Hard drive runs constantly

  • Thread starter Thread starter Menno Hershberger
  • Start date Start date
M

Menno Hershberger

Scenario:
I had a computer that dual boots 98 and XP. Everything was working well
except I had a problem with the hard drive light coming on all the time
when running XP.
I decided to upgrade so I built me another faster computer and moved all
the hard drives to the new one. I did a repair install of both operating
systems to get the drivers right. And it's working fine and faster. BUT,
I am having the same problem with the hard drive light in XP. When I
first boot up and everything settles down, the light goes out. After
about 15 minutes, it starts flickering a little. By the end of a half
hour it is on constantly. Indexing is turned off on all drives. Task
manager shows nothing running that I don't recognize. Idle process is 98-
99%. I've gone into services and stopped every service that's stoppable,
one at a time. None of them made it stop. If I reboot into Windows 98 and
let it sit, the light stays out. I'd like to think it's a hardware
problem and that the drive really isn't running but the light is on. But
now that it's doing the same thing on a second computer and it doesn't do
it in Windows 98, I know that *something* is accessing one of the drives.
I have unplugged my ethernet cable. It isn't that. I have done a
diagnostic startup with nothing but essential files loading but it still
does it. If I boot into XP's Safe Mode, the light will stay out. So it is
just happening in XP in normal mode, no matter what I have running or
don't.
Any suggestions what to look for now? Is there any app available that
would show what is accessing hard drives?
 
Try getting more RAM I would think. How much do you have now? because Windows
XP requirments are (technically... Ive seen it run on less) 256MB and I would
recommend at least 512MB or more.
 
I have 1,280Mb.

you need more ram
Menno Hershberger said:
Scenario:
I had a computer that dual boots 98 and XP. Everything was working
well except I had a problem with the hard drive light coming on all
the time when running XP.
I decided to upgrade so I built me another faster computer and moved
all the hard drives to the new one. I did a repair install of both
operating systems to get the drivers right. And it's working fine and
faster. BUT, I am having the same problem with the hard drive light
in XP. When I first boot up and everything settles down, the light
goes out. After about 15 minutes, it starts flickering a little. By
the end of a half hour it is on constantly. Indexing is turned off on
all drives. Task manager shows nothing running that I don't
recognize. Idle process is 98- 99%. I've gone into services and
stopped every service that's stoppable, one at a time. None of them
made it stop. If I reboot into Windows 98 and let it sit, the light
stays out. I'd like to think it's a hardware problem and that the
drive really isn't running but the light is on. But now that it's
doing the same thing on a second computer and it doesn't do it in
Windows 98, I know that *something* is accessing one of the drives.
I have unplugged my ethernet cable. It isn't that. I have done a
diagnostic startup with nothing but essential files loading but it
still does it. If I boot into XP's Safe Mode, the light will stay
out. So it is just happening in XP in normal mode, no matter what I
have running or don't.
Any suggestions what to look for now? Is there any app available that
would show what is accessing hard drives?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
|>Scenario:
|>I had a computer that dual boots 98 and XP. Everything was working well
|>except I had a problem with the hard drive light coming on all the time
|>when running XP.
|>I decided to upgrade so I built me another faster computer and moved all
|>the hard drives to the new one. I did a repair install of both operating
|>systems to get the drivers right. And it's working fine and faster. BUT,
|>I am having the same problem with the hard drive light in XP. When I
|>first boot up and everything settles down, the light goes out. After
|>about 15 minutes, it starts flickering a little. By the end of a half
|>hour it is on constantly. Indexing is turned off on all drives. Task
|>manager shows nothing running that I don't recognize. Idle process is 98-
|>99%. I've gone into services and stopped every service that's stoppable,
|>one at a time. None of them made it stop. If I reboot into Windows 98 and
|>let it sit, the light stays out. I'd like to think it's a hardware
|>problem and that the drive really isn't running but the light is on. But
|>now that it's doing the same thing on a second computer and it doesn't do
|>it in Windows 98, I know that *something* is accessing one of the drives.
|>I have unplugged my ethernet cable. It isn't that. I have done a
|>diagnostic startup with nothing but essential files loading but it still
|>does it. If I boot into XP's Safe Mode, the light will stay out. So it is
|>just happening in XP in normal mode, no matter what I have running or
|>don't.
|>Any suggestions what to look for now? Is there any app available that
|>would show what is accessing hard drives?

Mine (HD light) blinks all the time, I traced it to ZoneAlarm :}
with FileMon http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html
 
Building a new system, then putting in the same hard drive, and doing a Repair Install
would not be of any help if it is spyware/adware/malware/trojan/worm causing the problem.
If you have
that much RAM, and you have NOT changed the setting for the Page file (let Windows XP
manage virtual memory), then I would scan the drive with AD-Aware SE, Xoftspy, HiJackThis,
and/or many of the other spyware/adware/malware/trojan/worm scanning utilities. Are you
using a
firewall other than the one included with Windows XP, which only works with anything
incoming, but does not monitor anything outgoing? Your hard drive could be spinning
because your system is infected with something that is sending data from your hard drive,
without your being aware of it. Also, have you downloaded and installed the Microsoft
update for the Zotob worm/Plug and Play Service problem, which exploits Windows XP
vulnerabilities and can have your hard drive spinning, sending your data out to cyberspace
destinations?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9A3BFBDD-62EA-4DB2-88D2-415E095E2
07F&displaylang=en

--

T.C.
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Scenario:
I had a computer that dual boots 98 and XP. Everything was working well
except I had a problem with the hard drive light coming on all the time
when running XP.
I decided to upgrade so I built me another faster computer and moved all
the hard drives to the new one. I did a repair install of both operating
systems to get the drivers right. And it's working fine and faster. BUT,
I am having the same problem with the hard drive light in XP. When I
first boot up and everything settles down, the light goes out. After
about 15 minutes, it starts flickering a little. By the end of a half
hour it is on constantly. Indexing is turned off on all drives. Task
manager shows nothing running that I don't recognize. Idle process is 98-
99%. I've gone into services and stopped every service that's stoppable,
one at a time. None of them made it stop. If I reboot into Windows 98 and
let it sit, the light stays out. I'd like to think it's a hardware
problem and that the drive really isn't running but the light is on. But
now that it's doing the same thing on a second computer and it doesn't do
it in Windows 98, I know that *something* is accessing one of the drives.
I have unplugged my ethernet cable. It isn't that. I have done a
diagnostic startup with nothing but essential files loading but it still
does it. If I boot into XP's Safe Mode, the light will stay out. So it is
just happening in XP in normal mode, no matter what I have running or
don't.
Any suggestions what to look for now? Is there any app available that
would show what is accessing hard drives?
Click to expand...

As I recall, windows compresses unused files on the fly. There could
be other things going on too...email check? I wouldn't worry about
it.
 
|>Scenario:
|>I had a computer that dual boots 98 and XP. Everything was working
|>well except I had a problem with the hard drive light coming on all
|>the time when running XP.
|>I decided to upgrade so I built me another faster computer and moved
|>all the hard drives to the new one. I did a repair install of both
|>operating systems to get the drivers right. And it's working fine and
|>faster. BUT, I am having the same problem with the hard drive light
|>in XP. When I first boot up and everything settles down, the light
|>goes out. After about 15 minutes, it starts flickering a little. By
|>the end of a half hour it is on constantly. Indexing is turned off on
|>all drives. Task manager shows nothing running that I don't
|>recognize. Idle process is 98- 99%. I've gone into services and
|>stopped every service that's stoppable, one at a time. None of them
|>made it stop. If I reboot into Windows 98 and let it sit, the light
|>stays out. I'd like to think it's a hardware problem and that the
|>drive really isn't running but the light is on. But now that it's
|>doing the same thing on a second computer and it doesn't do it in
|>Windows 98, I know that *something* is accessing one of the drives.
|>I have unplugged my ethernet cable. It isn't that. I have done a
|>diagnostic startup with nothing but essential files loading but it
|>still does it. If I boot into XP's Safe Mode, the light will stay
|>out. So it is just happening in XP in normal mode, no matter what I
|>have running or don't.
|>Any suggestions what to look for now? Is there any app available that
|>would show what is accessing hard drives?

Mine (HD light) blinks all the time, I traced it to ZoneAlarm :}
with FileMon http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html
Click to expand...

Well, it's been a month now since my original post and none of the
suggestions that offered revealed anything. 20-30 minutes after bootup,
the light still came on and stayed on. But I have pinpointed it to one
drive now. My first drive is 120 gigs, all Fat32 and is divided into
C,D,E,F,and G. The second drive is 120 gigs, Fat32 and is all one logical
drive, H. The third drive is 200 gigs, NTFS, all one logical drive (I)
and is only used for storage. If I disable this drive in Device Manager,
then the problem goes away. Since I rarely use that drive, I am now just
leaving it disabled. It's not that big of a deal to enable it temporarily
when I want to use it.
But that still doesn't explain *why* it's doing it, just which drive
it is. XP has a special driver for drives > 137Gb... wonder if that's
involved in it anywhere. It comes up clean with chkdsk and has been
recently defragmented.
If another large drive like that passes through here for any reason,
I'll hook it up and see if it does it too.
 
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