Why is XP constantly accessing my HD ???

[traveler]

Well ... I'm installing XP for the first time. Yep. My first ever clean install of XP. And what the heck is this: I see the HDD access light on the case constantly blinking on and off every second or two!!!

What is this??? How do I make it stop??? I can't have the HDs constantly on when the machine is just sitting there at idle.

I turned off Indexing and I turned off the firewall. Checking windows componants, it seems Indexing is not installed???

The HD access light keeps on blinking even after I reboot and just let the log on screen sit there for a while.

I booted into Safe Mode and it still does it!!!

How do I get XP to stop accessing my HD every second?


??? ???
__________________
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[ctal]

Perhaps your automatic update preferences are set to automatically download, without asking permission first. And if you were installing from an XP cd that had SP2 incorporated, there would be 100+ critical updates to be downloaded (fewer with an SP3 cd; which one did you use?). Try changing the automatic update settings to "notify me but don't automatically download or install."

Regards,
-- Al

[traveler]

I turned off Auto Updates first thing.

I shut off the Indexing thing.

I turned off Restore.

I booted into Safe Mode to have "everything" shut off.

This XP has not been "activated" yet. Would or could there be some sort of constant checking of activated vs non-activated?


??? ???

[dr00py]

Have you tried FileMon from SysInternals ?

It shows file access i realtime.

h**p://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896642.aspx

[shaihulud]

It's mainly auto-run. Disable this and it will still do it. Do not worry about it.

[PeterT]

My XP installs have always done that. As shaihulud said, I don't think it's anything to worry about.
This is the first box you've put XP on? What did you have on your P4P800?

[ctal]

If he really means, as I think he does, that the accesses are essentially continuous (as opposed to occasional brief bursts of activity), I've never seen that on any of 6 machines I've had XP on.

dr00py's suggestion certainly sounds worth pursuing.

Regards,
-- Al

[traveler]

Originally Posted by ctal

If he really means, as I think he does, that the accesses are essentially continuous (as opposed to occasional brief bursts of activity), I've never seen that on any of 6 machines I've had XP on.

dr00py's suggestion certainly sounds worth pursuing.

Regards,
-- Al

Right ctal. "essentially continuous" Never stopping for hours on end. Every second of every minute of every hour. No programs installed. Just installed clean install. All I do is boot to XP and leave the computer alone.

Then ....

My harddisk case light looks like a strobe light in action. Constantly On Off On Off On Off On Off On Off On Off On Off On Off On Off On Off On Off etc. Hard drive is going to die with all that hour after hour.

None of the XP computers I have ever used had a stobe light as a harddrive disk access light on the case. None in any office or home I have ever visited. And these people don't turn off or tweak anything. The HD light stays dark until it's time to read or write to the hard disk.

And dr00py's suggestion certainly does sound worth pursuing. Nice apps there. Thank you drOOpy! That should tell me what's doing the accessing.



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[traveler]

Originally Posted by PeterT

My XP installs have always done that. As shaihulud said, I don't think it's anything to worry about.
This is the first box you've put XP on? What did you have on your P4P800?

My dear Bud PeterT: win2000 of course. My P4P800d runs win2000 and still runs win2000.

I hate XP. The first thing I ever hated about XP was the removal of "web view" in the windows explorer. The ability to quickly check one image, or video clip, and to see partition and drive space and usage, and long file names and the other things that showed up in that center space was constantly used by me. What a convenience. Now I'm forced to use XP because "they" finally figured out a way for XP programs to not install on win2000 anymore - "they" now have a 32/64 bit version checker in the install routines and win2000 will crash on the install since there is no 64 bit win2000 even though the program is 32 bit and would run on win2000 if you could get it to install. BioShock is an example of this. Up until BioShock I never cared that a program said XP Only on the box. It always would intall on win2000. Now that I will have my own copy of XP, I will probably now find more and more that I will not like as I explore it. I have never yet found anything in XP that was a nice feature "added", only taken away. I will be running XP more by force than by choice. [/rant] Who knows, maybe I might find something I like.



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[shaihulud]

It is auto-run, without a doubt. Ever since Windows 95 this question has been asked and is in the hall of technical questions.

You never find any offerings that are better because you look at the surface and not the kernel and underlying layers of the operating system. I can simply say that Windows 2000 is not that great anymore when considering newer hardware.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by shaihulud

It is auto-run, without a doubt. Ever since Windows 95 this question has been asked and is in the hall of technical questions.

You never find any offerings that are better because you look at the surface and not the kernel and underlying layers of the operating system. I can simply say that Windows 2000 is not that great anymore when considering newer hardware.

Thanks for the reply shaihulud.

Is this auto-run issue an XP only issue?

I never turned off auto-run in any of my win98se or win2000 computers. The hard drive light never strobed on off when I did a fresh install of those OSs. Since those OSs are all active and running on my LAN, where could I quickly look in win98se and win2000 just to confirm if auto-run is on or off there?

A neighbor just bought a computer with XP Home earlier this year. It doesn't continuously access the HD and/or strobe the case light. Is this a XP Pro issue and not a XP Home issue?


???

[ctal]

See post 9 of this thread:

Windows XP constant hard drive access - OSNN Forum

HTH,

-- Al

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by traveler

My dear Bud PeterT: win2000 of course. My P4P800d runs win2000 and still runs win2000.

Ah, OK. I ran Win2K for a while, but switched to XP Pro early on and never looked back.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by ctal

See post 9 of this thread:

Windows XP constant hard drive access - OSNN Forum

HTH,

-- Al

I tried that on mine and still get the intermittent access. Does it require a restart?

[zsaz1029]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I tried that on mine and still get the intermittent access. Does it require a restart?

I imagine it would.