Disk usage constantly around 100% since updating to windows 8.1

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williaam

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Nov 20, 2014
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I updated to 8.1 from 8 about 2 weeks ago but today, after working fine, it suddenly became incredibly slow, constant freezes, and upon opening task manager it appears to be due to the disk usage being almost 100% almost all the time, with no clear cause. Sometimes it is at 100% when no programs are using anywhere near that.
I see this is a common problem but I've tried a lot of the steps detailed in the other threads including:
>Adjusting the virtual disk memory to the size of my RAM
>Disabling Windows Search, BITS and another search service which people have reported fixed it
>Troubleshooter
>chkdsk /r

Don't know if this is relevant but I'm also unable to download the update for 8.1 (I have 8.1 but this is the update FOR 8.1). Not sure if this may be because of the high disk usage though since it slows everything else I try to do. The biggest issue is when I try to play DOTA 2 from Steam, which causes a 5 minute+ freeze. If it does load eventually all the writing in game has been replaced by small squares for each character, and it is unable to search for a game. While other games take a while to load most of them still work, dota is the exception for some reason.

Anyway if anybody could help it would be hugely appreciated. Thanks.
 
Solution
WinOutreach2
It is not recommended to disable those services completely. BITS for example, is required for Windows Update. If you are experiencing high disk usage it is important to identify the cause. There are some causes that are expected, such as the cleanup process I mentioned in my previous post. There are other causes that are not.

You should be able to quickly identify the culprit behind high disk usage with Resource Monitor. Right click your taskbar, then click Task Manager, select the Performance tab, and then select Resource Monitor. Expand the disk section and then sort by Total (B/sec). This will list the applications from most disk use to least.

If you are unable monitor the disk usage in real time, an alternative could be to use the...
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WinOutreach2

WinOutreach2

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Open Resource Monitor (from the Performance tab of Task Manager) and sort the disk section by Total (B/sec) descending. This will list the processes that are using your disk the most at the top of the list. You can then look up these processes to determine what applications they correspond to.

If tiworker.exe is the process using this large amount of disk usage, this is a component used by Windows Update to clean up and optimize the system after updates have been installed. It is recommended to allow this process to run and complete.
 
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williaam

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Nov 20, 2014
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Hey, thanks for replying
It seems to have sorted itself out for the time being, but should it start playing up again I'll be sure to try that!
Thanks
 
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TiCoyote

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This worked for me:
Go to: Control Panel/Troubleshooting/System and Security
Run troubleshooters to resolve problems with: Windows Update, Search and Indexing, and System Maintenance.
Reboot - et voilà.

Please make sure to restore wrongly stopped services such as:
BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service)
Superfetch
Windows Search
 
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demiand

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Dec 12, 2014
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how can i disable BIT, Superfetch and Windows Search for ever? because when i do from local services the services restarts, they don't really disable for ever, actually i think they never disable at all, even when i save changes

i got the same issue, windows 8.1 64 bits
 
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WinOutreach2

WinOutreach2

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It is not recommended to disable those services completely. BITS for example, is required for Windows Update. If you are experiencing high disk usage it is important to identify the cause. There are some causes that are expected, such as the cleanup process I mentioned in my previous post. There are other causes that are not.

You should be able to quickly identify the culprit behind high disk usage with Resource Monitor. Right click your taskbar, then click Task Manager, select the Performance tab, and then select Resource Monitor. Expand the disk section and then sort by Total (B/sec). This will list the applications from most disk use to least.

If you are unable monitor the disk usage in real time, an alternative could be to use the Windows Performance Toolkit. See Analyzing Storage Performance using the Windows Performance Analysis ToolKit (WPT) on TechNet Blogs.
 
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skelotom

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May 9, 2015
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I had a similer problem with steam and dota 2. My disc is at a constant 100ish percent and is acting very slow, i have no idea why in task manager it says system is using 7.20 mbs. My problem I'm getting with dota 2 is that when I try to quit the game it freezes so I need to use task manager to kill it. Problem is when trying to play once more steam says it is already running. I then have to delete the appcache folder and restart. Trying to restart theres dummyform as usual slowing me down saying its preventing me from restarting. Once my computer finally restarts it takes a long while for the disc to drop at all in usage. Please help
 
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WinOutreach2

WinOutreach2

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There are a variety of causes for high disk usage and performance issues. You would be best off to create your own thread so that others can address the unique and individual nature of your environment and the issue you are experiencing.

The throughput of 7.2MBps (Read?/Write?) isn’t very indicative of disk performance. Use Resource Monitor’s Disk tab to identify what applications are using the disk performance when you experience your issue, you can also look at other metrics, like disk queue depth, to see how the disk is handling load.

The first step I would recommend is to disable startup applications and perform a clean boot. If your issue does not occur with a clean boot, look into the applications that were not started for possible sources of your performance issues.
 
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