The hard drive is one of the most important components of our computer. Now, we may have opened the task manager and we have noticed that the system is making excessive use of the hard disk. Let’s see how to fix it in Windows 10.
The reading and writing speed is different in most hard drives, but that both a mechanical disk and an SSD are being used 100% is a problem that we must solve, since it is possible that we have not even had to go to the task manager to see that our computer is making more noise than normal or is heating up.
We have already seen on different occasions that with Windows updates problems appear that we previously did not find, but it is possible that this does not happen to all users, but only to some on whose computers for some reason the update has not worked correctly on the computer .
The excessive use of the hard disk in Windows is a relatively common failure , both in Windows 10, as in Windows 8 or even in Windows 7. It is a problem that mainly causes certain updates of the operating system, although this is not always the case.
As it is a common mistake, it is possible that the first solution will not work for us and we will have to go to others that we will also talk about throughout the article. Let’s start from the simplest to the most complex.
defragment disk
It may sound obvious, but knowing how to defragment the disk is one of the practices that we should do to our mechanical hard drive with relative frequency so that everything works in a more fluid way, except for an SSD that it does not need.
This may be one of the factors causing excessive hard drive usage . It is the simplest option since, as we teach you, defragmenting the disk is an action that can take just a few seconds .
We must emphasize that there are other solutions that are somewhat more complex, but that they will be useful if the problem has not been solved with the defragmentation of the traditional hard disk as always.
Windows search problems
Another possible solution is to deactivate a service called Windows Search , for which you must follow these simple steps:
First we check that the hard disk is actually 100% by pressing the keys: CTRL + ALT + Del. And then we click on ” Task Manager “.
Then we will look at the ” Disk ” section to verify that it is indeed 100%.
As it is a common problem that can occur due to many factors like Windows updates or even viruses, we will disable Windows search. To stop the Windows search, we will only have to search for ” net.exe ” (it is a temporary stop of the search).
If we have stopped the Windows search and we have noticed a decrease in disk usage through the task manager, we can stop this search permanently.
- To stop the Windows search, we must press the ” Windows + R ” button. Once the window has been opened, we will enter the command ” services.msc ” without the quotes.
- Next, a huge window will open with various processes. We will look for the name of ” Windows Search “.
- When we find it, we will double-click, and a window will open through which we can make adjustments to the Windows search bar. In the type of start it will be automatic by default, but we will click on it and choose the ” disable ” option .
- If we have already disabled the service and we do not notice a decrease in disk use through disk use, we must re- enable the Windows search bar . You may need to restart your computer for the change to take effect.
Virtual memory settings
If it is not the Windows search bar, we must correctly restore and / or adjust the RAM memory of our computer, since it is possible that it has been misadjusted for some reason. Do the following:
- We will go to the control panel and click on the ” System and security ” section.
- After this, we will choose ” System ” again .
- Next, we will enter the section on the left where it says “ Advanced system configuration ”.
- Then we will enter ” Advanced options “.
- Click on ” Performance ” and then on ” Settings “.
- Again, we will go to the ” Advanced options ” section.
- We will select the programs option and then ” Change “.
- In this section, we must activate the option to activate “ Automatically manage the paging file size for all units ”.
- We can also establish a custom size, although we must have notions about hardware, since it is possible that alterations occur in the operation of the system.
- Once we have completed all these steps, we will go to the task manager , which will show us if the disk usage has decreased.
These are the most common and effective solutions, although if we suspect that excessive disk use may have happened to us after a Windows 10 update, another simple solution is to uninstall the latest Windows 10 update and see if in this way the system stop using such high usage that it can slow down the system.
