Hard drive constantly being accessed

[Ed Lata]

Hi,

I am running a Windows XP Professional platform with SP3. I've disabled Indexing Services. I've swept my system for spyware using PestPatrol. I'm running AVG firewall and AntiVirus.

Taskmanager shows infrequent program access of programs and usually sits at 99% idle without giving me information as to what programs are accessing the hard drive. The hard drive light flicks on about once every second, without the TaskManager showing up what is causing it.

Has anyone had any similar problems. I've noted that others have had constant hard drive access caused by McAfee and other programs but not similar to mine.

Does Windows have to be registered maybe?

Cheers and thanks,

Ed

[Salem]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb545046.aspx
Filemon and/or diskmon would probably tell you what's going on.

[Bob_180_Bob]

????????????? Your "Taskmanager shows infrequent program access of programs and usually sits at 99% idle without giving me information as to what programs are accessing the hard drive. The hard drive light flicks on about once every second, without the TaskManager showing up what is causing it."

99% idle = 1% in use, where is the constant hard drive use??????

Am I missing something?????

[Ed Lata]

As indicated by the flashing hard drive light/audible detection.

Ed

[gerbil]

My sys, clean as, with no apps running, jus os processes and no page faulting [not accessing page file...], and not sitting long enough for windows file reorg to kick in, flicks the hdd light bout once a sec. No head movement though. I'm happy.

[bobbyraw]

you are running a firewall and antivirus this would be a normal operation for the hdd. the virus program scan any files accessed by any processes or application. for example the pc goes to hibernation the virus program will scan and u will see a little flicker, even when you are not doing anything on the pc the hard drive will always be accessed.

[MidiMagic]

It's the antivirus checking for new nasties.

[Ed Lata]

Gerbil - my hard drive's read arm actually engages as I can hear the clunk each time the light flashes.

bobbyraw and MidiMagic - I am using a paid version of AVG with firewall for all my computers. The new desktop that I've built up is the only one that has an excessive flashing light/hard drive access problem. Even my new Vista machine is relatively "quiet".

Salem - (like your signature line) the Microsoft links to download DiskMon or FilMon are not valid anymore, nor is Process Monitor which replaces it. Any ideas of where I can get copies?

Thanks for your responses, people.

Ed

[gerbil]

Ed, disconnect from the web, shut down your AV and firewall, any other resident protection so that you have only Windows' native processes running, and check again.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx is the addie you want.

[Ed Lata]

Gerbil,

The link you gave is similar to the one I had and returns the same error message when I try to download FileMon, etc. :

The connection has timed out

The server at download.sysinternals.com is taking too long to respond.
* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.

* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.

* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

Good advice re shutting down firewall, etc. (Why didn't I think of that!) I'll try that tomorrow.

I was going to shut down AVG anyway to try Comodo as a firewall. Do you have any experience with it? I'm looking for a replacement to AVG as they just about tripled their price in two years. I had a really good firewall years ago called Sygate that allowed you to trace back all the IP addresses of the connections to your computer, but that quit after awhile. I understood that Norton bought them out but unfortunately never implemented the features Sygate had. Killed the opposition so to speak.

I've just got a suspicion that my cloned version of XP Professional has never connected with the mother ship and may be trying desperately to phone home. (I actually own a purchased, registered version but wanted to try this one since it was very reasonable in price.)

Thanks again.

Ed

[starfireone]

It sounds pretty normal for the most part seeing that you have a few programs running like AVG firewall and AntiVirus. They do access the hard drive often. However, if you are hearing any loud clunking noise when your hd is being access that would point to a bad hd. I once had three hd's in a row that had constant access and clunking noise and they turn out to be bad hd's.
You should also check your event log for any error messages that relate to files or your sata controller. Second party HD controller drivers that speed up hd access can also be buggy.

Here is a good link for filemon if you need it.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/filemon.html

[gerbil]

Those addies given for the dls seem to jam on the actual dl. I did use that page succwssfully a week back, so it looks like M$ has a glitch in their own system.
I switched to Comodo Firewall Pro a month or more ago. It is comprehensive in its guarding of your sys, definitely not one for thoose who like to install a firewall/defence and forget about it. To live best with it you must interact thoughtfully with its popup permissions windows, but it is on the job. I like it.

[Narue]

I've just got a suspicion that my cloned version of XP Professional has never connected with the mother ship and may be trying desperately to phone home. (I actually own a purchased, registered version but wanted to try this one since it was very reasonable in price.)

Daniweb's rules specifically disallow offering support for pirated software. As such, I'm closing this thread with the recommendation that if you're having problems, maybe you should be using your legit copy.