Can't "Turn off hard disks"

[john]

I have a new WinXP laptop and trying to configure it in my
own finicky way. On my new laptop, as well as my old Win98se
laptop, there is an option on the Power Options properties to
"Turn off hard disks" after XX minutes. This worked on my
old laptop and the disk spun down as I configured it. On my
new laptop, there is some process that accesses the hard disk
almost every 5 seconds.

Has anyone ever figured out if this is possible with WinXP?

 

[Tony Luxton]

Hi John,

Yes, it works the same as Win9.x. Have you got the indexing service running,
maybe?

HTH Tony.

 

[john]

Hi Tony,
Well Indexing Service is new to me. From what I gathered it will "extract"
information from file contents and other file data in order to do quick searches.
If this is correct then I don't want it running.

Under Computer Management I found Indexing Service and it has
Catalog= System
Location c:\System Volume Information
Can I just delete this line?

Thanks for your help!

John

 

[Tony Luxton]

Hi John,

Well, it's personal choice of course, but most people prefer to be without
it. In Computer Management, expand "Services and Applications", and click
"Services". In the right-hand pane, find and double-click "Indexing
Service". You'll see a button to stop the service. Then set the "Startup
type" to "disabled".

You may want to have look here:
http://www.beemerworld.com/tips/servicesxp.htm

Depending on your setup, you can stop quite a few of them.

I don't know if this is the cause of your problem, but it's quite likely,
and it'll certainly give your machine a breather!

HTH Tony.

 

[john]

Hi Tony,

After double-clicking "Indexing Service", the Stop button is dimmed and
the Start button is active. So it appears that this is not the culprit.
Any other thoughts?

Regards,
John

 

[Tony Luxton]

Well, John, if it's not that, then something else is thrashing your hard
disk. If it's every 5 seconds, that's virtually continuous.

Had a look in task manager under "processes"? Checked for malware? Got
enough memory? Made any changes to the paging file?

HTH Tony.

 

[john]

Hi Tony....
After a lot of process killing (sometimes with a blue-screen), and a lot
of trial and error, I trailed it to a few processes:
* Windows' Automatic Update change from:
"Notify me but don't automatically download or install them:
to "Turn Off Automatic Update"
* zcfgsvc - an Intel Wireless app
* ifrmewrk.exe - another Intel Wireless App
* ZoneAlarm / Windows Firewall interaction

Each of these appear to be applications that would try to go through
the network in some manner. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get this
configured I want...

Thanks for the assistance...

Regards,
John

 

[Tony Luxton]

Hi John,

Well, I hope you get it sorted out. If task Manager doesn't give you a clue,
I can't think of anything other than what I've suggested. If you still have
problems, feel free to start another thread and see if anyone else knows
anything. Never give up!

Regards Tony.