Before any advanced tweaks, a clean slate is paramount. A corrupted installation or conflicting leftovers from a previous antivirus can cause numerous issues.
Excessive logging is a known cause of performance degradation. If high disk usage persists, investigate the Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS).
One rainless evening a boy came in with a wooden music box wrapped in a scrap of newspaper. The boy’s name was Milo. He placed the box on the counter with hands that trembled a little and said, “They say you can make it play again.”