playback hahah would this have anything to do with it?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help! Well, it doesn’t relates to Bluetooth. Still if you like, you can see this fix: https://www.kapilarya.com/fix-bluetooth-not-working-in-windows-10.

  • Randy

    Hello!
    I see this article is 6 years old and you are still helping users with this issue. Thank you for the time you have invested in this issue and in helping others.
    I have an HP Envy 7th gen i7 and I upgraded the HDD to an SSD. After reinstalling Windows 10 home I was happy with the improved response as expected. However, after using it for a few days I get an update that sends my SSD into the 100% state (like your screenshot of the taskmanager) and makes the system unusable.
    I’m on my 7th reinstall of windows. I made the change you suggested (note I’m using iaStoreAC.sys and the GUID was slightly different). and hope the update doesn’t crash my system.
    Thanks for being here.

  • Choicey1NDallas

    Thanks so much for this post. I’ve googled this problem before and never got a solution. This time I saw your post and followed the directions and Wa La! even before the reboot, my disk usage changed from 100% to 96%. Got bless you!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • William Battline

    Check indexing options in the control panel. Mine got turned on somehow and slowed my PC down. Turn indexing off and the activie time went back to normal after a few minutes.

  • HN Chaudhary

    Hello Sir!
    Please help me. I am not having SATA AHCL controller but still disk usage is 100%. I have tried all other methods provided on google like disk check, clean reboot, etc.

    THANK YOU

  • Lim

    Kapil – what do I do if the pc response is so slow that device manager always shows “Not Responding”?

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Try following these steps in Safe Mode: https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-boot-windows-10-into-safe-mode.

  • doug

    My Win10 laptop has suffered from this for months – slowly getting slower and slower, until it finally became almost unusable. Followed these instructions and had some moderate success. But what instantly knocked the Task Manager Disk 0 Performance down from 100% to between 0 & 10% was to completely uninstall Bitdefender and then (with serious reservations) reinstall it. Bitdefender appears to have had something running that wasn’t being reported by the Task Manager, because when Disk 0 Performance was stuck at 100%, the highest disk usage reported in Processes was between 15% & 30%.

  • mari

    I tried it and it worked thank u for sharing💯

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help 😎

  • Ashok Kumar

    I did, but I don’t think it’s worked , still seeing disk100%.

  • Adam

    I did this, and now Windows 10 will not boot up. Start up repair doesn’t work at all, and I can’t do system repair because it can’t connect to WiFi. Basically, this “fix” might as well bricked my computer.

  • Scott

    Fixed my freshly loaded laptop. Thank you

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad it helped 😎

  • Scott

    Worked for me. I only had one controlled, not the “standard” one but I followed the path in this one and set the value to 0 as shown. At first boot it was 100% still, I was disappointed, but I think it was just busy booting. After a few mins it went down. Will I see peaks now, it’s usually low and before it was 100%, 100% of the time. Thank you.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad it helped 😎

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