Causes of constant hdd activity

trueman · June 28th, 2004, 10:26 PM

I have an XP pro machine that has just had a brand new install.
But Ive noticed the hdd light flashing briefly almost constantly. Its not virus or trojan/spyware related and Im not really sure what else it could be?

Any suggestions??

OuTpaTienT · June 28th, 2004, 10:31 PM

How much ram do you have?

Are you keeping any "performance logs" or such?

Is "indexing service" turned on?

Abi Normal · June 28th, 2004, 11:04 PM

i've heard that it could also mean possible hdd failure sooner o later.
If nothing else seems to add up i would go to hdd product page and see if there are issues with it. Like mine for instance, a stupid fujitsu mpg series that is a 20 gb piece o crap keeping my hdd light on all the time just there annoying the crap outta me, letting me know I will lose it all some day but unable to do a dangity dang darn damxn thing about it because my funds are too strapped to a budget that appears to me in a dream like a constantly glowing hdd light... bla, bla blitty bla.

seriously, google your drive instead of hdd light on all the time, and you might get an answer.

what kinda hdd is it anyway?

kantlivelong · June 28th, 2004, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abi Normal

i've heard that it could also mean possible hdd failure sooner o later.
If nothing else seems to add up i would go to hdd product page and see if there are issues with it. Like mine for instance, a stupid fujitsu mpg series that is a 20 gb piece o crap keeping my hdd light on all the time just there annoying the crap outta me, letting me know I will lose it all some day but unable to do a dangity dang darn damxn thing about it because my funds are too strapped to a budget that appears to me in a dream like a constantly glowing hdd light... bla, bla blitty bla.

seriously, google your drive instead of hdd light on all the time, and you might get an answer.

what kinda hdd is it anyway?

man thats gotta suck :P

StealthyV · June 28th, 2004, 11:47 PM

defrag your drive.

run a disk check (for errors).

clean out the programs that may be running in systray that you are not actively using.

clean up (disable) those programs that start automatically with windows (I assumed you're using windoze) like aim, msn, etc (but don't disable your antivirus, firewall, etc)...those use up precious system ram even if you're not using the programs!

clean out your system registry (I use RegEdit) of spyware, toolbars for your browser, tracking software, those annoying Real Player install programs that AOL loads, etc.

get yourself Ad-Aware, SpyBot Search & Destroy, Zone Alarm Free Firewall, and a good A/V program. Update, scan, and repeat each week. When using SpyBot, be sure to activate the "Immunize" function. it will block malicious programs from even installing!

after all this, reboot, and check back in with us...let us know how healthy your system is!

hope this helped

~Branson

**GroundZero3** · June 28th, 2004, 11:51 PM

do you have any back up or system restore enabled on the machine?

nukes · June 29th, 2004, 08:59 AM

Sounds like system restore or the indexing service.
Anti-virus possibly?

MTAtech · June 29th, 2004, 09:16 AM

A 20GB drive can't be more than $20 these days. Better to replace it than be sorry.

nukes · June 29th, 2004, 12:06 PM

A dying drive wouldn't be constantly accessing itself. This is much more likely to be a software issue.

davidamarkley · June 29th, 2004, 12:52 PM

Also, if you have a defrag program running, it may be doing a defrag when idle. I have O&O defrag and when I'm not using my computer, after about 20 minutes of non-use, it starts defragging and keeping the hard drive less fragmented.

I would kill to have a program that would tell me what program/process was accessing/using the harddrive at any given time. That would be sweet. I mean, they have every other type of program, but not that one. Is it possible?

Dave