7/7/2016 [Windows8]Highdiskusage,usuallyaround100%,andstayshighwheneverythingisclosed.

3montholdcomputer,maintainedbymewhenmywife

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[Windows 8] High disk

24 shortlink: https://redd.it/1b496x
usage, usually around
100%, and stays high
when everything is username password
closed. 3 month old
computer, maintained remember me reset password
by me when my wife login
isn't looking. Hoping for
some advice while I
keep looking.
submitted 3 years ago by comineeyeaha

So I did all of the hardware tests

when the problem started, thinking
discussthisadonreddit
it was probably just disk errors or a
crappy hard drive. Device health is
Submit a support request
fine, so I dug a little deeper. When
the computer boots is the most
consistent time I can track it down, techsupport
but it only does it for a few minutes sub scr i be
85,478 readers
then stops before I can find the
source. I notice that its usually 131 users here now

"Service Host: Local System

Network Restricted" that is at the HavingTechProblems?
top of the list when sorted by disk,
Ask us here at /r/techsupport, and try to help others
but the reported usage is never with their problems as well!
higher than about 1MB/s. I started
closing the individual categories
LiveChat
under it, and it was still high, so I
closed the whole process, then the If your problem is urgent, you may want to try the live
problem went away. Problem is I chat.

can't see anything obvious that

would make it so high. I'm fresh off
of a reboot right now, after closing
out that process, and so far it's fine,
but I don't have faith that it won't
return.
I'm still troubleshooting, but I
SubmissionGuidelines
Please include your system specs, such as
Windows/Linux/Mac version/build, model numbers,
troubleshooting steps, symptoms, etc.
Please be as specific as possible.

After solving your problem, please mark it as solved by

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7/7/2016 [Windows8]Highdiskusage,usuallyaround100%,andstayshighwheneverythingisclosed.3montholdcomputer,maintainedbymewhenmywife
thought I would ask here to see if
anyone has any advice while I keep
looking. I thought about just
throwing a mid range SSD in here
to get her going faster again, but if
it's a system process I don't have
faith that faster hardware will solve
the problem.
Machine specs might not matter
much, but here's a quick rundown.
System: Samsung Series 3
NP300E5CA06US Proc: i3 2370M
RAM: 4GB HDD: Toshiba
MQ01ABD032
Thanks in advance, multiple brains
are certainly better than one!
35 comments share
all 35 comments
sorted by: best
[] scoobydoo0845 Trusted 5 points 3 years ago
I have the same issue with Windows 8, the task
manager for HDD usage is a bit misleading. My
laptop flags anything over 1.5MB/s as high usage
even though it is not. Because you have a Laptop
HDD the read/write rate is a lot lower than a
standard PC HDD. I wouldn't take the Windows
Task manager for a solid answer to HDD
utilisation in the percentage form.
As the task you say is running is the Service Host
svchost.exe for Windows when the PC has
chance to be idle you will find that it is normally
running windows update/defrag during those
times, check out the Action Center for details on
this as it will say Maintenance in Progress when it
is doing this.
It could also be an Antivirus scanning during
periods of idle. Norton is terrible for it and it
won't stop until it has finished so this may explain
the slow when you come to use it.
I would disable Windows Updates and Disable the
ability for the computer to self maitain as you doo
this already and see if that helps. Also check your
Antivirus for its scan schedules and make sure
that it is not scanning during idle time.
Finally, check the Samsung website for any
Chipset drivers or make sure you have the latest
versions and then enabled Intel Rapid Storage
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7/7/2016 [Windows8]Highdiskusage,usuallyaround100%,andstayshighwheneverythingisclosed.3montholdcomputer,maintainedbymewhenmywife

Technology Windows flags these as high in Synth3t1c Trusted

startup BUT they make a big different to the HDD g2g079 Trusted
usage because it optimises the way the data is Mikee Trusted, Live Chat Founder
handled and saved. rod156 Trusted
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[] internet_eq_epic 5 points 3 years ago FoxletFox
Get two programs: Process Explorer, and Process about moderation team

Monitor. Anytime you run these, make sure you

run as administrator. < > discussions in /r/techsupport X

Using task manager, find the PID of the task that 11 points 9 comments
My router needs to be reset each day in order to
is causing problems. Then open Process Monitor
put out the speeds I'm paying for. Is there any way I
and create a filter to display only results with that can just have it constantly putting out the same
PID, as well as anything else you want to specify speeds all day long?
ex., only display read/write, etc.
After you capture for a bit, you will have a very
thorough list of everything that has happened
with that PID. Make sure you are able to view two
specific columns of information: TID and Duration.
At this point, I would recommend saving the
Process Monitor output as a CSV file and opening
it with Excel. Then you can use a few quick
formulas and sorting to find which TIDs are
taking the longest. If your not good with Excel,
feel free to PM me your CSV file and I can help
with this part.
From there, you can use Process Explorer
important to run as admin to locate the PID that
is causing issues. If you double click the PID you
can get more information, including a list of
threads and their corresponding TIDs and
determin what module probably a dll file
corresponds with the problem TID. From that, you
should be able to determin which service
specifically is causing problems, and either disable
it or take whatever steps necessary to fix it.
Good luck.
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 2 points 3 years ago

I hadn't used Process Explorer in a while,

but I did download it today when trying to
track down the issue. Trouble with that is
once I had it open, I wasn't completely
certain what to do next. This will help out a
lot, I really appreciate it.
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[] smitt75 3 points 3 years ago

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7/7/2016 [Windows8]Highdiskusage,usuallyaround100%,andstayshighwheneverythingisclosed.3montholdcomputer,maintainedbymewhenmywife

Could it be an indexing task that runs whenever your computer boots up?
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[] sometimesijustdont 2 points 3 years ago

Window index is stupid and shouldn't exist, unless you are searching every file on your HD
daily, you don't want it.
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 1 point 3 years ago

That's what it looks like sometimes, which would be totally fine if it only happened at boot.
Sometimes it will slow down while my wife has been using it for a couple hours. Working down
the list of comments to try stuff out, I'll update the original text with what I've tried along the
way.
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[] shiitake 3 points 3 years ago

Service Host this/these are processes that are used to run services on the computer.
Local System Network Restricted this is the security context under which the process is running.
I'm going to recommend that you don't just kill that process unless you know what service/s it is
running. The easiest way to do that would be to get its process ID PID and then go to the services
tab of the Task Manager and sort by PID. This should give you an idea about what services are
running.
From there you can also use the Resource Monitor and go through the Disk Activity section under the
Disk tab.
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 2 points 3 years ago

The annoying part is that by the time I finished making this post, by disk usage is still acceptably low.
It might have been the "Service Host: Local System Network Restricted" that I closed, but given the
nature and frequency of this issue, I don't trust it to call it finished. Either way, any ideas are welcome
just in case this comes up again.
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[] ieatmakeup 2 points 3 years ago

I restarted my computer yesterday something I rarely do and that same process was putting
me at 100% disk usage. What does it do?
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[] Maximus5684 2 points 3 years ago

I know this post is a bit stale, but I wanted to comment because I've been having this exact issue on
two PCs that I just upgraded at my office. I'm looking into a correlation with Windows Update. When
you hit 100% again, open your "Change PC Settings" option under the Settings charm and see if
Windows Update shows any activity checking, downloading, etc.. I have a feeling this is a bug in the
WU executable.
However, as I say that, I'm 1/2 way through downloading updates and the usage has dropped back to
0%. WTF. Maybe it's just a disk caching bug.

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Also, I've found a few hundred posts related to this issue but no definitive solutions. Someone said
opening and closing the DVD drive on their laptop temporarily dropped the disk usage which could
have been a separate SATA/DVD driver bug but nothing else.
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[] Maximus5684 2 points 3 years ago

Correction: Windows Update stalled at 32% which may have been why the disk usage
dropped.
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[] Maximus5684 2 points 3 years ago

Looks like this isn't it either. WU runs under Service Host, not System. Hmmm....
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[] Miroudias 1 point 3 years ago

Open Windows Task Manager and sort it by CPU. What are the top three, not counting System Idle
Process? Do it right after a reboot if need be.
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 1 point 3 years ago

That's the other strange part, CPU usage is minimal. Nothing really consuming much power.
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[] Miroudias 1 point 3 years ago

Then... What are you talking about disk usage? You mean your HDD is full 100%?
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[] local_drunk 0 points 3 years ago

No, hard drive usage.

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[] Miroudias 1 point 3 years ago

Disk = Hard Drive. It's saying it's full and then just develops room again?
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 2 points 3 years ago

Nope, this has to do with read/write availability, not capacity. It's

a measure of how much activity is currently happening on the
hard drive. Drives have a limit at how much they can be accessed.
To get an idea, copy and paste a large amount of data across
your hard drive, then open Resource Monitor and switch to the
Disk tab. Alternatively, if you have Windows 8, just open up Task
Manager and go to the Performance tab.
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[] Miroudias 1 point 3 years ago

Got it; didn't even need to finish it. I was mentally

challenged in my mind's eye in the regard to what the hell
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7/7/2016 [Windows8]Highdiskusage,usuallyaround100%,andstayshighwheneverythingisclosed.3montholdcomputer,maintainedbymewhenmywife

you were referring to.

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[] aDeadSoul 1 point 3 years ago

This was happening to me too then one day it just stopped before I was even able to find the cause
let alone a solution.
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[] frostpuppet 1 point 3 years ago

How big is your page file? I say that because you might be paging out to the disk a lot causing a spike
in disk usage. Also have you tried scanning your computer for malware?
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 1 point 3 years ago

Malwarebytes was ran very early in the process this has been sporadic for the last few weeks
to a month, and nothing was found. I was going to run ComboFix today, but it turns out it
isn't compatible with Windows 8 and won't run in compatibility mode by design. I used to
work in a repair shop for a while, and rarely ever got stumped, but that was almost 3 years
ago. I still do tech support, but for a software company. I'm a bit rusty.
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 1 point 3 years ago

Concerning the page file, SpaceMonger tells me it's 2.25GB. I have never done any Page File
manipulation, so I don't know what is considered normal here.
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[] frostpuppet 1 point 3 years ago

Try this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP4T6QEIzVs
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[] SA0S1N 1 point 3 years ago

sound like it's just caching some of your programs, it's normal.
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 1 point 3 years ago

I would agree with you if it was only for a few minutes on boot, but my wife will complain that
while she's doing homework after using it for a few hours it will just become completely
unusable.
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[] local_drunk 1 point 3 years ago

I noticed the exact same thing on a Samsung allinone Widows 8 pc and I was perplexed as well. CPU

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is low, memory is average, and disk is pegged at 100%.

Haven't had time to investigate properly.
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 1 point 3 years ago

Yeah, me neither, which is why it's gone on so long. Even now, my wife is coming home from
work with delicious nachos, so I will have to stop working on it for a while. My Win8 desktop
custom build doesn't have this problem at all.
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[] brkdncr 1 point 3 years ago

I had a similar issue. See if disabling windows search service does any good. If it does then you may
have a corrupt library that is constantly being indexed.
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[] liesthroughhisteeth 1 point 3 years ago

Indexing
Backup and Restore If you are set to auto backup.
System Restore
Hibernation enabled
Can all cause this type of activity. Although 100% is a little extreme.
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[] [deleted] 3 years ago

[deleted]

[] comineeyeaha [S] 2 points 3 years ago

Nope, it still happens all the time. I even did a refresh basically a windows reinstall without
wiping out your user data a few days ago for an unrelated problem, and it's still there. It was
suggested that it happens because windows is trying to move all of my cached data from the
hard drive back to the ram, and since both are mediocre it has trouble.
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[] cvb00000 1 point 3 years ago

Stopping the superfetchSysMain service fixed it for me.

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[] [deleted] 3 years ago*

[deleted]

[] comineeyeaha [S] 1 point 3 years ago

I also thought about the wake from sleep thing, which I saw a lot more in the XP/Vista days,
but haven't really come across that in a while. Her computer does get put to sleep several
times a day, though.
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[] smitt75 0 points 3 years ago

Could it be an indexing task that runs whenever your computer boots up?
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[] comineeyeaha [S] 1 point 3 years ago

Woops, double comment. I commented on your other one. Just FYI.

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