OK, new Vista machine is finsihed indexing, but hard drive still being access continuouksly

OK, so how do I find out what is reading my drive continuously, for as long
as the machine is on, and stop it?
This happens even when no programs are running and it's just the desktop.
This is going to kill my drive.
C

> This is going to kill my drive.

Actually, there is no evidence at all that accessing a drive like that
shortens its life. If you don't believe me, find those Google White Papers
which discuss at length hard disk failure modes. Nobody gets through more
hard disks than Google.

Lots of things cause ongoing disk accesses in Vista, and they all operate at
the lowest I/O and CPU priorities in order not to affect performance. Apart
from indexing, Vista spends a lot of time defragging the disk, preloading
stuff into memory in anticipation of you wanting it, and I believe it also
shuffles files around on the disk to improve boot performance.

Please don't worry. Vista accesses the disk more than XP. Eventually it'll
calm down, but you may need to wait several days.

SteveT

Oh, I forgot: other things which cause ongoing disk access are security
software (including Vista's built in anti-malware thing, and certain OS
functions such as the automatic creation of restore points, backups, etc.

I should also add that excessive disk thrashing can be caused by
insufficient RAM (although not normally when the machine is idle for any
length of time). You should have 2G of RAM, or more.

SteveT

Has your "new" computer become part of (one of many) a bot net? This would
certainly account for disk activity as your computer spews out hundreds of
thousands of bogus emails per day - behind your back.

Get a good internet monitoring program to see if this is happening. I use
NetMeter.

I went to my sons house a few weeks back. He had not actively used his
computer for a couple of hours. Yet, NetMeter showed that his out going
stream was using about 2.1 meg of bandwidth. This went on for over 2 hours.
His computer was "owned" as it turned out.

After retreating to a system image I had created for him a few weeks prior
all activity stopped and his hard disk was again quiet.

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"Chippy" <> wrote in message
news:52AA73FC-4F11-4680-96D1-...
> OK, so how do I find out what is reading my drive continuously, for as
> long as the machine is on, and stop it?
> This happens even when no programs are running and it's just the desktop.
> This is going to kill my drive.
> C

"Richard Urban" <> wrote in message
news:u3%...
> Has your "new" computer become part of (one of many) a bot net? This would
> certainly account for disk activity as your computer spews out hundreds of
> thousands of bogus emails per day - behind your back.
>

Also have you got any p2p stuff on the pc? The bbc iplayer for instance,
you have to uncheck the box in settings so you dont allow file sharing from
other users.

> have ever seen the vista schecduled tasks as apposed to xp?
>
> No? Yes? Oh you have? And you still are here to remind us about vista
> needing 2 gigs just to function properly?

What on earth are you talking about?

SteveT

You are such an idiot. No need to worry about gravity or Einstein. You
should stay away from Vista and migrate to Ubuntu. That is more your speed.

Get with Alias and he will help your sorry ass out.

"illjilli" <> wrote in message
news:49254c4f$...
>> Actually, there is no evidence at all that accessing a drive like that
>> shortens its life. If you don't believe me, find those Google White
>> Papers
>
> There is no evidence of the nature of gravity though either. But we feel
> its effects.
> Yes no one really understands what the heck gravity is, if it is a wave or
> particle of some sort and how it is generated.
> Einstein said that it is a curvature of space time.. but that does not
> describe how it works.
>
> But for those who do know how hard drives work would never say what you
> said.
> Drives that ae thrashing all the time fail more often in home computers as
> opposed to the drives that google has, because google has
> their drives in air-conditioned rooms, with back up power, and no
> movement.
>
> While in most computers they have difference in temp, humidity,
> electricity may fail or the hard drive could be shocked my movement if
> it's a laptop or someone kicking the box my mistake if it's a desktop.
>
> You don't need to be Einstein to realize this simple thing.. YES DRIVES
> DIE FAR MORE OFTEN when they keep crunching data!!!!
> The more data the are reading writing the more the disk head is moving
> across the disk platter, the more the movement the more possuibility for
> it to scratch the disk if some of the above reasons happen.
>
>
>
>
> "Steve Thackery" <> wrote in message
> news:uS$...
>>> This is going to kill my drive.
>>
>> Actually, there is no evidence at all that accessing a drive like that
>> shortens its life. If you don't believe me, find those Google White
>> Papers which discuss at length hard disk failure modes. Nobody gets
>> through more hard disks than Google.
>>
>> Lots of things cause ongoing disk accesses in Vista, and they all operate
>> at the lowest I/O and CPU priorities in order not to affect performance.
>> Apart from indexing, Vista spends a lot of time defragging the disk,
>> preloading stuff into memory in anticipation of you wanting it, and I
>> believe it also shuffles files around on the disk to improve boot
>> performance.
>>
>> Please don't worry. Vista accesses the disk more than XP. Eventually
>> it'll calm down, but you may need to wait several days.
>>
>> SteveT
>

"Non Sequitur!" <> wrote in message
news:4925877b$...
>> The OP needs to relax. A new Vista install will have lots of drive
>> activity as things get organized. Leave the machine on 24/7, it will
>> settle down after a day or 2.
>
> idiots like you are the reason for this mess:
>
> http://io9.com/5074071/humans-will-n...planet-by-2030
>
> One Earth just doesn't cut it anymore. As our population grows and we
> continue to consume resources at an alarming rate, we'll need the
> equivalent of a second Earth by 2030 to maintain our current lifestyle.
> That's the finding of the latest report from the World Wildlife Fund. And
> since we don't have a spare lying around, it's time to make a drastic
> change.
>
Why not gather some dirt and start building that new Earth you are talking
about. That should keep you busy enough to stop posting here.

It's bee a couple of weeks now, almost three.
C

"Steve Thackery" <> wrote in message
news:uS$...
>> This is going to kill my drive.
>
> Actually, there is no evidence at all that accessing a drive like that
> shortens its life. If you don't believe me, find those Google White
> Papers which discuss at length hard disk failure modes. Nobody gets
> through more hard disks than Google.
>
> Lots of things cause ongoing disk accesses in Vista, and they all operate
> at the lowest I/O and CPU priorities in order not to affect performance.
> Apart from indexing, Vista spends a lot of time defragging the disk,
> preloading stuff into memory in anticipation of you wanting it, and I
> believe it also shuffles files around on the disk to improve boot
> performance.
>
> Please don't worry. Vista accesses the disk more than XP. Eventually
> it'll calm down, but you may need to wait several days.
>
> SteveT

Dual core 3.16GHz, 4GB RAM, Asus Maximus II MB, Vista Home Premium, what
else?

"philo" <> wrote in message
news:cb2dnYjFRZvutbjUnZ2dnUVZ_h-...
>
> "Chippy" <> wrote in message
> news:52AA73FC-4F11-4680-96D1-...
>> OK, so how do I find out what is reading my drive continuously, for as
> long
>> as the machine is on, and stop it?
>> This happens even when no programs are running and it's just the desktop.
>> This is going to kill my drive.
>> C
>>
>
> \
>
> And the machine specs are????
>
>