Solved intense HD activity when not in use?

[pappi]

The blinking light that denotes HD activity sometimes blinks very rapidly(like the nanosecond ticker in Olympics race events) and lasts for several minutes, even when I am not using and with blank screen and (once) even when on sleep mode. And it happens randomly. I have no programmed/scheduled scans other than once a week MSE which runs when I am asleep.

Task Manager does not help to ID this intense HD activity(unless I just don't know how to use it).

What to do? Can't just ignore it. It's eating me up. It makes me paranoid, "Am I being hacked, or something?"

 

[badger906]

even if your not touching your computer windows is still accessing your hard drives constantly and doing things in the back ground.
its normal, to see if its a rogue app open task manager and click the top of the cpu usage column, it will put the hugest usage at the top. if nothing goes about 5-10% dont worry.

and theres a simple test for your paranoid hacking theory disconnect from the internet.. does it still happen? if yes uts not someone trying to steal pictures of you in your underpants!!

 

[AddRAM]

Do you have any disk defragmenting scheduled ?

As Adam says, your hard drive light is always gonna blink, but the sound of a hard drive working can be annoying, save up for a solid state drive

 

[Boozad]

My WD Caviar Black does it now and again if I have Origin or Steam open, they're the two programs I have installed on that drive as well as my games. Sometimes other programs will update, I know my Steam account syncs and downloads game updates regularly.
Windows will do more so, that's why I have mine on an SSD as AddRAM recommends.

 

[AddRAM]

Yes, all my hard disk drives spin down and go to sleep when I`m not using them.

 

[pappi]

Luckily, it's just blinking light, absolutely no sound.

Is there a way to find out what kind of HD is installed? I purchased this old used HP Pavilion and seller claimed he installed new HD. Therefore, I cannot go by HP support website for OEM hardware info.

 

[Boozad]

You can download and run Pririform Speccy which will give you the information.

 

[AddRAM]

And you can look at disk drives in device manager.

 

[pappi]

Device manager says it's ATA. Does that mean I do not have the better HD(SSD)?

 

[lehnerus2000]

DWM

On my PC, dwm.exe regularly accesses my HDD, even when I'm not doing anything (bursts of activity lasting 15s - 20s).

 

[Callender]

What's using your hard drive?

If you don't mind installing software you could try:

What's my computer doing? - Strange hard disk access? Unexplainable processor activity?

If you run the program and choose to also display system processes you can see what's accessing your hard drive and when. Additionally you can view information about the process:

Screenshot:

 

[crawfish]

Sysinternals Process Monitor, too.

 

[derekimo]

Device manager says it's ATA. Does that mean I do not have the better HD(SSD)?

Is there a way to find out what kind of HD is installed?

Looks like a Seagate HDD, not an SSD.

Laptop HDD Support | Seagate

 

[pappi]

Thanks, Derek, you're right...it's Seagate HDD as I found out several weeks ago from a Pririform Speccy which was suggested to me by a SF member(I forgot who and why). I have totally forgotten. Matter of fact, I was glad to realize at that time that an external HD(500GB) I had bought earlier for back-up storage happened to be same brand - Seagate, which I did not know at purchase.

 

[pappi]

And lately, at least three times, PC does not turn off because of (running)background program(which I suppose is responsible for HD rapid blinking light). I either wait or cancel...in order to turn off.

How do I ID these background programs? During HD intense activity, task manager shows no program running.