Hard drive constantly read/writing

[tanzanos]

My HDD is constantly read writing for more than a week now. I checked for malware and viruses and found none. Also on the processes the one using 98% of the CPU was system idle?????? Any help as to why this is happening??????

 

[writhziden]

Start Menu->Search programs and files->Type in Resource Monitor->Press Enter->Click the Disk tab

Which program is at the top if you sort by Total (B/sec)?

 

[MilesAhead]

If "idle" is 98% that just means the total processes running on your system are only using 2%. In other words, there's 98% not being used for anything.

So something is a disk hog rather than a CPU hog.

 

[gunner39]

have a look at "Backup and restore" settings?

 

[carwiz]

Open Resource Monitor, click on the Disk tab and you can see exactly what's using the disk(s).

Forgot to mention: What you'll probably see is that Windows is using the disk.

Here's sample:

 

[tanzanos]

Start Menu->Search programs and files->Type in Resource Monitor->Press Enter->Click the Disk tab

Which program is at the top if you sort by Total (B/sec)?

It is SYSTEM and PERFMON.EXE!

 

[writhziden]

Could you post a picture like the one by carwiz? The instructions for doing so can be found here (the snipping tool method is easiest): http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[tanzanos]

Could you post a picture like the one by carwiz? The instructions for doing so can be found here (the snipping tool method is easiest): http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

No matter what I do; printscreen will not work. I had the same problem with XP as I do now with win7. For some reason I cannot capture a screen image.

 

[Golden]

Try this:

1. Click rb:
2. In the search box type snipping
3. Select the Snipping Tool, then draw a boundary around the part you want to capture, then save it to a file and upload it here.

Regards,
Golden

 

[tanzanos]

Resource image:

 

[tanzanos]

It could be INDEXING! The drive seems to have finally calmed down after one week of constant read / writing. Cross my fingers! Thanks to all who responded!

 

[JimLewandowski]

It could be INDEXING! The drive seems to have finally calmed down after one week of constant read / writing. Cross my fingers! Thanks to all who responded!

When in doubt, pull up Indexing Options (via Control Panel) and it will show you if it's complete or if in-progress, you can see the # items get incremented.

 

[rcan1015]

OK, I'm new to this posting--but I tried to take the screenshot mentioned previously. The hard drive on my ASUS is always busy and it's pretty distracting. It's not indexing since it says it's complete in Control Panel>Indexing Options. Anyway, if the .jpg uploads correctly, can somebody tell me if the processes look normal. The hard drive just never quits being active--unless I put it to sleep. Thanks for any help.

Richard

 

[nilank]

It could be INDEXING! The drive seems to have finally calmed down after one week of constant read / writing. Cross my fingers! Thanks to all who responded!

It can be Superfetch as well. It runs on low priority so it won't be a problem. Superfetch "learns" what you do at what time and preloads your program exes and dlls into the RAM so that they launch faster.

Hope that helped a bit.

 

[Anak]

Hi rcan1015, welcome to 7F!

They look normal, but you sure have a lot of explorer.exe with a 1732PID. :shock:

Indexing, Pre, and Superfetch can cause a lot of HDD activity, but there can be other reasons to; Domain Name Server (DNS), scans by your security products (Norton360), and Malware.

Please go back to Resource Monitor and expand the column shown in red, that will give us an idea as to what file(s) are in use.

   Information

How to; Place your cursor arrow over the column separator line, it will turn into a double arrow, left double click and the column should expand or you can left click and hold the separator line and drag it to the right, far enough to expose all listings.

If you can, please try to capture the entire column. You will have to scroll down and take several snips and post them in your next reply.

You can also search for the 1732PID in: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4590-task-manager-show-services-running-under-svchost-exe.html
It will show the PID under all the processes tab, but only the services that are running tab.
It would help if you could show a snip of any processes and/or services that are associated with 1732PID.


Richard,
We understand your being new to Forum etiquette, but it is never advised to add your situation to another members thread, especially one that is almost 1year, and 5months old. It would be okay to start your own thread and then link back to this one if it is similar to your problem.

Even though your situation may look similar on the face of it, it could be vastly different because your system in all probability is nowhere similar to the original thread starter's, and this will demand a different solution.

This comes under "Cause and Effect"; Even though the effect may be the same, the cause can be vastly different.

Windows 7 Help Forums - Board FAQ

 

[rcan1015]

Thanks for the quick replies. Anak, I've tried to capture the column you requested. They are constantly changing--sometimes just a page or two and a few seconds later three or four pages. If the attachments upload correctly, maybe somebody can explain what all the activity is about. I do see that Norton has some activity, but I disabled it and the constant hard drive noises continued. Anybody know what all the IE5 activity is about?







Sorry about posting in the wrong place/time. I've been searching for similar topics and this thread seemed like the most similar. Plus, I was reluctant about starting a new thread, when I'm not sure what that really means.

Richard

 

[rcan1015]

I was not able to locate anything with 1732PID. If I understand the question correctly, it was mostly PID 4 that displayed in the resource monitor.

Thanks

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
assuming you have enough RAM a lot of this type of stuff can be caused by Third party A/V software.

I think by now most people on these boards know what I feel about typical 3rd party A/V software on HOME computers (not corporate) so I won't repeat again.

Some of these don't show up on any W7 performance info but can slow a machine down so it really runs about as fast as a One Legged dog attempting to run on a perfectly smooth ice pond --or in plain English -- cold treacle would flow faster.

Disable / uninstall all A/V software as a test (disconnect from Internet while doing this of course).

If you just stick with the MSE from Ms you won't go wrong. Also don't start or have running any unnecessary services.

BTW Norton which is often thrown in when you buy a PC is one of the WORST offenders in slowing systems down.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[rcan1015]

Jimbo, I've got 10GB RAM and I think my system is fast enough. It's just the constant noise and constant activity that bother me. I just got this ASUS system a couple months ago from my son (when he decided to go for a Mac) and I added the Norton 360 software. I had the same software installed on my previous Compaq Presario and did not experience any of the noise/activity issues. My older system came with Windows XP and after several years I upgraded to Windows 7. It had almost all the same software as my ASUS, but was much quieter. Also, I disabled Norton and it didn't seem to have any effect on the hard drive activity.

Thanks,
Richard

 

[Anak]

Your welcome rc, I'm going to drill down and answer your recent posts along with jimbo's.

You did capture the column I wanted to see, and all the activity is from windows dynamically changing things on the fly..you're doing okay with the attachments.

I hope you restarted Norton, you don't want to be online without protection. The IE5 activity will have to be investigated.
There are no problems with where you posted, we will just try to figure out what your machine is doing right here in this thread.

I was reluctant about starting a new thread, when I'm not sure what that really means.

It means you are unique and the situation you are in is unique and it requires its own solution.

As stated before, the pid's are changing dynamically there is nothing to worry about. I'll will look at your pid4's

jimbo has some valid points especially about moving over to MSE If you do change to MSE use this Norton removal tool then install MSE. You can uninstall Norton from programs and features in Control Panel then use the removal tool to get the scraps.

This http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html tutorial will help, for now concentrate on #'s 3-Startups and 7- process monitor for now.

Before you disable any startups remove Norton, and install MSE do all the necessary reboots. then take a snip of the startups in msconfig. as shown how to get there in step 3.
We can then advise which ones to disable.

See if that calms your machine down, but I still want you to download/install and run process monitor in step #7 and take a snip of that.

We'll try to nail this down, but you have to realize that you are comparing apples (ASUS) to oranges (Compaq).

I have to go out soon, but will stay for a few minutes to see your reply for questions before you start on all this. Your looking at an hour at least, depending on your duties.