hard drive always loading in XP

[matthew]

well seagate barracuda 80gb + winXP pro

prob= the HDD sounds like it's constantly loading when i'm not even doing anything and it's driving my insane :mad:

i have disabled the indexing service & also system restore plus a few other services but it continues! i figure that it's something xp has going on in the background ? maybe it's someting to do with the page file.... of course i have only used this HDD with this o.s so ? possibly i installed it wrong... :( but this constant on/off loading is really starting to get to me...

(( waiting to get my screen before posting all specs ))

anyone know what this could be ?

[whetu]

how much ram have you got? <-- it could very well be the pagefile if you have piss all ram...

how recent was your last defrag?

[matthew]

I have one stick - 512mb samsung DDR333

[GooGlo]

Well that isnt the problem then... Unless the ram is buggered. <====Very unlikely

how much space have you got free?

[matthew]

he... i made two partitions 15gb + 75gb both formatted to NTFS
and so far i have only used 2.7gb total.

About the ram, i noticed on the chips "tcb3" i was concerned.. :confused:

[TheChosen_1]

Im running a 30gig Seagate baracuda 3 7200rpm and an 80 gb seagte 7200rpm, and im running XP, I noticed that when I first partitioned my drive and crap as It is formatted as NTFS (had my 80gb for about 3 days now) that the hdd LED flashed heaps and it was thinking quite alot, but it has calmed down now.
Im only running 384mb SDRAM both at PC 133, Dont thnk this helps much but just telling yamy experience.
What about system virtual memory have you had changed anything there for your boot drive?

[matthew]

haven't touched the virtual memory settings... but it says it's on custom --> initial=768 max=1536

[whetu]

Is it affecting system performance in any way?

if its a cuda4, it shouldnt make much noise.. that would suggest to me that you could perhaps have a crappy case. (flimsy metal vibrating with the hdd's vibrations makes a fair amount of noise)

if this is the case(pun?) then you'll have to isolate the hdd. This isnt too hard, and there are many ways to do it. apply within for further advice.

failing all of that however, the only advice i can give is learn to ignore it.

[matthew]

i have a black enermax fs-710b server case.

I emailed segate support - they gave me a little dos utility to run > "smscan.exe" apparently it searches the HDD for scan activity or something and stops it ..... yeah something like that. but here is the other prob > i have to run this little puppy from dos - how do i get into dos from xp :note: i don't have a floppy drive:

[DiSCLAiMER]

Ok before we start making assumptions, lets actually try and work out why there is disk activity in the first place :p

FileMon (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml) from SysInternals (http://www.sysinternals.com/) allows you to easily view in real time all filesystem access through windows (and even filter the results). You may download the application in either compiled or source form from: http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml

Perhaps you could try running the above utility and first see if that gives any indication on what "application" may be wanting to read/write to your disk all the time.

If that doesn't work, then you could try check out the pagefile usage. You didn't mention the normal memory load of your system, but I'll make an assumption (whoops), that in most likely hood you are not using up 512mb of memory, so thats probably not the problem. (for some people 512mb + may be normal)

I also am not sure what the problem is. Which one of the following best describes the situation:

1). The HD light (or similar indicator of HD access, IDE light blah) regurarly flashes even at times when there should be "no" disk access, such as an "idle" machine.

2). No HD light flashes, but you hear the sound you would expect when the HD is being used. This is also when theere should be "no" disk access, such as an "idle" machine.

Whoops, actually wrote this without reading the last post where you mention segate gave you a utility, either way FileMon is probably worth a look, and may be easier to use (although the utility you mentioned may look at different things than filemon, so try both). You could try and see if the application loads under XP (maybe it will, maybe it won't, who knows - unless they specificially said it had to run from dos :p). The simpliest way to try is just to double click the file from inside windows explorer. Otherwise you could try opening a command prompt from the accessories start menu group.

[matthew]

thanks.. i'll try that filemon prog later..... ( d/ling 23.6mb icon pack right now :D )

well the hdd light doesn't flash.... in fact i'm not sure i've seen it flash at all.... probably did'nt connect the led thing the right way or something... but yeah it makes a loading noise but not quite the same as when loading a big app... a little different bit more subtle ..scanning perhaps....

it is a quiet drive, yes - it's insolated - insolation + all this needless activity = more heat....

i tried running it from the command prompt/double cliking it but "cannot be run while windows is still active" :( it used to be you could just "restart in dos mode"...

[Humantuckshop]

Originally posted by matthew
he... i made two partitions 15gb + 75gb both formatted to NTFS
and so far i have only used 2.7gb total.

About the ram, i noticed on the chips "tcb3" i was concerned.. :confused:



Don't be concerned about Samsung TCB3 RAM. It sh*ts all over everything else.

Also FYI: FAT32 will give better performance than NTFS.

[whetu]

Originally posted by matthew
it is a quiet drive, yes - it's insolated - insolation + all this needless activity = more heat....

can you explain in a bit more detail about how it's insulated please?

[matthew]

well it sort of has internal padding around the drive to help keep the noise down i guess and it works.. the only draw back is it generates more heat. Also i'm not sure what site it was at but i saw a review off this drive that makes direct mention of this and has a picture of the padding/insulation.

seagate said the only way that they know i can get out of winXP and into dos is by using a floppy boot disk..... :confused:

does fat32 really give better performance?..... :confused: god damn...... well it's too late now anyway i guess unless i want to clean install everything again....

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by matthew
does fat32 really give better performance?..... :confused: god damn...... well it's too late now anyway i guess unless i want to clean install everything again....

Yes, but it's a LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT less secure. So if you value your data at all, you'll run from FAT like the plague.

FAT32 also has more restrictive file size limits and the like.

Signed,
a happy NTFS user
:D

[Agent666]

ok skim read all that ... looks like no one has the solution yet........ here it is ...... turn off the bloody indexing service and turn off system restore and all that bull**** disc activity will stop....... please post back with results so everyone knows how smart I am ;)

[Agent666]

I dare say the insulation he is talking about is the seashield.. standard on all IDE drives from seagate

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by matthew
i have disabled the indexing service & also system restore plus a few other services but it continues!

Agent, should have read the FIRST POST, bro....
:p ;)

[Humantuckshop]

Originally posted by Agent666
I dare say the insulation he is talking about is the seashield.. standard on all IDE drives from seagate


I thought the Seashield was the transparent plastic cover the drive came in? Orrr maybe that was the Seashell?

[matthew]

i had a look at that filemon app last night (good software site:) ) and noticed that there was alot of writing going on -to log's and the like, it seemed to be coming mostly from "system:4" first thought was to disable the "event log" service but after reading the services 411/configuration at that black viper dude's site -i notice he does not reccomend it. ( i emailed him anyway :p )

so i may borrow a floppy drive off someone to run that utility seagate gave me but i think it's actually coming from all the sh_t XP has going on in the background.... :mad:

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by matthew
i think it's actually coming from all the sh_t XP has going on in the background.... :mad:

I doubt that greatly. Think about how many of us here are using XP ( lots ), then think about those with this problem ( you ).

I've got system restore etc all on ( indexing is the only service I turned off ). And I don't get thrashing. So if it IS an XP thing, it'll be an incredibly weird setting or page file something - cos it's not a normal symptom of a machine with XP.

System:4? Do you mean Thread 4 of the System.exe process? If so, then either you've got a virus or you need to reinstall - cos that's the main kernal file - and it shouldn't be thrashing your disk at all.

[varkk]

Originally posted by Humantuckshop



I thought the Seashield was the transparent plastic cover the drive came in? Orrr maybe that was the Seashell?

I think the seashield is the rubber skin around the drive, the plastic thing the drive comes in is just a box I think

[whetu]

the seashield is the plate on the bottom that protects the hard drive's pcb and chips etc, especially from static.

the seashell is the plastic thing that protect the drives during transit.

[mird-OC]

seagate's seashield in the seashell...

:rolleyes:

[Agent666]

Originally posted by KingJackal


Agent, should have read the FIRST POST, bro....
:p ;)

hehe like I said I only skim read it ... must go eat my words now... mmm yum

[Agent666]

may I ask how you disabled the indexing service as going on the properties of a drive and clicking I dont want to index this drive doesnt actually turn it off properly for some reason........ you need to disable it through the services console in administrative tasks to kill it for good

[Agent666]

Originally posted by mird-OC
seagate's seashield in the seashell...

:rolleyes:

say that ten times really fast :D

[Gremlin]

Are you running an Intel chipset ? you could use the Intel Application Accelerator to put the drive into "quiet" mode at least you won't hear it then ;)

[whetu]

Ah yes, Seagate's Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM)

I emailed them last night asking if they could forward me the utility that is used to toggle the status of AAM. I'm awaiting their response. If I get it, I can email you a copy matthew...

Just remember that in quiet mode you'll get a loss of performance...

[matthew]

sis 645 chipset, well i don't have a floppy but is it possible to somehow make a bootable dos cd? then i can run this utility.

a couple of examples:

108 3:58:12 p.m. System:4 IRP_MJ_WRITE* C:\pagefile.sys SUCCESS Offset: 6361088 Length: 65536

--------------------------------------------------------------------

System:4 IRP_MJ_WRITE C:\Documents and Settings\Matt\ntuser.dat.LOG SUCCESS Offset: 46080 Length: 4096

------------------------------------------------------------------------

also seems to be writing to these "$LogFile" & "system.LOG"


yep quite alot of writing going on with these four....

[matthew]

hmmm...... 2kpro .. ?

[whetu]

yes it is possible to make a dos booting cdrom.. dont ask me how though... I could dig through my boxes and find the one dos bootable cdrom i do have.. but its easier for me to just send you to google ;)

it may sound harsh BUT here is the utility provided to me by Seagate ealier this evening.. irony is this: You gotta run it from real mode dos, eg from a bootable dos disk :rolleyes:

Dear Rawiri,
Every disc drive makes a certain amount of noise while running. Normally, the faster the drive motor spins, the higher pitched the resulting sound will be. It is also normal for the drive to make sort of a "chattering" or "clicking" sound while it is reading and writing data. However, if the sound coming from your drive has recently changed or is an excessive grinding or clanking noise, this may indicate a physical problem with the drive.

The latest ATA drives offer Advanced Acoustics Management (AAM). There are two modes available, quiet and performance. The quiet mode does quiet down the drive a small amount at the cost of a slight performance hit. The default setting is performance mode. In order to toggle between quiet and performance mode, use the attached AAM toggle utility (seaaam.exe). Copy this utility to a bootable floppy and execute seaaam.exe. This is a pre-release version of the utility, the full version will be made available on the Seagate web site when released.

and yah de yah de yah...

[matthew]

well only just got back online now... reformatted the hard drive two same size partitions but this time FAT32. i also ran that utility i got from seagate. ---the non stop writing to logs and the like is still going on though.... and it's starting to really **** me off :mad:

i have disabled every god damn error reporting and log writing thing i could find but it still continues.......

[whetu]

well thats the file system eliminated as a culprit, its most of the applicable services eliminated as culprits...

do you have another OS you can install?

[SecretSquirrel]

What programs have you installed from the start?

[matthew]

well before i had -norton util 2002, fireworks mx, dreamweaver mx, flash mx, thats pretty much it.. but now i have reformatted and done the clean install of xp again this time installed nothing and it's still there.... it's something xp has got going on in the background..... i will see if i can upload a log file from filemon to show the stuff is doing,

my sister has 2kpro, i was thinking the same thing but i have only been on it at college and noticed it has similar style "services" going on in the background... maybe i'll have the same prob? well only one way to find out i guess.. if i can't get this sorted soon then i'll give it a try.. seems to give similar/better performance as xp without the junk... but don't want to get into that debate.. i just want to stop this non-stop loading...

[whetu]

xp is basically 2k + extra stuff... they are both NT based OSes so I would say give 2k a shot..

[matthew]

here is a short filemon log of my hard driveactivity (http://www.theory1.orcon.net.nz/activity.txt) while i was doing nothing....

Wondering if one is not looking for super security or to hook up to other computers/network and there is only one user ike me not in a office/corporate environment, is there still any advantage in going pro (xp & 2k) ? maybe that's what is causing it.... probably not but ......errrrrr...... dunno.... :confused:

[SecretSquirrel]

Doubt it. Thats just weird, that is. Obviously its XP doing it, but I dont get any of that crap, perhaps there is just some bizarre hardware conflict?

YOU SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT THE WESTERN DIGITAL 80GB JB DRIVE

Fool ;)

[matthew]

perhaps.... and perhaps i should have bought an athlon system or maybe waited to get that new matrox card etc, etc, etc.. but i did'nt.... besides the fact that it's a extra $100 or so more, i like this drive... and when you mentioned how good it is in my other post i had already ordered the cuda... it's not it's fault xp has to have all this needless bull**** running 24/7 in the background..... :p perhaps you're right about it being some strange hardware conflict... i'll have a wee play around with the drivers not that i know what i'm doing or anything but hey.......

[Gremlin]

Make sure you've actually applied all the XP updates before deciding whether or not its XP, there may well have been a fix in the near 20Mb of patches that are already available from Windows Update. Sytem Restore could be possible culprit also.