For now I switched to another AV Free. For the way I use the PC, I often turn it off and on again, so this was a very annoying thing.
When I see that the problem has been solved maybe I will come back to use Avast Free again.
So for now I’m monitoring this thread and see if the problem will be resolved.
Thank you.
Without detailed information how do you think they are going to find the issue. Why do you think they ask for your help ?
Thank you Nunzio77, I fully understand you pain and I am really sorry for not being able to help you more at the moment. But since this is not happening in our testing environment, we can’t really say which component or which part of the product is responsible for the HDD load. The performance recording is the easiest way how to get more information. Thank you.
Thank you for the feedback. I’m so sorry that you can’t figure out what the problem might be and let’s see if others in this forum find it and are able to provide data for analysis.
I gave Avast Free another chance. 
I reinstalled the latest version and for the moment this problem seems to be gone.
Now when I start the PC the hard drive percentage stays at 100% for about 3 minutes maximum, which is understandable.
So it is probable that with this new version the previous problem has been solved.
Well, I’m very happy to use Avast Free again. 
I hope the use of resources during PC startup will be improved with the next releases.
Especially for older PCs and with HHD.
I had the free version for a few months and at first it took 100% of my HDD for about 5 minutes now it takes less than 1 minute and i didn’t make any changes to my computer, only upgraded to windows 11 but i don’t think that is too relevant.
I still can’t get my head around the 100% of HDD, to me this can’t be capacity but something else (write to or read from). As it can’t possibly completely write to every part of your HDDs storage capacity.
My Primary drive is a 256GB SSD
My secondary drive 1TB (data storage) is HDD and there are occasional spikes lasting seconds yet it really has no impact on my system.
What I don’t get is where you are getting that Avast is responsible for this usage as that isn’t shown, at boot this activity will generally be the OS opening startup programs, etc.
I would certainly suggest paring down just what you need to open immediately and the remainder only open when required. I’m very strict in what I allow to open on boot, otherwise it is only opened when I require it and closed if not going to be used.
I just bought the Avast premium package and i also notice, that my HDD (just a data drive, my system is on a SSD) is running for 2-3 minutes.
I didn’t check the system load, its just annoying, since its “loud”.
This only happend after activating all the features from premium and doing all the recommended scans and things.
This did never happen with Avast free, but always since premium, so some “service” is doing something at each start, like a scan of the HDD.
I couldn’t find anything in the options about a scan at each start of windows though.
As I mentioned, Avast being an on-access antivirus scanner, at boot if you regularly have lost of programs run on start up, be brutal.
I would also ask if you have a lot of apps/programs set to run on startup ? If so try limiting those to see there is one causing avast to scan disk activity.
For every program starting avast is going to scan the executables and actions of the program. Try disabling the startup items one at a time and see if one stands out, e.g. reduces this impact.
I have never felt the need for the extras included in the Premium version, so I would look at the additional components. Try disabling them one at a time and see if one stands out, e.g. reduces this impact.
I just checked my task manager at start and in my case it is as i suspected. It’s the Avast services, that scan or do something at start. Mostly the “premium clean up” not sure, why it would need to scan everything right at the start of windows, rather than at fixed dates (which is disabled), or when i ask the software to do it.
I find things like that rather annoying, so i de-installed the whole “feature”.
Right now there is not much “premium” left for me and i have more problems than before to be honest, might actually look into a refund here and go back to basic…
Guys, this problem doesn’t happens when PC starts but … every time “AvastSvc.exe” is started.
it’s incredible … this issue occurs even when All Shields are disabled … Very Strange what causes intensive operations on Disk even an SSD is used at 100%.
Topic started since November and … no fix until now 
i created a topic here (before i see this topic) :
hi,There is big issue with Avast … Disk usage is impressive !!!
Avast uses 100% of HDD and SSD for a long time everytime Avast Service is launched (it’s like if it scans every file in installation folder) and hundreds of files are read !!!
Every time i launch avast … it reads hundreds of files (files that don’t have any link with the functioning of avast).
You can test it easily … launch “resource monitor” and enjoy the “AvastSVC.exe” activity !!!
So if you have HDD so you can add 1 or 2 minutes to windows start to be operational.
With HDD Avast Launch takes more time than All Windows Services to Start … it’s amazing
This happens Even when all shields are disabled.
Avast was a very light software … now it is becoming a heavy software like Kaspersky and others
If they fix this Avast is really light on resource usage.
Because only when starting Avast is heavy for about 3-4 minutes when starting the PC, after CPU usage, RAM usage and hard disk usage it’s all very low.
It is useless to run a deep scan every time a “clean” PC starts up.
yes Avast is very light comparing to some AVs this is why it’s the best free Antivirus
@jan.svoboda please one check.
Thanks!
Hi Nunzio77 and the others with similar issue - VictorPst, Tom158 and Mamide . We are not able to induce such issue in our environment. In order to analyze and find out the root cause of the issue we really need your help. If you would be so kind and share your performance recording with us as was already suggested earlier this could help resolve the problem.
Thank you very much.
Jan
I tried to figure out how to do it, but honestly I didn’t understand anything to be able to record and then create the log file.
It’s too complicated…isn’t there something or a simpler procedure??
I give up if it’s that complex…
Try not to look at this as a whole thing, but take it one step at a time.
- Download the file. Ordinarily it would go to your default download folder.
- Google - https://www.minitool.com/news/elevated-command-prompt.html
- go to the folder with downloaded file avast-profile.wprp - should be 1. above.
3a. - start recording via command wpr.exe -start avast-profile.wprp (or with newest Avast Antivirus: wpr.exe -start “c:\ProgramData\Avast Software\Avast\profile.wprp”) - just copy and past the bold text into the cmd window. Your folder will be different to mine in the location before the command.
once you have reproduced the problem you can stop it from the cmd prompt in the same way you started - stop recording via command wpr -stop avast-log.etl
- ZIP the log file avast-log.etl and share it via some cloud storage (google-drive, dropbox, one-drive) or avast FTP sever
- provide a link to the zipped log file via avast forum
At the following link: http://public.avast.com/~nix/users/wpr/avast-profile.wprp
I don’t download any file, it opens a web page in html…
OK
Looking again at the first line of the information
- download the configuration file from http://public.avast.com/~nix/users/wpr/avast-profile.wprp to some local folder (this step is not necessary on newest installation of Avast Antivirus)
So according the the above you may not need to download it with the latest versions of Avast whatever version that started from. Not even sure if you would still need to run the cmd
One thing for sure these instructions really need to be reviewed in regard to (this step is not necessary on newest installation of Avast Antivirus)[/i]
What is considered newest installation of Avast and where would this file be located (may not even be needed).
However, I’m wondering if all of this is even required if there is no need to download:
- Using the Avast UI > Settings > Troubleshooting > Record a performance problem (enable the Logs - Enable debug logging) now click the Open Recorder (see attached image).
- Reproduce the problem so it can be recorded.
- Enter the Avast UI > Settings > Troubleshooting > Record a performance problem - uncheck the Enable debug logging. That should stop these excessive debug logs continuing.
- My guess is that these debug logs would be compressed and uploaded to Avast with a unique code that would be also given to you to record in the forums so your log can be found and linked to your topic.
OR
With newest Avast Antivirus whatever this is:
-
Just run the CMD line mentioned before, wpr.exe -start “c:\ProgramData\Avast Software\Avast\profile.wprp”
-
Does this generate the report, compress and upload it to avast and give you the Unique ID to post in the forums.
One thing for sure this procedure need a lot of clarification and that instruction rewritten.
NOTE: by the end of this pondering, I felt like I had been chasing my tail round a tree and caught up with it. So I’m going to wait for answers, clarification and a rewrite of the requirements.