Is there a tool to check the HDD usage?

[valrogue]

Is there a tool to check what is using the HDD?

Hello, since yesterday, my hdd makes a little more noises that usual on idle and i can't seem to know why I tried using the ressrouce monitor ( in ctrl+alt+suppr) to check what are the things that make the hdd writes and read and the strange things is that there is some activity that doesn't appear in it. like sometimes i see the E/S disk going from 0 to 120k but if i list everything that appears on the window it amounts to way less than that...basically, there is some disk activity that doesn't appear there . Is there some tool to check what makes the hdd work? thank you

 

[iko22]

I've used the free versions of both these softwares:

Hard Disk Sentinel - better for Health reports
HD Tune Pro - better for Benchmarking

 

[valrogue]

Thank you for your answer can they be usefull to see precisely what "processus" are making the HDD work?

 

[iko22]

Well, you can use the Disk Monitor tab of HD Tune Pro a bit like this:



You can see the Programs that perform Read I/Os and Write I/Os, if that is what you intend?

 

[valrogue]

yes thank you i'm gonna test it but is it better that the windows ressource monitor? because even with that, there are brief 100/200k spike every 10 seconds of hdd activity that he misses; aka i can see on the graph the spikes but when i read the services/programm, nothing changes during those spikes,i cannot find some programmes that correlates to the spikes, as if the spikes were to brief to show what programm cause it.... i don't know if it is very understandable^^ can i download it from the website HD TUNE WEBSITE? it is just a .exe so i'm a bit worried

 

[iko22]

You wish to know what is causing the spikes in disk activity, on your computer?

This indeed is very difficult. As you know, microprocessor instructions work much faster than the human eye can see!

HD Tune Pro has many features. The feature you want to use is only as good as Resource Monitor.

You can download a 15-day trial version of the HD Tune Pro program from here HD Tune website . It is a safe program to use. Only the free version is limited to 15-days!

 

[valrogue]

yes exactly, with great precision! resource monitor seems to be pretty good but there is just the fact that those big spikes appear only in the graph, not in the data zone with the numbers. if i look at the numbers and activity column, nothing really changes during those spikes, as if the computer didn't have enough time to show it or something but the graph recorded it^^ thank you for the link i'm still a bit scared to install it all those warning lol^^

 

[iko22]

If you want to capture data, and analyse the results afterwards, then maybe you should try to use Process Monitor by Sysinternals. Here is a guide before you try: i have constant disk activity and i dont know why how can i tell what program is doing it - ask leo

 

[valrogue]

thank you! i will try it (oddly enough i already had it but didn't use it^^^^) EDIT: damn there is a lot of stuff so it is very hard to know... i also don't really know when to look ( abit after i heard the noise frome the hdd, or at the same time or before?).. one thing i tested is the spikes disappear if i turn off my wifi. i can see a lot of things like : svchost: seaport; wifi etc... i will try to test more tomorow

 

[valrogue]

i tried looking at some services and after disabling seaport, those little spikes that happened every 30 seconds seem to have disappear is seaport importrant? i think i also disabled some user experience tracking service too

 

[iko22]

Seaport.exe is a Microsoft program associated with the Bing Bar in Internet Explorer. Try disable Add-ons in Internet Explorer. Even if you do not use Internet Explorer, Seaport.exe process still works in the background.

 

[valrogue]

i don't use internet explorer. i'm not 100% sure that it was seaport (since i also disabled some user experience or something service too) but there is less activity on the hdd now and finally those cyclik spikes are gone.