How to Fix 100 Disk Usage in Task Manager Windows 11 (6 Easy Ways)

User case: 100 disk usage in Task Manager Windows 11

"Hello, recently Windows offered a free update from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Since completing this update, I have been having the issue whereby the task manager shows that 100% disk is used on a constant basis. The laptop runs at a snail's pace now and it's only 3 months old. Could you please assist?"

100 disk usage in Task Manager Windows 11 is a common issue for computer users. Disk usage is the percentage of the disk in use by the system. High disk usage will affect Windows performance and slow down your computer.

To this end, it's urgent to fix the 100 percent disk usage issues to improve and enhance the computer experience.

What causes 100 disk usage in Task Manager?

Before we learn some ways to fix Task Manager disk 100 percent Windows 11, it's critical to understand what causes this issue. The major factors are listed as follows:

◉ Too many apps and programs are running at the same time.
◉ Too many startup programs are running in the background.
◉ There are bad sectors on your hard drive.
◉ The virtual memory is too low.
◉ Your Windows 11 system is infected by viruses or malware.
◉ Device drivers are outdated.

Try 6 useful ways to fix 100 disk usage in Task Manager Windows 11

To get rid of this annoying issue, please read on the following six practical solutions to Windows 100% high disk usage. You can try them one by one until one works for you.

► Fix 1. End unnecessary running Apps and programs

You can check which application or program is consuming too much disk space in Task Manager. If it is not often used, you can directly turn it off in Task Manager to release more space.

Step 1. Press Win+X to open the WinX menu.

Step 2. Select "Task Manager" from the list.

Step 3. Under the "Process" tab, you can see your disk usage clearly.

Step 4. Find the app or program you want to close. Then right-click it and select "End task". Repeat this step to end all the apps and programs you don't need.

► Fix 2. Check disk errors on the hard drive

Task Manager disk 100 percent Windows 11 also can be caused by bad sectors on your hard disk. Then, you can run the CHKDSK.exe tool to check and fix it.

Step 1. Search for cmd on the search bar.

Step 2. Right-click Command Prompt from the search result and select "Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 3. Type chkdsk /f /r c: and press "Enter" to run the command.

Step 4. Type Y and press "Enter".

Step 5. Restart your computer.

► Fix 3. Reset virtual memory

Virtual memory is a common technique used in a computer's operating system. Slow virtual memory is likely to cause disk full Windows 11 Task Manager. To fix it, you can reset virtual memory at once.

Step 1. Press "Windows + I" to open the Settings Window.

Step 2. Select "System" and Hit "About" in the left list.

Step 3. Scroll down and select "Advanced system settings".

Step 4. Hit "Settings" under "Performance".

Step 5. Select the "Advanced" tab in the popup window.

Step 6. Hit "Change" in the Virtual memory segment.

Step 7. Uncheck the bot "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives".

Step 8. Tick "Customize size" and set the maximum size to a larger number. (about 1.5 times the size of your RAM is recommended)

Step 9. Once done, restart your Windows 11 computer and check whether the problem is resolved.

► Fix 4. Scan virus and malware

Virus and malware infection is another important reason for 100 percent disk usage. So removing viruses and malware from computers may fix this issue. You can apply Windows built-in Windows Security or third-party anti-virus software.

Step 1. Search for "Windows Security" in the search bar and then select it to run the app.

Step 2. In the window of "Windows Security", select "Virus & threat protection".

Step 3. Then, click on "Scan options" to see all types of scans available on the system.

Step 4. Select "Full scan" and then, hit "Scan now". It will start immediately and it may take several minutes to finish.

Once the scanning completes, you'll be informed whether there's any virus detected and what actions you should take to kill the virus.

► Fix 5. Update storage drivers

Outdated storage drivers can also lead to 100 disk usage in Task Manager Windows 11. Thus, you can update storage drivers to fix the issue.

Step 1. Press Win + X to open the WinX menu.

Step 2. Select "Device Manager" and "Disk drives".

Step 3. Right-click on your disk and select "Update driver".

► Fix 6. Upgrade HDD to SSD

If the five methods above don't work for you, maybe it's because your hard drive is HDD or too small. Therefore, you can upgrade HDD to SSD or replace the SSD with a larger one. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can help you clone a disk to a new one without reinstalling all your apps, programs, and even the OS.

It employs the "hot clone" feature, so you will never be asked to restart your Windows during the cloning process. Besides, if you don't want to clone the entire hard drive, you can choose to only migrate OS to SSD and boot from the cloned SSD, which can also be the solution to Windows 11 disk usage 100%.

★Notes:

The standard edition only supports cloning the MBR system disk to MBR. If you clone the system hard drive from MBR to GPT, GPT to GPT, or GPT to MBR, you must upgrade to the Pro edition.

If you clone the system disk between MBR and GPT, you need to enter BIOS to change the boot mode between Legacy BIOS and UEFI. (MBR is for BIOS while GPT is for UEFI)

Now, try the best disk management freeware to replace your old hard drive with a larger one to fix the disk full Windows 11 Task Manager:

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard and follow "Clone" > "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you want to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the new drive as the destination disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone", and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of the SSD if the target disk is SSD. 

Step 5. After returning to the main interface, check the pending operation and click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the operation.

Conclusion

How to fix 100 disk usage in Task Manager Windows 11? In this post, we have listed the top 6 ways to solve the problem. You can choose based on your situation. What is worth mentioning is that AOMEI Partition Assistant is not a simple disk cloning tool, it can also resolve many other disk problems such as: the device is not ready, Windows 11 Disk Management does not show drives, SSD not showing up, Disk 1 unknown not initialized in Disk Management, etc.

In addition, if you are running on Windows Server, you could try the Server edition.