Disk Timeout Setting

Overview

VMs in the ITS Private Cloud can crash during storage maintenance if the disk I/O timeout is too short. Increasing this value gives the storage layer time to recover from brief interruptions without the guest OS treating it as a fatal disk failure.

The recommended disk timeout setting is 180s

How to change the disk timeout setting in Windows (Elevated Powershell)

1. Check the current value

   Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk" | Select-Object TimeOutValue

2. Set to 180 seconds

   Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk" ` -Name TimeOutValue -Value 180 -Type DWord

3. Verify the change

   Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk" | Select-Object TimeOutValue

Output should show

Notes

• Test on a non-production system first

• Applies to all Windows VMs on shared storage

• 180 seconds is the standard recommendation