Hard disk hunts for 10 minutes on boot up

[Raventrevor]

Every time I boot up or wake up from Sleep mode my hard disk hunts for about 10 minutes probably updating files. This seriously slows down my system.

I use the Microsoft virus checker, and the Microsoft Backup utility.
Could it be one of these, or some other software, and if so how can I locate it and then stop it?

 

[whs]

Look into Resource Monitor > Disk tab to see which process/program does the activity.

 

[Raventrevor]

Hi WHS, Thanks for the advice.
Resource monitor indicates that :-
svchost.exe - local system net,
msmpeng.exe,
permon.exe and search index
hog the cpu until the hard disk accessing comes to a stop.
Are any of these responsible?

 

[whs]

1. The msmpeng.exe is either MSE or Defender. I doubt that this is the culprit - but you never know.

2. The perfmon.exe is for the reliability and performance monitor. That could write a lot of data to disk. You may check the event viewer and the performance monitor (via Start > right click on Computer > Manage) whether there are a lot of entries in a short period of time.

3. For the search index, you may want to change the indexing options - See here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Improve-Windows-searches-using-the-index-frequently-asked-questions
This would be my first suspect.

Any of the above can be the culprit. It will take a bit of analysis.

 

[Raventrevor]

Your hunch was right. Pausing the Search Index seems to have cured the problem.
However, I still don't know which file(s) are causing the problem.
Should I rebuild the index or perhaps re-install windows7 ?

 

[whs]

No - no need to take any drastic action. Just leave it as is. May take a couple of seconds longer when you search for something, but so what.

 

[Raventrevor]

Yes, I think your right. It's definitely better now than it was, so I'll live with it for now.
Thanks a lot for your help. It's much appreciated.
Regards
Trevor

 

[whs]

No problem, any time.