hard drive runs long time

[Jerry Smith]

My hard drive starts running and runs for 3-5 minutes. This morning on
startup it ran for over 4 minutes before I could start any program. After
these episodes everything seems normal. This has been going on for some
time. I think it only happens when I'm online, at least I don't remember it
running off line. I realize the description of the problem is vague. I'm
running w2k with a 6gb hd with 2.5gb used. I have jack flash dsl and
zonealarm firewall. Thanks for any clues you can think of.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Would need a lot more info - anything in your event logs? Have you defragged
recently?

 

[Jerry Smith]

The event viewer didn't list anything that seemed unusual, so I checked
defrag. It did require defrag which is the 1st time that it has, so I
defragged. I'll see what happens now. Thanks for your help.

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

 

[Gerry Voras]

Basics -- defrag, scandisk, swap file optimization, anti-virus, spyware
scanner.

 

[Josef Stalin]

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

Would need a lot more info - anything in your event logs? Have you defragged
recently?

While I'm a strong believer of defrag'ing, the performance gains are
*highly* overrated. I've defrag'ed disks that haven't been defrag'ed in
literally years and there was only incremental improvements. If your hard
disk is taking minutes to load, then don't expect that a defrag will
magically reduce it to seconds. If you're having performance problems,
defrag'ing should be at the bottom of your priorities.

What would I do? Run SpyBot & Adaware with the latest data definitions.
Run an anti-virus scanner with the latest data definitions. Turn off all
unnecessary services. Turn off all startup programs. Start off with a
stripped down machine and add one program at a time. My machine takes less
than one minute to load the firewall, connect to the internet, load up the
anti-virus program and a bunch of other software. I wonder how long it
would take if I had a faster machine?

Uncle Joe

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Josef Stalin wrote:

While I'm a strong believer of defrag'ing, the performance gains are
*highly* overrated. I've defrag'ed disks that haven't been defrag'ed
in literally years and there was only incremental improvements. If
your hard disk is taking minutes to load, then don't expect that a
defrag will magically reduce it to seconds. If you're having
performance problems, defrag'ing should be at the bottom of your
priorities.

Dunno, I think if you're having major speed issues, this is one of the first
places I'd look (after chkdsk, and after an AV/adware scan, natch)....I have
seen MAJOR improvements on heavily-used systems after running defrag.
However, you're right in that it is not a magic happy pill for one's
computer...

 

[Gerry Voras]

That's why I said "basics".

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

Would need a lot more info - anything in your event logs? Have you defragged
recently?

While I'm a strong believer of defrag'ing, the performance gains are
*highly* overrated. I've defrag'ed disks that haven't been defrag'ed in
literally years and there was only incremental improvements. If your hard
disk is taking minutes to load, then don't expect that a defrag will
magically reduce it to seconds. If you're having performance problems,
defrag'ing should be at the bottom of your priorities.

What would I do? Run SpyBot & Adaware with the latest data definitions.
Run an anti-virus scanner with the latest data definitions. Turn off all
unnecessary services. Turn off all startup programs. Start off with a
stripped down machine and add one program at a time. My machine takes less
than one minute to load the firewall, connect to the internet, load up the
anti-virus program and a bunch of other software. I wonder how long it
would take if I had a faster machine?

Uncle Joe