Stupid program writing to hard drive every 20 seconds

[Deanodarlo]

I've just done a nice fresh install of Windows ME, since I toasted my last with insane o/c'ing and lost my Ghost image on CDRW

Everything went great - installed all the Microsoft updates, drivers ect but no programs yet.

Only problem is something is writing to my C: drive every 20 seconds or so and it's SOOOOO annoying! I keep on hearing the drive write periodically, and defrag or scandisk programs keep on restarting!

Now, I've removed system restore and other bloatware junk so it's not that - in fact I did exactly the same as my last installation which had no such issue.

It's not the drive calibrating or anything, as it doesn't do it on it's other partition E: - only C:. Definately software based.

I've tried starting in safe mode - still writes to C:. WTF?

I've even tried select startups using msconfig, but still no difference. WHAT THE HELL IS WRITING TO MY C: PARTITION????

The only thing I did differently this time was select all the communication options on the Windows ME install. Is a program in there that needs to write to the drive every 20 secs? I've tried un-installing some of them but no difference.

Please help, if I don't find an answer I'll have to install the darn thing AGAIN!

 

[Jeff H]

An obvious culprit is Office - do you have it? If so, shut off Find Fast in Control Panel.

 

[bacillus]

while I have my doubts about it being find fast, you can stop it from loading in msconfig if it's present!

 

[Deanodarlo]

Thanks guys, but no other software is installed!

And yeah hehe, FindFast is an old enemy!

Hope this isn't hardware related - I'm sure it isn't.

I'll wait a bit longer but if the issue persists it looks like a re-install

 

[LukFilm]

On a clean install of Win98, SOMETHING is writing to the hard drive every other second, freezing it for a second. REALLY annoying and there is NOTHING running in the background, it was happening as soon as I finished clean install of Win98. Fortunately, it's a computer for someone I built (for $175) so I don't worry about it, but it was driving me nuts while I was installing additional programs on it.

 

[Deanodarlo]

Orcish, I had no issues with ME before I had to reinstall; with exactly the same hardware everything was and still is 100% stable but there was no periodic 20 second writing to the hard drive. I think I've found the software creating the problem but it's very strange, see below.


To the rest:

Guys, I've discovered something REALLY STRANGE. I think I have gremlins in my system.

After testing for the last hour these conclusions are 100% accurate:

Boot the machine up, have the 20-30 sec write to the hard drive. Can't defrag or scandisk (thorough) without it restarting all the time.

This stays with me until:

I connect to the internet! Then the whole issue disappears! NO BULL. Everything back to normal.

I've ran the machine offline after a reboot and the 20-30 second write happens, no matter what software I run (including IE 6/ Outlook offline) or how long I run for.

As soon as I connect to the net, then disconnect, the problem disappears.

I have only very recently been using IE 6 and this is the first install where I've updated Win ME with it straight away so it's high on my list as being the culprit.

This is very strange.

Guess the only test left to do is to re-install ME (Darn , can't be bothered) and see if the problem is there with IE5.5. Then upgrade to IE6 and see if this issue returns.

Darn Microsoft - better not be messin' with my system again with crappy invisible background tasks. What the hell this data write is doing before I connect to the net is anyones guess.................

 

[Deanodarlo]

After even more testing I've found that the only way to stop the 30 sec periodic writing to C: is to connect to the internet using IE6.

Connecting without the browser results in the problem staying put.

On this evidence I conclude:

A) My original hypothesis of the problem being caused by selecting all the communication options in the Win ME components upon install was correct. This has resulted in some dodgy background task.

OR

B) IE6 is doing some dodgy background work until I connect to the net.

Hmmm, which is your money on? I'll soon know after a re-install *sigh*. Place your bets and I'll arrive back with the answer.

I know it's definately not hardware related, so mods if you wish move this thread to software.

PS You've probably all lost interest now, hehe, sorry for boring you all!

Computers create some strange problems from time to time - I thought I'd seen it all but this issue is just off the wall.....................

 

[khtm]

I haven't used WinME, only Win98, 2k, and XP.

Is there any way to see what processes are running? You've already checked for findfast, but I've had a similar problem with an app called "newsupd.exe" (or something similar). It came with some CD burning software I think.

-khtm-

 

[DN]

<< I haven't used WinME, only Win98, 2k, and XP.

Is there any way to see what processes are running? You've already checked for findfast, but I've had a similar problem with an app called "newsupd.exe" (or something similar). It came with some CD burning software I think.

-khtm- >>



I'm pretty sure newsudp has to do with "creative news" -- something that comes with their driver install.. It can be turned off using normal means inside the options..

 

[Bozo Galora]

settings -> control panel -> system -> advanced -> startup and recovery... -> and set the options. It seems like the default location is %SYSTEMROOT%\minidump

I think small is fine, but deselect automatically reboot just as a precaution. Or if you don't mind the space, do a complete dump.

Sometimes a stop code is attached to those dump files. But if you can see the blue screen before it reboots, it'll say there too. Should be something like **STOP** Code: xxxxxxxxxxxxx . Take that code and run it through the MS knowledge base.

Whoa! In that minidump folder, there is a ton of files, all of them are 1 hour seperation. 7:57, and 8:58. They are .dmp file extensions. What should I use to open them. What exactly am I looking for in the files, I used notepad to open them, and its just a bunch of characters. I think my prob is fixed tho, as I uncheked that auto restart box, but well see.

 

[BeauJangles]

This is why WinME is the worst POS put out by MS in a long time. Upgrade to 2k or xp and you will be a happy camper.

 

[Bozo Galora]

I have good news and bad news:
The good news is that this exact question was solved before:
link

The bad news is that its gone.

 

[tkdkid]

Download filemon from sysinternals.com. It'll tell you all file activity that's going on and what initiated it. Freeware too.

sysinternals.com

 

[VBboy]

tkdkid is right.

I love that FileMon program. I also have their RegMon. Together, they help me fight the bloatware that is Windows!!!

 

[Deanodarlo]

Thanks everyone I really appreciated your input, especially tkdkid with that useful program - I LOVE IT!

Using File and Reg monitor, I found the culprit - LoadQM.exe.

This little git comes with MS messenger 4.5, automatically installs itself without asking and tries to check for newer versions of MS messenger EVERY MINUTE.

It will keep on doing this until you connect to the internet and it's happy no newer versions exist; then it stops requesting version confirmation.

That explains why scandisk and defrag were being interupted all the time untill I connected to the net.

I hate it when programmers do this to our systems. It was preventing me from defragging and scanning my hard disk - the things kept on restarting every time LoadQM requested version confirmation for MS messenger. The hard drive was clicking EVERY MINUTE. Damn those people. They could at least ask before setting up such crap.

Still, with these two new tools I should be able to keep a better eye on crap like this.............