hard drive activity

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian Henry
  • Start date Start date
B

Brian Henry

When you leave windows xp idle for a while, the hard drive starts to run on
it's own for a long time like its doign a chkdsk or a defrag, i thought XP
had an auto defragment thing and stuff, is it that running in the
background? thanks
 
Hi

I believe that Defrag/Chkdsk have to be setup as specific Scheduled Tasks to be running. Could be you have the Indexing Service running.

Will
 
I'll also add, this happens when I do a clean install and turn off index
services also. So it cant be a virus or anything like that. Only happens
when idle.
 
Does this occur after a clean install, with no other software installed? Is there anything in msconfig that looks as though it shouldn't perhaps be there?

Will
 
the process terminates once i move the mouse, it seems to only happen when
the system is idle for a few minutes.
 
....also have a look in Task Manger to see what processes are running.

Will

Does this occur after a clean install, with no other software installed? Is there anything in msconfig that looks as though it shouldn't perhaps be there?

Will
 
Brian said:
the process terminates once i move the mouse, it seems to only happen when
the system is idle for a few minutes.
Click to expand...
Just throw task manager up on the screen, stand-back and wait, and watch
the processes list. Also, as suggested by others, check for viruses
(although I suspect this unlikely), and check in msconfig what programs
are being loaded as services.

Also, if connected to network, pull the wire. Maybe something is trying
to make contact out... not necessarily spy ware, but maybe something
else, e.g. synchronisation or something.

Shut down all the processes you can in msconfig and see if it continues.
See what programs are running in the system icon try. Shut them all
down and restart one at a time.
 
from the wonderful said:
When you leave windows xp idle for a while, the hard drive starts to run on
it's own for a long time like its doign a chkdsk or a defrag, i thought XP
had an auto defragment thing and stuff, is it that running in the
background? thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, there is some 'prefetch' type defrag that supposedly goes on when
the machine is idle. There is also content indexing (CISVC), or the
dreaded Office equivalent 'Find Fast' (or is it 'Fast Find'?; whatever).
Also setting a daily 'restore' point (although that should only happen
once daily!). WinXP gets all unhappy when it sees idle CPU cycles. 8>.

If you have S.M.A.R.T. turned on (or SCSI disks and an intelligent
controller) it could even be disks running self test routines without
any intervention of the OS at all. As long as you are sure it isn't a
virus, Trojan, and your not online (a LAN, and especially a poorly
protected wireless network, count too) then I wouldn't worry too much.
 
| When you leave windows xp idle for a while, the hard drive starts to run on
| it's own for a long time like its doign a chkdsk or a defrag, i thought XP
| had an auto defragment thing and stuff, is it that running in the
| background? thanks

XP will sometimes shift system files around during idle periods. Further, the
new TweakUI has a setting under General to allow optimizing the hard drive when
the system is idle. If you have turned off Indexing Service and a good
anti-virus scan shows nothing, I'd say you are experiencing normal XP operation
and have nothing to be worried about.

If you are still concerned, you might want to try running AdAware from Lavasoft.
If you don't already have it, a free version is available here:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§
 
There is also an option for XP to "Optimize" the disk during idle periods.
This will cause a lot of disk activity as well. To turn it off. DL the
latest TweakUI from Microsoft... (There may be a more well known way of
doing this but I just saw it in TweakUI so...)

Larry
 
Brian said:
When you leave windows xp idle for a while, the hard drive starts to runon
it's own for a long time like its doign a chkdsk or a defrag, i thought XP
had an auto defragment thing and stuff, is it that running in the
background? thanks
Click to expand...

There are three things that may come on regularly in idle times:

System restore to make the daily restore points (but only takes maybe a
minute).

Prefetch optimisation - akin to defrag - every three days, to rearrange
files used when the system and your most-used programs load, so they
load quicker

The most likely one - Indexing Service, building indexes of document
files so as to speed up searches for contained text. If you do not do
this much you could consider disabling the service - in My Computer,
r-click a partition, Properties, and uncheck 'Allow Indexing service. .
.. ' at the bottom of the page. If you then decide not to use it at all,
in Control Panel - Admin Tools - Services, double click 'Indexing
Service' and set Startup Type to 'Disabled'
 
Back
Top