Hard Drive noise

[Guest]

I have a HP computer running Windows XP Professional SP2. About every 3
minutes, my hard drive starts spinning and sounds like a jet engine starting
and roaring. After about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes of doing this, it stops for
about 3 minutes and then does it again. Even if I am not using the computer,
I walk by the room and hear it happening. Any idea what this could be?

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

I have a HP computer running Windows XP Professional SP2. About every 3
minutes, my hard drive starts spinning and sounds like a jet engine starting
and roaring. After about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes of doing this, it stops for
about 3 minutes and then does it again. Even if I am not using the computer,
I walk by the room and hear it happening. Any idea what this could be?

You're sure that it's not a CD/DVD drive with a disc in it?

 

[Guest]

100% positive. There are no CDs in the drives.

You're sure that it's not a CD/DVD drive with a disc in it?

 

[witan]

100% positive. There are no CDs in the drives.

Are you sure it's your hard drive and not one of the fans (SMPS, cpu,
or chassis)?

 

[You Know Who ~]

There are several things which could cause that, but most likely it is
"indexing" or "fast find" which are installed with MS Office and some other
MS programs. Generally, you can turn it off in the control panel.

ykw~

 

[witan]

There are several things which could cause that, but most likely it is
"indexing" or "fast find" which are installed with MS Office and some other
MS programs. Generally, you can turn it off in the control panel.

ykw~

AFAIK, "indexing", "fast find" or any such disk reading or writing
activity does not produce the kind of noise the OP is reporting. For
instance, chkdsk will not do it. Also, disk reading/ writing activity
should turn the disk light on. The OP may however like to check
whether the disk liight goes on simultaneously with the "sounds like a
jet engine starting and roaring".

 

[Guest]

The light does go on solid when it starts, and then blinks during the rest
of the noise.

 

[Falcon]

The light does go on solid when it starts, and then blinks during the rest
of the noise.

I would suspect that something is causing your CPU and disk to work
hard and thus triggering your fans to cool things down (Jet noise).
Open up Task Manager (CTRL, ALT DEL), select Processes and click on
CPU (maybe twice) to get top running applications at the top. Often
some page I access, mostly with Java script or self refreshing, makes
Firefox peak out at 98% or so with a constant rate and when I nuke
the site and go to another all slows down.