HD keeps running in Vista

[Ken90630]

First off, I never got Vista, so forgive me if this is a problem well-known to you Vista users. I haven't seen it before.

As the thread title implies, I have a friend running Vista (up to date). After boot-up, and continuing for ~ 15 minutes afterward (sometimes longer), the HD is crunching away madly. It sounds like a de-frag or virus scan on steroids. And the HD is loud anyway, so basically it sounds like a can of ball bearings rolling around under the desk. Very annoying.

A Google search reveals this is a common prob with Vista, but I've already disabled Windows Search Indexing (the most commonly mentioned culprit) and it's still doing it. I've also turned off the "Defrag on a schedule" option. The HD is still hyperactive.

What's the deal? I'm hesitant to turn off Superfetch (as suggested on another forum). It's not the A-V app either. I remember this PC did this right outta the box on Day 1, so it's not infected. Task Manager shows no apps running. The Processes tab is of course full of a few dozen things running, but I don't really have time to research them one by one.

Is there a known fix for this? PC is a Gateway, a couple years old, if it matters.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

How much RAM does the PC have?

Could be Vista is caching. After I installed Vista, I noticed excessive hard drive activity for about 2 weeks, then things calmed down.

 

[Ken90630]

How much RAM does the PC have?

Could be Vista is caching. After I installed Vista, I noticed excessive hard drive activity for about 2 weeks, then things calmed down.

It has 1 GB.

Yeah, I've read other comments (on other sites) where people say the same thing -- that things calmed down after awhile. But she's had this machine for a couple years now and it's still doing it just like it did when she got it.

I also read somewhere that it could be some perpetual communication thing going on between the HD and the CD/DVD drive and that removing the drive would fix the prob. Well, it's not practical to have a PC without an optical drive, so WTH?

 

[electroju]

It is a know problem with Vista and Windows 7. Tell your friend to do an upgrade to Windows XP or even better install Linux. Both Windows Vista and Windows 7 consumes a lot of system resources. This means you will need a super computer to run it.

I turn off all those stupid features and Windows Vista does not stop thrashing the hard drive. I also try turning off services, so there is nothing you can do. In my book, it is a Microsoft feature that your hard drive constantly thrashes in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I installed Linux about a month after I got my notebook computer that had Windows Vista pre-installed. The times Linux thrashes is when slocate is schedule to run and when all memory is filled up. After 7 days of up time, my swap in Linux has never been used. In Windows, swap is used instantly it boots up. It is also the same after weeks of up time in Linux.

IMHO, Microsoft has gotten pathetic since Windows 95.

 

[Gunbuster]

Check what processes are running. Windows Media Player can do that, especially if you set up media center or xbox media center.

 

[Ken90630]

Check what processes are running. Windows Media Player can do that, especially if you set up media center or xbox media center.

She doesn't have Media Center or an Xbox, so I can rule those two out. But thanks anyway.

 

[Raduque]

Find a diagnostic tool that can tell you what processes are accessing the HDD. It's probably just doing a shit-ton of swapping since 1GB is a pathetically low amount of ram for a computer these days. If you upgrade it to at least 2gb (preferably 3 for a 32-bit system) it'll be fine.

Edit: Oh, and ignore electroju. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I've been running Vista basically since it came out and if it wasn't for me running apps that actually ARE constantly writing to the HDD, the hard drive would barely be in use.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

It has 1 GB.

Yeah, I've read other comments (on other sites) where people say the same thing -- that things calmed down after awhile. But she's had this machine for a couple years now and it's still doing it just like it did when she got it.

I also read somewhere that it could be some perpetual communication thing going on between the HD and the CD/DVD drive and that removing the drive would fix the prob. Well, it's not practical to have a PC without an optical drive, so WTH?

As Raduque indicates, that's the problem right there.

P*sses me off that vendors sell PC's with inadequate RAM for decent "average user" performance.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

It is a know problem with Vista and Windows 7. Tell your friend to do an upgrade to Windows XP or even better install Linux. Both Windows Vista and Windows 7 consumes a lot of system resources. This means you will need a super computer to run it.

I turn off all those stupid features and Windows Vista does not stop thrashing the hard drive. I also try turning off services, so there is nothing you can do. In my book, it is a Microsoft feature that your hard drive constantly thrashes in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I installed Linux about a month after I got my notebook computer that had Windows Vista pre-installed. The times Linux thrashes is when slocate is schedule to run and when all memory is filled up. After 7 days of up time, my swap in Linux has never been used. In Windows, swap is used instantly it boots up. It is also the same after weeks of up time in Linux.

IMHO, Microsoft has gotten pathetic since Windows 95.

Good Lord, are you full of sh*t. Go troll somewhere else.

 

[Ken90630]

Thanks, guys. I'll see if I can get her OK to add another gig of RAM and see if that does the trick.

 

[electroju]

Just upgrade to Windows XP instead of upgrading the memory. I have 2 GB of memory in my computer and Vista still thrash and crawled.

I know what I am talking about. Raduque does not know my setup and mainly people that said that Vista works great for them depends on their setup. If the setup is near super computer speeds, Vista will not thrash a lot. If the setup is under powered, Vista will thrash constantly. Since Vista lives in swap, upgrade the hard drive to have higher throughput, so use four hard drives in RAID-10 or use a solid-state hard drive.

Upgrading to an odd memory capacity like 3 gigabytes will actually suffer performance. The 1 GB and 2 GB will actually be set in single channel memory, so integrate graphics performance will suffer the most. Basically, Raduque does not know hardware and how it affects software.

My setup is a Dell Inspiron 1520 with Fujitsu MHW2160BH and 2 GB DDR2 memory. Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) was installed. The amount of time for the thrashing to settle down is about 10 minutes. When it settles, it still thrashes like morse code during usage. The hard drive throughput is only 5 megabytes per second, so everybody now knows why it takes a long time and it thrashes a lot. In Linux the hard drive throughput is reasonable at about 25 megabytes per second thanks to the XFS file system.

Good Lord, are you full of sh*t. Go troll somewhere else.

You are no help, so you are the troll.

I am not a troll in any of the threads. It is known fact that Windows Vista and Windows 7 uses a lot of RAM. Also it thrashes the hard drive to swap data out of memory and into swap causing the hard drive to run forever. If the throughput of the hard drive is not high enough, it can thrash minutes to hours and this is not good for a hard drive. Mainly, Windows Vista and Windows 7 lives on swap instead of RAM.

 

[Gunbuster]

. The hard drive throughput is only 5 megabytes per second, so everybody now knows why it takes a long time and it thrashes a lot.

D:

Everybody knows if you can only manage to get 5 meg throughput in Vista you are doing it wrong.

 

[Ken90630]

Mainly, Windows Vista and Windows 7 lives on swap instead of RAM.

What do you mean by that?