Windows constantly accessing drive

Wrathchild

OSNN Senior Addict
Joined
7 Feb 2004
Messages
338
Long story short: My hard drive is being accessed by XP every second, literally like clockwork. Tick tick tick tick. Before you suggest that the drive is bad, or on the brink, know that I've tried every test known to man and determined that my 200 Gig SATA drive is healthy as a horse. I'm asking about this in the Windows Tech Support section because I believe it to be a Windows issue. Indexing is off by the way. Tick, tick tick tick. I've scanned my ports for anything untoward. I'm wondering if it's some new feature of Intel915 mainboards or Prescott processors. This is a brand new rig. ANy ideas?

-Wrath

P.S. I booted to Knoppix, no ticking....
 
Been there

zeke_mo said:
you could try formating
there is a similar thread here http://forum.osnn.net/showthread.php?t=48653
oh wait :\

Yep. Turned out to NOT be a hardware issue, so I moved the thread here, to Windows support, where it should be. SO if you have any KNOWLEDGE to share, please speak up. I've re-installed XP already. No change. Defragged, no change, etc etc etc. I'm putting the challenge out there. Let's see what kind of troubleshooting XPerience you guys really have!

;-)
 
double bump

*runs*


had this experience before, but can't remember what caused it.
 
Wrathchild said:
Yep. Turned out to NOT be a hardware issue, so I moved the thread here, to Windows support, where it should be. SO if you have any KNOWLEDGE to share, please speak up. I've re-installed XP already. No change. Defragged, no change, etc etc etc. I'm putting the challenge out there. Let's see what kind of troubleshooting XPerience you guys really have!

;-)

hey,

i wish you posted in your original thread any updates.
http://forum.osnn.net/showpost.php?p=469752&postcount=24

did you follow my advice?

really ****in hate that
 
Try turning off indexing or disable the indexing service.
Also, I wonder if you have opened task manager on the processes tab then watch and see which process is taking a cpu hit when this HD activity occurs.
 
Indexing

American Zombie said:
Try turning off indexing or disable the indexing service.
Also, I wonder if you have opened task manager on the processes tab then watch and see which process is taking a cpu hit when this HD activity occurs.

Thanks. Read my first post though. I mentioned that the indexing service is turned off.

-Wrath
 
Yup

egghead said:
hey,

i wish you posted in your original thread any updates.
http://forum.osnn.net/showpost.php?p=469752&postcount=24

did you follow my advice?

really ****in hate that

Yes. Replying to you here though, since I believe it to be an XP issue, and your suggestions are XP oriented as well. Having said that, I followed your instructions for disabling all non-windows services / startup items. Ran MSCONFIG after reboot to confirm the absence of the afore-mentioned items. No difference. Tick, tick tick tick. I also updated Spybot S&D, ran it and found no spyware.

Next?

Wrath
 
How are you sure there's actually HDD activity? If it's by the LED, there's many, many mobo's that the HDD LED is fockered. If it's by the sound, set your drive to shut off after x time of inactivity. If they don't or they come right back on, you know something is accessing them.
 
Another suggestion, just for troubleshooting purposes - have you tried booting into Safe Mode? Does the problem still occur?
 
Sweet

Progress!

I Booted in Safe mode and she's quiet as a mouse. Now all we need to do is to figure out why it's tick tick ticking in standard mode, which is why I moved the thread to Windows General. ;-)

-Wrath

We're getting there! Let's keep the brains a movin!
:yowch:

NetRyder said:
Another suggestion, just for troubleshooting purposes - have you tried booting into Safe Mode? Does the problem still occur?
 
Wrathchild said:
Progress!

I Booted in Safe mode and she's quiet as a mouse. Now all we need to do is to figure out why it's tick tick ticking in standard mode, which is why I moved the thread to Windows General. ;-)

-Wrath

We're getting there! Let's keep the brains a movin!
:yowch:
Alright excellent. :)
Now to gather some information...

While you're booted into Safe Mode, open up a command prompt window (Start>Run>cmd) and enter "tasklist /svc" (without quotes). Save the output in a text file. Now get back into standard mode and do the same thing.

Then just copy/paste the two results here.
 
tasklist /svc

(SAFE MODE)

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Rick>tasklist /svc

Image Name PID Services
========================= ====== =============================================
System Idle Process 0 N/A
System 4 N/A
smss.exe 156 N/A
csrss.exe 212 N/A
winlogon.exe 236 N/A
services.exe 280 Eventlog, PlugPlay
lsass.exe 292 N/A
svchost.exe 448 DcomLaunch
svchost.exe 508 RpcSs
svchost.exe 564 CryptSvc, dmserver, helpsvc, winmgmt
explorer.exe 764 N/A
notepad.exe 900 N/A
wmiprvse.exe 952 N/A
cmd.exe 992 N/A
tasklist.exe 1052 N/A

(Standard Mode)

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Rick>tasklist /svc

Image Name PID Services
========================= ====== =============================================
System Idle Process 0 N/A
System 4 N/A
smss.exe 628 N/A
csrss.exe 684 N/A
winlogon.exe 708 N/A
services.exe 752 Eventlog, PlugPlay
lsass.exe 764 PolicyAgent, ProtectedStorage, SamSs
svchost.exe 932 DcomLaunch, TermService
svchost.exe 1000 RpcSs
svchost.exe 1096 AudioSrv, Browser, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver,
ERSvc, EventSystem,
FastUserSwitchingCompatibility, helpsvc,
lanmanserver, lanmanworkstation, Netman,
Nla, RasMan, Schedule, seclogon, SENS,
SharedAccess, ShellHWDetection, TapiSrv,
Themes, TrkWks, W32Time, winmgmt, wscsvc,
wuauserv, WZCSVC
svchost.exe 1216 Dnscache
svchost.exe 1292 LmHosts, RemoteRegistry, WebClient
spoolsv.exe 1480 Spooler
CCSETMGR.EXE 1548 ccSetMgr
CCEVTMGR.EXE 1580 ccEvtMgr
explorer.exe 1852 N/A
qttask.exe 520 N/A
rundll32.exe 532 N/A
CTSysVol.exe 560 N/A
CTHELPER.EXE 568 N/A
CTDVDDET.exe 576 N/A
CCAPP.EXE 612 N/A
acrotray.exe 648 N/A
ctfmon.exe 652 N/A
msmsgs.exe 836 N/A
notepad.exe 1912 N/A
CCPROXY.EXE 1996 ccProxy
NAVAPSVC.EXE 124 navapsvc
NPROTECT.EXE 180 NProtectService
nvsvc32.exe 1060 NVSvc
symlcsvc.exe 2080 Symantec Core LC
wdfmgr.exe 2100 UMWdf
PDSched.exe 2172 PDSched
SymWSC.exe 2204 SymWSC
alg.exe 2588 ALG
cmd.exe 3080 N/A
tasklist.exe 3096 N/A
wmiprvse.exe 3124 N/A

C:\Documents and Settings\Rick>
 
Autoruns

Introduction

This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor (A starting list of auto-run locations was obtained from David Solomon's "Windows Internals" seminar), shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

Autoruns' "Hide Signed Microsoft Entries " option helps you to zoom in on third-party auto-starting images that have been added to your system and it has support for looking at the auto-starting images configured for other accounts configured on a system. Also included in the download package is a command-line equivalent that can output in CSV format, Autorunsc.

You'll probably be surprised at how many executables are launched automatically!

Autoruns works on all versions of Windows.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/autoruns.shtml
 
omg this is crazy lol it's like an unstoppable monster lol
oh have you tried spyware/adware scans might be the problem if you're saying that xp is randomly accessing your drive might be spyware using it to access it or you might be using some program that is taking something out of there, but you said you reinstalled xp so nvm i dont think that should be it.... might it be dying but none of the tests are detecting it? try sending an email to microsoft tech support and tell them
 
FishBoy said:
omg this is crazy lol it's like an unstoppable monster lol
oh have you tried spyware/adware scans might be the problem if you're saying that xp is randomly accessing your drive might be spyware using it to access it or you might be using some program that is taking something out of there, but you said you reinstalled xp so nvm i dont think that should be it.... might it be dying but none of the tests are detecting it? try sending an email to microsoft tech support and tell them

Read the posts please. I replaced the hard drive. The problem persists. ($135.00 unnecessarily spent) I've run every anti spyware proggie I can get my hands on. Nada.

-Wrath
 
Is your xp legit? If not then maybe something got put into xp and its doing that. Just taking a wild guess cause i think everybody has tried every idea. Maybe its a sign that u should switch to linux :p.
 

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