What is my computer (hard drive) doing now?- I can hear it working

pintree3 · 30 Oct 2013

When you defrag your computer you can hear the hard drive running as it changes files back and forth. At times I can hear the same sound (or similar) but have no clue what it can possibly be doing. My 1st instinct is to unplug my internet connection should someone be hacking in my PC and using my resources. But after doing so I can still hear it working hard, on and on, and on at times. So I do a Ctrl+Alt+Del to see what is using most of my memory. Often its Firefox and Skype but even after closing both and doing nothing (hand away from keyboard and mouse) I can still hear it at work. I do not have any automatic updates for any of my software so it can't be that. I was wonderig if there is some way, software perhaps, to find out exactly what it is that is making my computer do such a thing?

2xg · 30 Oct 2013

Hi there,

Some info. here on how to distinguish the type of hard drive noise you are hearing. Here's an Article on how to troubleshoot noisy hard drive.

Hope that this is helpful.

carwiz · 30 Oct 2013

Windows hits the drive about once per second as part of normal "keep-alive" activities. There's also indexing and logging going on in the back ground so there's never a time that the drive is really idle even when nothing else is running. One acquires an appreciation of a quiet system after installing a SSD. :)

Some HDDs are just plain noisy. The method of mounting makes a difference too. Clips and trays just can't beat plain ole' screws and solid racks. It's impossible to know if the sounds you hear are abnormal. (We're not there.) Follow the links given by Ray and let us know what you find out.

Added:
You can see what processes are using disk. Start Task Manager, then click on the Performance tab. At the bottom of that window is a button called Resource Monitor. Click that button. On the Resource Monitor window, click on the Disk tab. This shows all the processes using disk. If you expand the area below it, every disk file in use is shown.

whs · 30 Oct 2013

Next time have a look into Resource Monitor > Disk tab. That will tell you which processes read or write on the disk. Very often it is the system updating some log files or other activities.

carwiz · 30 Oct 2013

Ops! Sorry Wolf. I didn't see your post before adding the picture to mine. Good idea though. :)

whs · 30 Oct 2013

carwiz said:

Ops! Sorry Wolf. I didn't see your post before adding the picture to mine. Good idea though. :)

No problem. The more info, the better.

madcratebuilder · 30 Oct 2013

Ear buds!