Constant hard drive activity?

[The Apathetic]

I also had a similar problem, overnight the "loading" light on my case is always lit while the cpu is 1% and 25% of the ram is used!! right after I installed windows 7 my secondry HDD started lagging, made sounds, turn off by itself and weak sectors started to showup on it. Sometimes even the motherboard wouldn't recognize it at all.

So I was fed up with it and I tried many solutions and non of them worked but then some1 suggested that I make the secondry HDD my primary 1, format it all over and remove the old HDD and so far it's working fine. It's been only a day since I did this so I'm still testing it. The only thing that hasn't changed is the 5 weak sectors that I have on this HDD which doesn't go away even after formating.. Is there any other way to fix weak sectors? cause I already formated it many times and they are still there.

 

[torrentg]

Spinrite

 

[MilesAhead]

Just turn off superfetch! That's why vista had so much hdd activity, and it's probably why win7 does too.
Start>services>superfetch>disable...

It's better to set it to cache only boot files. Esp. if you have 64 bit you can get really slow startup otherwise:

Change SuperFetch to Only Cache System Boot Files in Vista :: the How-To Geek

 

[pulgoki]

Has anyone come up with a certain solution to this problem? I have the same issue. Constant hard drive access that goes on all night long even while the computer is supposedly idle. Ive cant seem to find a solution to fix this constant drive activity.

 

[satchmo]

I have spent weeks searching the internet for a solution for Windows Vista, but I've never found a solution.

So I just accepted it. It's just normal OS operation, and it's not harmful for the hardware.

 

[MilesAhead]

Another thing you can do is go through the scheduled tasks and try to figure out what they are for. I'm not sure if this still goes in W7 but in Vista, even if you opt out of the user experience performance whatever-it-is thing, the system gathers the statistics anyway!! I had to check "show hidden tasks" in the task scheduler, and go through the stuff and disable that stats gathering manually.

You'll find explorer going through all your files trying to open them and doing other stupid stuff unless you kill off all those dumb scheduled tasks.

 

[rynox77]

This is very irritating. I've shut down Windows Search, Superfetch, Windows Defender and it still flashes... flashes... for days. Even if the machine has been sitting.

AMD quad-core, 6GB ram, 512 GB Hdd

Resource monitor says "System" is constantly writing to the disk. Also some activity from the service hosting process hosting the following services: Security Center, TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, HomeGroup Provider, Windows Event Log, DHCP Client, Windows Audio.

I'm wondering if this isn't some sort of auditing the System is constantly performing on the event log. I'm going to look into it further.

It's not a huge deal, really, it just bothers me. I'm not using my computer, so why is it accessing the hard drive? It's just the principle.

 

[logicearth]

I'm not using my computer, so why is it accessing the hard drive? It's just the principle.

Because you are not using the computer.

 

[MilesAhead]

Just turn off superfetch! That's why vista had so much hdd activity, and it's probably why win7 does too.
Start>services>superfetch>disable...

It's better to set it to cache only boot files. Esp. if you have 64 bit you can get really slow startup otherwise:

Change SuperFetch to Only Cache System Boot Files in Vista :: the How-To Geek

Sorry guys. The suggestions I made work fine for Vista. Windows Seven must have the stuff ingrained or something. I set Superfetch to only cache boot files, turned off Windows Search, Firewall, caching of network files, yadda yadda. The damn disk LED flickered even more!!! So I just did a restore point to put it back the way it was. LED flicks on about every 2 seconds but it seems there's no way to get it to settle down. Unlike Vista without those tweaks, it doesn't seem to slow down performance. But it could be another reason to use Vista SP1 since my W7 trial will run out in March anyway.

 

[logicearth]

Just disconnect the HDD activity LED if it drives you that nuts...

 

[torrentg]

Lol Logic makes me laugh (in a good way!)

He perfectly knows why the HDD is going but doesn't want to say lol.

It's probably Windows Defragmenting working and/or Windows Search scanning to index files.

Normal and well for a non-tweaked install. Most people "in-the-know", disable Windows Search service. I use 3rd party defrag so I disable Disk Defragmenting service.

 

[MilesAhead]

Just disconnect the HDD activity LED if it drives you that nuts...

That's the old "Doctor it hurts when I move my arm like this" and the doctor says "well, don't move your arm like that then."

 

[MilesAhead]

Lol Logic makes me laugh (in a good way!)

He perfectly knows why the HDD is going but doesn't want to say lol.

It's probably Windows Defragmenting working and/or Windows Search scanning to index files.

Normal and well for a non-tweaked install. Most people "in-the-know", disable Windows Search service. I use 3rd party defrag so I disable Disk Defragmenting service.

I think you assume all Windows 7 PCs are the same. I totally dsabled Windows Search, CEIP stats gathering, Windows Media Center, use Everything Search that uses journaling info instead of WinAPI for file system change notifications, and a bunch of other tweaks to services that worked in Vista. The HD pulses every 2 seconds. Could be some driver or other issue that's not in your machine.

The Windows 7 issue I'm getting is different. The HD doesn't just run on making you wait to use it like in Vista. I get a quick pulse of the LED every 2 seconds no matter how long the machine is idle. I don't have defrag running and disabled as many hidden scheduled tasks as possible. There's some kind of check going to the hardware for some reason. If it was just reading something off the disk it would be cached. It must be getting some kind of drive status or SMART info or something.

 

[zigzag3143]

Miles

I am just passing thru and have not read the thread but does it behave the same in safe boot ?


Ken J+

 

[MilesAhead]

Miles

I am just passing thru and have not read the thread but does it behave the same in safe boot ?


Ken J+

Yup. Just tried it. Safe mode no network support. Same pulsing for no reason.

 

[logicearth]

...Same pulsing for no reason.

Everything has a reason. But clearly it doesn't matter cause the computer should not be doing anything, right? Obsession over this, with all the disabling of services and other stuff when it never in fact interrupted you or your use of the computer, is ridiculous. I on the other hand, actually prefer to get work done, and maybe use my computer instead of blindly watching it like a fish tank.

I do not disable a thing, I may modify configuration, like the index locations, setting built in defrag schedule to a daily time. Stuff like that. And my HDD light hardly blinks.

 

[torrentg]

...Same pulsing for no reason.

Everything has a reason. But clearly it doesn't matter cause the computer should not be doing anything, right? Obsession over this, with all the disabling of services and other stuff when it never in fact interrupted you or your use of the computer, is ridiculous.

Agreed. There are many other causes for HDD going such as WMC updating...a million things that are working with a normal pc.

 

[MilesAhead]

...Same pulsing for no reason.

Everything has a reason. But clearly it doesn't matter cause the computer should not be doing anything, right? Obsession over this, with all the disabling of services and other stuff when it never in fact interrupted you or your use of the computer, is ridiculous. I on the other hand, actually prefer to get work done, and maybe use my computer instead of blindly watching it like a fish tank.

I do not disable a thing, I may modify configuration, like the index locations, setting built in defrag schedule to a daily time. Stuff like that. And my HDD light hardly blinks.

I think you mean cause not reason.. A cause is what produces the action. A reason is a rationale for it doing so. Obviously pulsing the HD every 2 seconds is some anomaly. What could possibly need to access the HD every 2 seconds? If it was a service or something that made sense, the access would not be regular and trivial. It would actually do something.

You call it obsessing. I call it getting the thing to work correctly.

 

[torrentg]

You call it obsessing. I call it getting the thing to work correctly.

How is something not working correctly, as you call it, affecting any type of usage on the pc?

If you have a valid answer to show why it is crippling or lessening the machine's abilities, then fine. But if not, it's obsessing.

If you unplug the ethernet cable, do you still get the pulses?

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Hi,

I installed Windows 7 RC. When ever I am booted into Win7 one of my hard drives (probably not system drive - sounds like my secondary storage drive) is constantly working. Not very much but still making sounds.

I have completely turned off indexation, there is no automatic defrag going on. I have set a constant size to the paging file and there is no antivirus activity going on. The hard drive is making noise even when the system is idle for a long time and also when I am using it.

The processes tab in the task monitor shows no process that is using CPU.

What can this hard drive activity be?

Thanks!

Have you tried disabling System Protection?

EDIT: Btw, the first thing I make sure I do right after performing a clean install of Windows (any Windows, 7, XP, Vista, etc), is the disabling of unnecessary services (Run --> Services.msc).

You wouldn't believe all the crap that runs in the background, even on a 'clean/fresh' install of Windows.

As a result, I've been able to reduce the number of processes from ~60 to ~40 (less processes = less CPU & RAM usage).