What is disk in task manager? Causes and solutions for 100% usage

This time, I will explain about disks in Task Manager.

First, I explained what the disk in Task Manager represents, and also explained the causes and solutions when the usage rate reaches 100%.

If your task manager disk is at 100% or high, or if your PC is running slow, please refer to this article.

Most of the causes of 100% disk usage in Task Manager are hard disk (HDD) deterioration or failure.
If it has been a long time since you bought your computer, the symptoms will improve if you replace the hard disk with a new one or replace it with an SSD.
Please take a look at the page below to make your computer more comfortable.
Diagnosing the lifespan of a hard disk, how to use Cristal Disk Info
How to replace a hard disk with an SSD and the cost
How to clone a hard disk (HDD) or SSD How to troubleshoot problems

What is disk in task manager?

If you have ever checked the status of your PC in Task Manager (which you can display by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc), you may have seen an item called "Disk".

If you're reading this article, you may be wondering what "disk" stands for.

Or maybe you're looking for the cause of a PC malfunction, and when you check the task manager, you find that "disk" is at 100%.

The percentage is displayed above "Disk" in Task Manager.

This percentage represents the "disk access rate."

So, when is the disk accessed?

For example, disks are frequently accessed when antivirus software is scanning the disk or when Windows Update is running.

There are many other reasons why the disk percentage may be high.

The higher the percentage displayed in "Disk", the more loaded the disk is. At the same time, of course, the performance of your PC will also decrease.

How to find out why the disk usage rate in Task Manager is strange and reaches 100%

Now, I will explain how to find out the cause when the disk usage rate in Task Manager is strange or reaches 100%.

Check the health status of your HDD with Crystal disk info

If you check the task manager and find that the disk usage is 100%, check to see if there is any problem with the hard disk.

Hard disks are equipped with a self-diagnosis function called "SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology)."

With this "SMART", you can check the health status of your hard disk using various items.

A software called "Crystal disk info" allows you to easily view it on Windows.

[How to check the health status of the HDD with Crystal disk info]

1. Download – Crystal Dew World [en]Obtain "Crystal disk info" at
2. Start Crystal disk info
3. Tabs and lists of HDD etc. will be displayed.
4. Check the "Health Status" section
   (Normal, Caution, Abnormal) is displayed.

If the HDD health status is displayed as "Warning" or "Abnormal" in Crystal disk info, there may be some kind of problem with the HDD.

If possible, I would like to take backups as soon as possible and take measures such as replacing them.

However, with the default settings, a caution message appears if there is even one bad sector (a part of the HDD that is unreadable), so either change the criteria or check the list to see if there are any problems. If it doesn't seem like it, it might be a good idea to go through with it.

Trends that should be especially noted are when ``number of sectors pending replacement'' or ``unrecoverable sectors'' appear.

When the disk in Task Manager reaches 100%, does it mean the life of the hard disk?

Now, if the disk in Task Manager reaches 100%, does that mean the hard disk is at the end of its lifespan?

In conclusion, there are times when there is a lifespan, and there are times when it is not.

If disk 100% is due to the end of the hard disk's lifespan, a warning will appear in the Crystal disk info mentioned above.

If your computer is old, try using these software to check the health of your HDD.

Also, the reason for disk 100% may not be the lifespan of the hard disk.

In this case, there are many other possible reasons.

Is a virus the cause of 100% disk usage in Task Manager?

Could a virus be the cause of the task manager's disk usage being 100%?

There are some viruses that put a load on your computer.

Therefore, there is a possibility that the disk usage rate in Task Manager reaches 100% due to a virus.

Also, the problem may be caused by antivirus software rather than the virus itself. In this case, try temporarily disabling your antivirus software and see if there is a change in disk usage. Even if you temporarily stop your antivirus software, there is no need to worry about it because a software called Windows Defender is present by default.

How to resolve when task manager disk is 100%

Now, I will explain an effective solution when the disk in Task Manager becomes 100%.

If the disk in Task Manager reaches 100%, there are various possible causes, so try the solution that corresponds to the cause.

• Disable startup from task manager
• Change feedback and diagnostic settings
• Try updating Windows Update manually
• Try temporarily stopping the online storage service
• Try disabling Windows Search

Disable startup from task manager

If you see 100% disk usage in Task Manager, disabling certain startups from Task Manager may resolve the issue.

Please try this method at your own risk.

[How to disable startups that may be the cause from Task Manager]

1. Open Task Manager (press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys at the same time)
2. Select the “Service” tab
3. Select "Open Service Management Tool" at the bottom
4. Right click on “Connected User Experiences and Telemetry”
5. Select "Properties"
6. Set "Startup type" to "Disabled"
7. Select "OK"
8. Restart your PC

By the way, if you find any other unnecessary startups, you can disable them to reduce the load on your PC.

Change feedback and diagnostic settings

If you are experiencing 100% disk usage in Task Manager, changing the Feedback and Diagnostics settings may resolve the issue.

[How to change feedback and diagnostic settings]

1. Select "Start (Windows mark)"
2. Select "Settings (gear mark)"
3. Select "Privacy"
4. Select "Feedback and Diagnostics"
5. If “Complete” is checked, change it to “Basic”

Try updating Windows Update manually

If you are experiencing an issue where the disk is 100% in Task Manager, manually updating Windows Update may resolve the issue.

Even if Windows Update is automatically updated, it seems that sometimes it does not update properly. If Windows Update fails and the update program continues to run in the background, disk usage may remain high.

In this case, it may be a good idea to run Windows Update manually once and complete the update that is not successful.

[How to run Windows Update manually]

1. Select "Start (Windows mark)"
2. Select "Settings (gear mark)"
3. Select "Update & Security"
4. Select "Check for updates"
5. Wait until "Checking for updates..." is displayed.
6. Once the update installation is complete, select "Restart now"
7. After restarting, perform "Check for updates" again to confirm whether the update program was executed successfully.

Once you have confirmed that the update program has been completed using the steps above, check if the disk usage has returned to normal using Task Manager.

Try temporarily stopping the online storage service

If you are experiencing 100% disk usage in Task Manager, temporarily stopping the online storage service may resolve the issue.

When using online storage, synchronization problems may affect disk usage. In this case, try temporarily stopping synchronization to online storage.

[How to temporarily stop synchronization of online storage service (for OneDrive)]

1. Right-click the "OneDrive" mark displayed on the right side of the taskbar
2. Select "Pause Sync"
3. Choose how long to stop

Stop SysMain function

If you are experiencing an issue where the disk usage reaches 100% in Task Manager, stopping the SysMain function may resolve the issue.

The SysMain function is a function that allows you to quickly open frequently used software if there is sufficient memory.

At first glance, this is a very convenient feature as it makes effective use of the remaining memory.

However, in order to be able to open the software immediately, preparations are required. During this preparation, data is being read, which may result in high disk usage.

It may be a good idea to stop this SysMain function once and see if there is a change in disk usage.

[How to stop SysMain function]

1. Select "Start (Windows mark)"
2. Select "Computer Management"
3. Select "Services and Applications"
4. Select "Service"
5. Select “SysMain” or “Superfetch”
6. Change "Startup type" to "Disabled"
7. Select "Apply"
8. restart your computer
9. Check disk usage in task manager

Try disabling Windows Search

If you see 100% disk usage in Task Manager, trying disabling Windows Search may resolve the issue.

Windows Search is a function for searching data on your computer.

It organizes the data to make it easier to search by sorting the data.

This Windows Search may cause high disk usage.

To disable Windows Search, please do the following:

[How to disable Windows Search]

1. Select "Start (Windows mark)"
2. Select "Computer Management"
3. Select "Services and Applications"
4. Select "Service"
5. Select "Windows Search"
6. Change "Startup type" to "Disabled"
7. Select "Apply"
8. restart your computer
9. Check disk usage in task manager

Summary of causes and solutions for Task Manager disk being 100%

This time, we explained the causes and solutions for the task manager's disk being 100%.

If the percentage displayed on the disk remains high, it may affect the performance of your PC, making it slow or slow.

One way to do this is to determine which programs are affecting the disk numbers and stop or delete any unnecessary startups.

Additionally, disk usage may increase if automatic Windows Update fails, so please check for updates once.

There are other cases where the disk usage rate increases due to various reasons, so it would be a good idea to try some of the simple solutions.