How to eliminate 100% disk usage due to “system and compressed memory” on Windows 10

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How to eliminate 100% disk usage due to "system and compressed memory" on Windows 10

System and compressed memory are responsible for compressing files and folders and managing memory. If you change virtual memory settings, such as changing the swap file size from “Automatic” to a specific value, the “System and Compressed Memory” process will begin to take up 100% of the affected hard drive.

Windows 10 users have long reported that this service takes up tons of memory, disk, and CPU when they check the Task Manager. But you don’t have to worry about that. If this amount of memory, CPU, and disk really bothers you, there’s something you can do to fix the system and compressed memory and disk usage in Windows 10.

So, without wasting any time, let’s see how to fix 100% disk usage due to “system memory and compression” in Windows 10 with the following troubleshooting guide prepared by IR Cache.

What is the cause of 100% disk usage due to “system and compressed memory” in Windows 10

What is the cause of 100% disk usage due to "system and compressed memory" in Windows 10

Superfetch is a Windows service that aims to improve system performance over time. However, Superfetch can cause problems with 100% disk usage during “System and Compressed Memory”.

Some users have found that this high system and compressed disk usage is caused by a process called `Speech Runtime Executable’, which has to do with audio recordings. Sometimes this process can use an obscene amount of computer resources, resulting in 100% disk usage.

In many cases, this system usage and memory compression is caused by faulty or defective RAM. To determine this, you can replace each RAM strip individually and reboot the computer to check.

The faulty RAM bar should be the one without which your computer will no longer suffer from high system hard drive utilization and memory compression.

Here’s how to fix 100% disk usage due to “system and compressed memory” in Windows 10



Updated: February 2025

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Here's how to fix 100% disk usage due to "system and compressed memory" in Windows 10

Disable the “System and Compressed Memory” process

  1. Press Windows + R, type taskschd.MSC and press Enter to open the Task Scheduler.
  2. Go to the following path:
    Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> MemoryDiagnostic.
  3. Right-click RunFullMemoryDiagnostic and select Disable.
  4. Close the Task Scheduler and restart the computer.

Recovering corrupted system files

  1. Open the command line. The user can perform this step by searching for “cmd” and hitting Enter.
  2. Now type the following into cmd and press Enter:
    Sfc /scan now
    sfc /scan now /offbootdir=c : /offwindir=c:windows (If the above method did not work, try this one).
  3. Wait for the above process to complete, then reboot the computer.
  4. Open cmd again and type the following commands, pressing the Enter key each time:
    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restore Health
  5. Run the DISM command and wait for it to finish.
  6. If the above command does not work, try the following
    Dism /Image:C:offline /Cleanup-Image /Restore Health /Source:c : test/mount/windows
    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restore Health /Source:c : test/mount/windows /LimitAccess
  7. Replace C: RepairSourceWindows with your recovery source (Windows installation disk or recovery disk).
  8. Reboot your computer to save your changes, and see if you can solve the problem of 100% disk usage by the system and compressed memory.

Set the correct page file size

  1. Press Windows + R, type sysdm.CPL and press Enter to open System Properties.
  2. Switch to the Advanced tab and click Settings in the Performance section.
  3. Switch back to the Advanced tab and click Edit under Virtual Memory.
  4. Select the Automatically manage paging file size for all disks to checkboxes.
  5. Click OK, then Apply, and finally OK.
  6. Select Yes to restart your computer and save your changes.

Disable Quick Startup

  1. Press Windows + R, type control, and press Enter to open the Control Panel.
  2. Click on “Hardware and Sound,” then “Power Options.”
  3. Then select “Select what the power buttons do” in the left pane.
  4. Now click on “Change settings that are not currently available”.
  5. Uncheck “Enable Quick Startup” and click “Save Changes”.
  6. Reboot your computer and see if the 100% system disk and compressed memory usage problem can be resolved.

Disable the Superfetch service

  1. Press Windows + R, type services.MSC and press Enter.
  2. Find the Superfetch service in the list, right-click it and select Properties.
  3. Under Service Status, click Stop if the service is running.
  4. Now select Disabled from the Startup Type drop-down list.
  5. Click Apply, and then click OK.
  6. Reboot your computer to save your changes.

If the above method does not disable Superfetch services, you can disable Superfetch through the registry:

  1. Press Windows + R, type Regedit and press Enter to open the registry editor.
  2. Navigate to the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters.
  3. Make sure you select PrefetchParameters, then double-click the EnableSuperfetch key in the right pane and change the Value data field to 0.
  4. Click OK and close the registry editor.
  5. Restart your computer to save your changes and see if you were able to resolve the 100% system disk and compressed memory usage problem.



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Frequently Asked Questions

Virtual memory treats your hard drive as RAM and uses it to swap temporary files when the real RAM runs out. Errors in pagefile.sys can cause your Windows 10 computer to use 100% of your disk. A workaround for this problem is to reset the virtual memory settings.

  1. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del and select Task Manager.
  2. Select System and Compressed Memory with high CPU or disk usage.
  3. Click the "Stop Task" button to end the process.

This system error can have several causes: you have changed the virtual memory settings and changed the paging file size to a specific value instead of the default "Automatic" value. An error has occurred in one of the memory files.

Check to see if the RAM has failed or is failing. To determine this, you can replace all the RAM strips one by one and restart the computer to check. The faulty RAM strip should be the one without which your computer will no longer suffer from the high load on the system hard drive and memory compression.