It's a WD hard drive and it appears that something is reading and writing to it.
It almost has a rhythm to whatever is happening.
I can see the activity with the Resource Monitor.
Can anyone educate me on how to find out what's running and how to stop it?
click the disk tab and give it a minute to list everything that is happening on the disk
the click the write rate tab
Process Hacker download | SourceForge.net
i think process explorer now only supports win8.1 and up
Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs
Mike, There is never a time that Windows is doing absolutely Nothing!
The first thing I might do is unplug your internet connection, or if you're on WiFi, shut if off. Then see if activity ceases or at least decreases.
I just know that my computer is always doing something, even when I'm not, so I just don't worry about it.
When the computer is idle, windows launch defrag that defragment the drive.
Is this true of Windows-7 Pro?
In perhaps 10 plus years, I have never noticed it launching Defrag.
It's still running whatever and it's been about 24 hours since I noticed it.
I will try SIW2 recommendation after dinner tonight.
Defrag
If your hard drive is an SSD (Solid State Drive) make sure that Defrag DOES NOT run. It's very easy to disable.
I never let Defrag run automatically on any of my PC's, even the ones with mechanical HD's.
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