Constant 100% Hard Drive Activity

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  1. Posts : 36
    Windows 7 Ultimate x86 OEM
       #1

    Constant 100% Hard Drive Activity


    I know this has been posted time and time again, but I have not found any solution to my problem. I do not know which drive it is, but one of them (I have 4) will sometimes spike to 100% activity, and the only way to resolve that is by rebooting.
    Now I know that doesn't sound so bad, but when you're in the middle of photoshopping something, doing some homework, or gaming, it gets to be a real pain, very quickly.
    I can imagine that having a hard drive at 100% activity for hours on end will take a very large toll on its life span.

    Here are my system specs:
    ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe motherboard
    AMD Phenom x4 9950 BE 2.6 GHz
    2GB DDR2 1066 MHz RAM
    160GB HDD
    250GB HDD
    300GB HDD
    500GB HDD

    I read on another thread that indexing or scheduled defrags may be the cause, but I have already disabled index since I installed 7. My defrags are scheduled for 1AM every wednesday (but that has long passed, and I have already had to reboot).
    I also read somewhere that it could be a missing AMD processor driver, which indeed I had no luck finding.

    Please guys, I don't know why it's doing this, and I'm fed up with rebooting every 2 hours.
    Last edited by Canowyrms; 10 Feb 2010 at 23:03. Reason: Typo
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 141
    windows 8.1 pro
       #2

    try opening up "task manager" on the top choose the process tab, and then click on the "cpu" column, and see what is taking most of your cpu.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 17,796
    Windows 10, Home Clean Install
       #3

    Type process explorer in search, for valuable information on what program is running and using resources.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 36
    Windows 7 Ultimate x86 OEM
    Thread Starter
       #4

    tapuz said:
    try opening up "task manager" on the top choose the process tab, and then click on the "cpu" column, and see what is taking most of your cpu.
    I have an issue with my HDD activity, not my CPU usage.

    richc46 said:
    Type process explorer in search, for valuable information on what program is running and using resources.
    Thanks, I will give that a try.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 17,796
    Windows 10, Home Clean Install
       #5

    Either way, get back to us. Your success will help others; a failure will let others help you, too.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 7
    Windows 7
       #6

    I've been struggling to find the cause of this problem as well, it's rather frightening when you invest money in a brand new drive, only to hear it being tried by fire right off the bat. It's like revving a brand new car to the redline straight off the lot.

    Best I can tell, it has to do with Windows' hybrid sleep function. I have disabled all forms of sleep and hibernation except monitor (10 minutes) and hard drive (20 minutes). I've tried disabling all hard drive hibernation as well, to no effect. I haven not yet tried disabling ALL hibernation, which I think I'll try today.

    I've noticed that coming back to the computer after having slept all night, it seems to take an extremely long time to write or read huge files from the disk. I thought it might be torrent programs mucking with the TCP tables, but that's not the case as I'm only at 1/10th the TCP load Windows XP handled without issue. A quick drive search discovered the file "hiberfil.sys" in the root directory of my Windows installation.

    One google search later showed what it was, which brings me back full circle. The intarwebs say it's a hybrid hibernation file written before sleep, and read after returning from sleep. I've disabled hybrid hibernation. I've disabled hard drive hibernation. The problem still occurs, and any program running from the same drive as this file lurches until the file is done being worked with. It's quite annoying and nothing I've tried has worked yet.

    Edit: I've just disabled all hibernation. "High Performance" power saving mode still had hybrid sleep enabled, which I disabled as well. We'll see how it works.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 824
    Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (6.1, Build 7600)
       #7

    richc46 said:
    Type process explorer in search, for valuable information on what program is running and using resources.
    Hmm, wouldn't one need to have Process Explorer on board.

    Canowyrms, what security apps do you use?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 17,796
    Windows 10, Home Clean Install
       #8

    Greg S said:
    richc46 said:
    Type process explorer in search, for valuable information on what program is running and using resources.
    Hmm, wouldn't one need to have Process Explorer on board.

    Canowyrms, what security apps do you use?
    I type process explorer in search and the download link comes up.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 824
    Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (6.1, Build 7600)
       #9

    richc46 said:
    Greg S said:
    richc46 said:
    Type process explorer in search, for valuable information on what program is running and using resources.
    Hmm, wouldn't one need to have Process Explorer on board.

    Canowyrms, what security apps do you use?
    I type process explorer in search and the download link comes up.
    Ah, that search. I'm one track minded,lol. I was thinking explorer search. It's obvious that we are all using web browsers, long day here rich
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 2,685
    Windows 7 Ultimate x86-64
       #10

    Go through the troubleshooting guide in my sig - a solution may be there.
      My Computer


 
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