Windows 7: Help, W7 is killing my hard drive!

Hi there, I've got a brand new laptop with Windows 7 (64bit) and my hard disk seems to have constant activity.

All Windows updates are installed and my hard disk is defragmented.


I've tried Procmon and procexp as well as the hard disk activity tab of Task Manager and the culprit is the dreaded svchost.exe I have disabled BitDefender and ZoneAlarm just to check but the activity continues.

This is the screenshot of the highest activity instance of svchost.exe.
Can anyone help?

Many thanks

No expert,
Keep in mind your laptop came likely with tons of free applications and they are taking valuable space and using valuable resources. Go to msconfig and then to start up and you'll see all the applications that open and await your next command even if you don't ever intend to open them. So the first step is read here some excellent free advice and get slowly familiar with it all!
Understand there are no hard fast rules here for what you should always allow to start up.
I like my Antivirus, Logitech setpoint and Acronis schedule to start up. Keep in mind by disabling all you can always start your programs as you want, they just won't automatically be waiting for you to issue a command or retrieve updates or perform features within them till you open them.
Another thing to note by "disabling all" in msconfig, windows always reassigns what it will need to boot. But for sure have your AV program checked to open so it will automatically grab updates and work while you surf and such.

Thanks for the quick response.

All pre-loaded bloatware was uninstalled and in startup I only have two things:

Skype and ZoneAlarm

I disabled both and the activity continues.

I'm sure it's a Windows 7 service or something.

Any ideas very welcome.

Thanks again

By the way, the activity still happens in Safe Mode. Thanks

You will notice a lot of hard drive activity in the early days as Windows 7 sorts out the indexing and superfetch during the period it learns which are your favourite programs.

Give it a few days and you should notice a lot less hard drive chattering as Windows settles down.

Hi, thanks. I've had it for about two weeks. Indexing says it's "complete". I'll keep an eye on it for the next few days but I may have to resurrect the thread if it does not go away Many thanks

I agree with Andrew, as long as your system does not have performance issues, wait it out. My newest is 2 months old and has regular disk activity though short and fast as it's a ssd... My second system, older, has no performance issues but near to constant disk activity due to lots of things goin on that never really worry me...

I agree with previous advice you've received.

Don't sweat it, unless something ugly shows it's head.

You might find the CPU tab of RESMON.EXE interesting.

SVCHost is often maxed out by audioDG. check audio enhancement and google audiodg and spu .

If your problem is related to the Audio Device Graph Isolator (audiodg.exe), then

this article will show you how to disable enhancements. By disabling enhancements, you will be able to see if there is an effect there.

Fix: Audiodg.exe High CPU Usage