XP computer suddenly has intense HD activity

[Jack]

Does anyone have an idea why my XP computer sometimes suddenly goes thru
intense hard drive activity for several minutes when I'm not actively
working on any program?

Jack

 

[Shootist]

This could be do to a feature to optimize the HDD when the PC is not being
used.

 

[[H]omer]

Does anyone have an idea why my XP computer sometimes suddenly goes thru
intense hard drive activity for several minutes when I'm not actively
working on any program?

Jack

This may be Indexing Services.

If it bothers you, then you can disable it.

There are a few ways of doing this, but the easiest is "Start -->
Search" and in the boxout on the left, click "Change preferences" then
"Without Indexing Service" then "No, do not enable Indexing Service" -->
"OK".

Actually that is a bit long winded isn't it, maybe it would be better to
just go to "Start --> Run" and type (copy'n'paste)
"%SystemRoot%\system32\services.msc /s" without the quotes. Find
Indexing service, right click on it and choose properties, then set the
startup type as "manual" or "disabled". Then hit "stop" for the current
session.

Well it's about 50/50. All good.

In my experience Indexing Service is about as useful as a piece of used
toilet paper, but ultimately it's up to you.

--
Regards,

[H]omer

"The only liberties people have, are those they take."
Palladium is not the solution, it is the problem.
www.antitcpa.com

 

[Jack]

Could that be something other than Indexing Services? If so, could it be
something inherent in the OS?

Jack

 

[Jack]

Does anyone have an idea why my XP computer sometimes suddenly goes thru
intense hard drive activity for several minutes when I'm not actively
working on any program?

Jack

This may be Indexing Services.

If it bothers you, then you can disable it.

There are a few ways of doing this, but the easiest is "Start -->
Search" and in the boxout on the left, click "Change preferences" then
"Without Indexing Service" then "No, do not enable Indexing Service" -->
"OK".

Actually that is a bit long winded isn't it, maybe it would be better to
just go to "Start --> Run" and type (copy'n'paste)
"%SystemRoot%\system32\services.msc /s" without the quotes. Find
Indexing service, right click on it and choose properties, then set the
startup type as "manual" or "disabled". Then hit "stop" for the current
session.

Well it's about 50/50. All good.

In my experience Indexing Service is about as useful as a piece of used
toilet paper, but ultimately it's up to you.

--
Regards,

[H]omer

"The only liberties people have, are those they take."
Palladium is not the solution, it is the problem.
www.antitcpa.com

Homer,

That sounds like a real possibility -- I went ahead and disabled.
Thanks.

Jack

 

[[H]omer]

Homer,

That sounds like a real possibility -- I went ahead and disabled.
Thanks.

Jack

Well the fact that you didn't know "why", suggested to me that it was
not as a result of something you'd consciously installed (such as
Diskeeper).

Indexing Services problems are fresh in my mind ATM due to me tracking
it down as the reason for spontaneous reboots on my system. I disabled
it, and about a tonne of problems and weird behaviour just disappeared -
including lots of errors in the system log files.

I used the Indexing Service "query" tool to do a search a couple of
times, but other than *.txt, *.html and *.doc files, it doesn't seem to
"index" anything useful (such as the metatags in my JPEGs, or the ID3
tags in my MP3s) so I find it less than worthless. Puff ... its gone.

--
Regards,

[H]omer

"The only liberties people have, are those they take."
Palladium is not the solution, it is the problem.
www.antitcpa.com

 

[Alex Nichol]

Does anyone have an idea why my XP computer sometimes suddenly goes thru
intense hard drive activity for several minutes when I'm not actively
working on any program?

There are two things done regularly when the machine is found to have
been doing nothing for several minutes (in addition to the daily System
restore point - but that only takes a few seconds)..

The 'Search indexing' may get down to building and updating indexes of
the content of all formal documents in order to speed up searching for
such files on a basis of 'contains text'. If this is of no real benefit
(and I think it only is in offices with large numbers of documents to
work with), turn it off: Control Panel - Admin tools - services, look
for and double click 'Indexing service' and click Stop; then in the
Startup type' pane select 'Disabled' and Apply and OK.

Every three days the system does some reorganisation of he placement of
program components on disk, to speed up the loading of your regularly
used programs. Let it get on with that