Windows 8 Problem Disk Highest Active Time 100

I recently installed windows 8 pro on my hp Probook 4530s. i am having problem that system gets freeze for 5-10 min. during this feeze hard disk acivity light constantly remains on. i checked from resource monitor. Disk Highest Active Time remains 100%. CPU Usage remians normal 5-10%, RAM usage remain normal 40%. No application is running, Some system files keep the system busy. I cannot under stand whats going on.

Can any body help.


January 14th, 2013 2:27pm

Hi,

make a xperf trace [1] to diagnostic HDD activity. You can find in the Wiki a "how to" to install the tools [2]. Please upload the XperfSlowIOcir.etl to your SkyDrive [3] and post a link here.

I'll take a look at it.

Andr

[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ntdebugging/archive/2009/08/17/xperf-to-investigate-slow-i-o-issues.aspx
[2] http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4847.install-the-windows-performance-toolkit-wpt.aspx
[3] http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/4fc10639-02db-4665-993a-08d865088d65

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January 14th, 2013 10:07pm

Hi Andr,

I've got Windows 8 (not pro) with the same 100% disk-usage problem. For as far as I can see, it's the System process and I've noticed you're the one to turn to with this problem.

I've installed the SDK, but when running the xperf batch-script I get a "xperf: error: NT Kernel Logger: Toegang geweigerd. (0x5)." (dutch for Access Denied). Could you help me getting the xperf trace and to the root of the problem?

February 27th, 2013 12:29pm

You must run it from a command prompt which is running with admin rights (elevated).

Please also add +DISK_IO after DRIVERS, so see if the FileIO also causes DIsk IO.

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February 27th, 2013 12:35pm

Ok, I've run the xperf trace, but .. where's the etl-file?

Edit: Found it and uploaded it into SkyDrive. Thanks so far and I hope you can make anything of it.


February 28th, 2013 10:06pm

you must post the link to your SkyDrive here.
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February 28th, 2013 11:37pm

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=AEDCD60B437E35EA!111&authkey=!AI_fV_jS-bD9Fz0
February 28th, 2013 11:58pm

I think Superfetch is causing the 100% DISK usage. Your Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 is not the fasted HDD and so the drive is busy.

consider an upgrade to a SSD (Samsung 830 or 840 Pro).

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March 1st, 2013 12:24am

Well, the question is what keeps the drive busy? After a while of rattling, the HDD activy drops to a decent 2-20% and this laptop is fast again. 
March 1st, 2013 12:45am

Well, the question is what keeps the drive busy? After a while of rattling, the HDD activy drops to a decent 2-20% and this laptop is fast again. 

? I already told you that Superfetch is the cause. After it fetches all important data to RAM, it stop and the HDD activity goes down.

read here what Superfetch is:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.03.vistakernel.aspx

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March 1st, 2013 8:35am

Ah, I totally misread that. Thanks for finding this out.

I will probably replace my optical drive with a SDD later on, then.

March 6th, 2013 7:04pm

Andre this cannot be a serious recommendation. I think Microsoft should really investigate this issue thoroughly. I have a brand new Samsung All in one desktop computer (with an admittedly slow 5400 rpm hard drive) facing the same 100% disk usage every time I return to my computer after having left some programs idle. The fact that superfetch does not recognize that it should stop superfetching and hand back the resources to the user is a serious flaw and it just goes against its own raison d 'etre, i.e. making my computer faster. Instead it stalls it for minutes by generating disk i/o operations...

Upgrading my harddrive, serious? 


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June 1st, 2014 11:56am

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