Problem with overactive Hard drive

[James]

Hi,
Just got a new machine with XP Home on it. Being used to 98 I am puzzled.
On my old machine when I stopped using it the hard drive remained inactive.
On this new machine the drive is accessing all the time and not just the odd
access here and there. It sounds like a program is running although no one
is using it. I have the usual programs NIS Tauscan running on the taskbar
but I had exactly the same on the old machine.
I have done a Virus Scan and it is negative.
Any Ideas or suggestions. Is this normal for XP
Thanks and Regards
James
--

 

[Guest]

It's called Indexing.......Normal....If you want to turn
it off > device manager > Hard Drive > uncheck.
it's all to make your system faster, XP does lots of idle
tasks.

 

[Dublevay]

XP does use the HDD a lot more than previous incarnations of Windows,
particularly the DOS based ones. I imagine it is writing audit files etc.

JW

 

[R. McCarty]

The Indexing service is running, which supposedly enhances
searches. For the majority of users, it's best to turn it off. Right
Click each Drive in Explorer,Properties and uncheck the
"Allow Indexing......" button. There are also equivalent tasks
associated with Microsoft Office (Find Fast,etc) that should be
disabled as well.

XP does use the HDD a lot more than previous incarnations of Windows,
particularly the DOS based ones. I imagine it is writing audit files etc.

JW

 

[GeneL]

Hi James,

Windows XP has a service running called "Indexing" What it does is "when the machine is not in use" (although not always true) it indexes all of the files on your machine. What the indexing does is
make your system respond a bit faster when you search for files on your system. It's BIG overhead (one of the biggest) for a small pay back (In My Opinion)

If you like, you can get rid fo the indexing service by either uninstalling it:
Control Panels -> Add/Remove Programs - > Add/Remove Windows Components -> uncheck the box next to indexing service and say OK.

Or, you could stop the service from running:
Right click "My Computer" Choose "manage" -> expand services and applications -> heighlight "services" -> look for "Indexing Services" double it and change the Startup Type to "Disabled"

This should stop your random hard drive accesses.

For more info, take a look at www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Hope this helps,
--Gene

 

[James]

Outgoing Mail Scanned by Norton Internet Security. 2004

It's called Indexing.......Normal....If you want to turn
it off > device manager > Hard Drive > uncheck.
it's all to make your system faster, XP does lots of idle
tasks.

Thanks for the reply,
Your are correct. I have left it on for the moment now I know what it is.
Thanks again and Regards
James