Constant HDD activity ?

[Daze N. Knights]

Three days ago, I installed Vista 32 Ultimate RTM on a freshly built
system of all-new components. Since then, I've been finding a fix for
this and tweaking that and adjusting something else. All during that
time, until this afternoon, the HDD activity LED tended to show little
activity when I wasn't actually using the pc or while just typing posts
and emails, etc. But suddenly, this afternoon, with virtually everything
about the system finally all set to my satisfaction, the HDD activity
LED became *incessantly* active. For the past several hours, it has
continually blinked at a rate of at least once per second, nonstop, even
while I'm doing absolutely nothing with the pc. Investigating the
situation, I've watched the disk read/write activity in the Windows
"Reliability and Performance" window and have noticed a LOT of indexing
activity; but I have *also* found that, when all read/write activities
periodically cease completely, the HDD activity LED *continues* to
blink. Can anyone help me guess what's going on here?

 

[Jane C]

Background defrag perhaps?

 

[Daze N. Knights]

Nope. I thought of that and turned it off. No change.

 

[michail iakovou yos]

its indexing... your files...

annoying isnt it?

 

[Daze N. Knights]

Even when Windows Reliability and Performance monitor shows no reading
or writing being done on the HDD? That doesn't make sense to me. The HDD
activity LED is an indicator of reading and/or writing in process.

And more odd thins: I installed SpeedFan a couple of days ago, and was
disappointed to find that it doesn't recognize my mobo or CPU. But,
under its S.M.A.R.T. tab, it *did* recognize me HDD and give me a temp
for it. This afternoon, however, after this other HDD LED problem
started, I also discovered that SpeedFan no longer recognized the
existence of my HDD at all. I've uninstalled and reinstalled SpeedFan
twice since then, and it still no longer sees my HDD. Now, I've also run
SpinRite on the HDD, and although it shows nothing else amiss, it
doesn't show the S.M.A.R.T stuff.

I don't get this at all. Maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem like mere
indexing . . .

 

[michail iakovou yos]

is smart enabled in your bios?

Realy strange indeed...

 

[Daze N. Knights]

Yep. Just checked.

I've got to get to bed now, but I hope I'll find some new posts with new
ideas awaiting me in the morning. Good night, all.

 

[MICHAEL]

I think it is indexing. Since I've been beta testing Vista and
now even with RTM, I find the disk activity settles down after
a couple of days.


-Michael

 

[Beck]

Three days ago, I installed Vista 32 Ultimate RTM on a freshly built
system of all-new components. Since then, I've been finding a fix for this
and tweaking that and adjusting something else. All during that time,
until this afternoon, the HDD activity LED tended to show little activity
when I wasn't actually using the pc or while just typing posts and emails,
etc. But suddenly, this afternoon, with virtually everything about the
system finally all set to my satisfaction, the HDD activity LED became
*incessantly* active. For the past several hours, it has continually
blinked at a rate of at least once per second, nonstop, even while I'm
doing absolutely nothing with the pc. Investigating the situation, I've
watched the disk read/write activity in the Windows "Reliability and
Performance" window and have noticed a LOT of indexing activity; but I
have *also* found that, when all read/write activities periodically cease
completely, the HDD activity LED *continues* to blink. Can anyone help me
guess what's going on here?

From what I understand, for the first few days post install, Vista indexes
your files to make for faster searching. It should settle down. I would
say if its still doing the same after the next 48 hours then maybe something
else is going on.

 

[Jane C]

Strange indeed. Be prepared for the worst. There is a possibility that the
drive is failing.

 

[michail iakovou yos]

I find the disk activity settles down after

a couple of days.

that will happen only if you use your computer like a granny.
On my computer it would forever be trying to catch up...

 

[Mike]

that will happen only if you use your computer like a granny.
On my computer it would forever be trying to catch up...

You must have a really slow computer.

My disks flutter a while after a fresh boot while it is doing the
Pre-loading phase. After that it's smooth as silk.

Mike

 

[William]

My computer runs just fine, smooth as silk, and it is going on 4 1/2 years old.

that will happen only if you use your computer like a granny.
On my computer it would forever be trying to catch up...

You must have a really slow computer.

My disks flutter a while after a fresh boot while it is doing the
Pre-loading phase. After that it's smooth as silk.

Mike

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

That only happens once a week anyway unless you have set something up in
scheduler.

 

[Ray]

Try running Speedfan as admin, that fixed it for me.

Ray

 

[Daze N. Knights]

It has now been five days since I first installed Vista to this HDD.

 

[Daze N. Knights]

That's what I'm wondering. I can send it back for a replacement and am
actually on the verge of doing so. But I wish the situation was clearer
as to whether it is a hardware or software issue. Or even, if it isn't
for sure some other kind of hardware issue (remember: all of the
hardware is brand new).

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

First I would make sure that your BIOS is up to date and that your hard
drive controller driver is up to date for Vista.

 

[Daze N. Knights]

Thanks, Ray. That was a helpful idea. Now, SpeedFan again recognizes the
HDD (WD Cavier SE 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s) and lists it
as SMART enabled. It only gives a short list of six attributes for the
HDD, however, and temperature is not included. (I could swear the list
was at least twice as long before, and temperature was on it.) Three of
the six attributes, moreover, are listed as "unknown," the other three
being "read soft error rate," "raw read error rate," and "write error
rate." I don't know much about interpreting what little I see listed
there, but two attributes ("raw read error rate" and an "unknown
attribute") have red dots with a white bar in front of them, which
doesn't look too good. The two bars at the bottom of the SMART tab
window for "Fitness" and "Performance," however, are both filled in with
solid blue, which I would interpret as good. When I click on the bar
called "Perform an online in-depth analysis of this hard disk," nothing
happens No browser window opens . . .

Also, after opening SpeedFan with admin, its initial "Readings" window
now shows the CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo E6300) usage (slight), but doesn't
give a temp for that, either, even though the CPU temps are available in
my bios.

 

[Ray]

He does have a beta available that may work better for you.

SpeedFan 4.32 beta 8 (28 nov 2006)
This beta adds full support for DTS temperature readings (the internal
temperature from INTEL CORE DUO CPUs).