Any utility that will tell me what program or service is accessing thehard drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter XP Guy
  • Start date Start date
Grabbing the first Google hit, it matches what I've done to my XP
systems. <http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/985/>

Key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\
TimeProviders\NtpClient]

Value Name: SpecialPollInterval

I use a value of 3600 (seconds) so it syncs hourly.
Click to expand...

Have you ever checked to see if it's actually happening when you think
it is? The reason I ask is that I read somewhere today that that key
actually only makes sure the time service is running - it doesn't
actually sync the time. I might have misunderstood, so I want to check
that out a little further.

I'd like it to sync once or twice a day. That would be close enough, I
think. But weekly is too infrequent.
 
Why bother with that? Just turn it off and use many of the great
utilities out there. One of the best, yet an oldie is Dimension 4
(aka D4).
Click to expand...

Apparently you haven't read my earlier posts in this thread.
 
In
Char said:
Ridiculous, no? Why turn off an included part of the OS and replace it
with something that does exactly the same thing?
Click to expand...

It doesn't do the same thing for one! What makes you think they do the
same thing? Does Windows time keeping give you a total history of all of
the times your clock has been off? NOPE! Does Microsoft's allow you to
sync the time in minutes, hours, days or whatever? NOPE! There are many
other things I have replaced in the OS since they are so lame.

Heck OE6 can't even quote correctly. So I installed OE QuoteFix.

Microsoft's "Safely Remove Hardware icon" is so lame. So I use "Zentimo"
or "USB Safety Remove" instead on all of my computers.

Microsoft's AV is also so lame. So I replaced that one too.

While I like WMP a lot, it too needs help and then I use VLC.

Microsoft's power icon is so plain jane and doesn't tell you much. So I
use BattStatus v0.99B which tells you far more like wear level, wattage
in use, voltage, temperatures, etc.

And I can go on and on. Some people claim that Microsoft is a monopoly.
I think such a thought means you are not thinking. If Microsoft was a
monopoly, then third party software wouldn't exists. But the door is so
wide open that virtually anybody can develop software far better than
Microsoft had. Thank goodness for choice, eh?
 
In
Nil said:
Apparently you haven't read my earlier posts in this thread.
Click to expand...

Guilty! But I will tomorrow and if I find out you are just blowing
smoke, are you going to get an earful.
 
| >> (aka D4).
| >
| > Apparently you haven't read my earlier posts in this thread.
|
| Guilty! But I will tomorrow and if I find out you are just blowing
| smoke, are you going to get an earful.
|

In a nutshell, his passion is syncing time. He spends
most of his spare time syncing...time. He's used a number
of different techniques in the past, including D4.

I had no idea there were so many people so enthusiasticly
involved in managing their clocks.
 
Grabbing the first Google hit, it matches what I've done to my XP
systems. <http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/985/>

Key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\
TimeProviders\NtpClient]

Value Name: SpecialPollInterval

I use a value of 3600 (seconds) so it syncs hourly.
Click to expand...

Have you ever checked to see if it's actually happening when you think
it is? The reason I ask is that I read somewhere today that that key
actually only makes sure the time service is running - it doesn't
actually sync the time. I might have misunderstood, so I want to check
that out a little further.

I'd like it to sync once or twice a day. That would be close enough, I
think. But weekly is too infrequent.
Click to expand...

I believe it works properly. Every time I check, the last sync time
was less than an hour ago. Because of this thread, I've checked it
multiple times today and it's updating hourly.
 
| >> (aka D4).
| >
| > Apparently you haven't read my earlier posts in this thread.
|
| Guilty! But I will tomorrow and if I find out you are just blowing
| smoke, are you going to get an earful.
|

In a nutshell, his passion is syncing time. He spends
most of his spare time syncing...time. He's used a number
of different techniques in the past, including D4.

I had no idea there were so many people so enthusiasticly
involved in managing their clocks.
Click to expand...

The beauty of it is that once you configure it, you don't have to be
involved at all, let alone enthusiastically.

If a one-time config is still too enthusiastic, then just ignore it
because by default it's already configured to sync automatically.
 
In

It doesn't do the same thing for one!
Click to expand...

We're talking about syncing the PC's clock to an Internet time
reference. In that respect, yes, they do the same thing.
 
J. P. Gilliver (John) said:
Ah, but you're checking something it _calls_ "last sync time"; whether
it _actually_ synced/updated then, rather than just said it did, could
only, AFAICS, be checked by deliberately setting your clock wrong, and
seeing when it was corrected.
Click to expand...

The built-in NTP function in Windows, can generate a log.

C:\WINDOWS\Temp\w32time.log

But the log is filled with garbage, so it's pretty hard to tell what
is going on. For example, every 17 minutes, there is some bogus activity,
and it just *has* to be logged.

150050 21:28:06.7343750s - W32TmServiceMain: timeout
150050 21:28:06.7343750s - TimeProvCommand([NtpClient], TPC_GetSamples) called.
150050 21:28:06.7343750s - NtpClient returned 0 samples.
150050 21:28:06.7343750s - W32TmServiceMain: waiting 1024.000s

150050 21:45:10.7500000s - W32TmServiceMain: timeout
150050 21:45:10.7500000s - TimeProvCommand([NtpClient], TPC_GetSamples) called.
150050 21:45:10.7500000s - NtpClient returned 0 samples.
150050 21:45:10.7500000s - W32TmServiceMain: waiting 1024.000s

150050 22:02:14.7656250s - W32TmServiceMain: timeout
150050 22:02:14.7656250s - TimeProvCommand([NtpClient], TPC_GetSamples) called.
150050 22:02:14.7656250s - NtpClient returned 0 samples.
150050 22:02:14.7656250s - W32TmServiceMain: waiting 1024.000s

Then, occasionally, you get one of these.

150051 09:07:34.2343750s - W32TmServiceMain: timeout
150051 09:07:34.2343750s - ClockDispln:150051 09:07:34.2343750s
- ClockDispln GoUnsyncd:150051 09:07:34.2343750s
- LI:3 S:0 RDl:0 RDs:0 TSF:0x0
150051 09:07:34.2343750s - Logging warning: The time service has not been able to
synchronize the system time for 49152 seconds because
none of the time providers has been able to provide a
usable time stamp. The system clock is unsynchronized.
150051 09:07:34.2343750s - W32TmServiceMain: waiting 17.359s

Which is unmitigated crap. What seems to happen, is there is a client and
a server task inside my computer, and most of the log is communications between
the two of them. Only occasionally, do you get a *real* update. This
is just after my machine, queries the external NTP server on the Internet.

150108 13:26:32.4375000s - | LocalClockOffset: -1082357700ns - 0:01.082357700s

If I search for all instances of that, I get these entries, indicating
my updates are every seven days. It's possible the anomalous one is a
manual update I did (I was probably booting several different OSes and
the time got screwed up by an hour).

150052 20:11:40.4375000s - | LocalClockOffset: -1145521900ns - 0:01.145521900s
150058 13:00:18.5000000s - | LocalClockOffset: -1501818200ns - 0:01.501818200s
150058 22:24:51.1875000s - | LocalClockOffset: 3598805868700ns - 59:58.805868700s
150065 22:53:26.4843750s - | LocalClockOffset: -2985654600ns - 0:02.985654600s
150072 22:53:20.4531250s - | LocalClockOffset: -1032776400ns - 0:01.032776400s
150079 22:53:20.6875000s - | LocalClockOffset: -1893180300ns - 0:01.893180300s
150086 22:53:20.7500000s - | LocalClockOffset: -1025953000ns - 0:01.025953000s
150094 03:28:31.9687500s - | LocalClockOffset: -1620500900ns - 0:01.620500900s
150101 10:12:05.5781250s - | LocalClockOffset: -1633556400ns - 0:01.633556400s
150108 13:26:32.4375000s - | LocalClockOffset: -1082357700ns - 0:01.082357700s

If you compare the Control Panel "last sync" time, against the log, you can
go back through the log to verify what it's doing.

What's interesting, is looking in Regedit, the "SpecialPollInterval" of
604800 seconds (one week) is recorded in the NtpClient section. As if
it's the client that triggers the external update. The "NtpServer"
doesn't have a special poll interval setting. The W32Time service has
an "UpdateInterval" setting of 360000 (100 hours), which doesn't seem
to be related to anything.

So after looking at the log, I'm not sure what the division of
responsibility is, between the "NtpServer" and "NtpClient".

Some of my registry settings can be seen here.

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/245/ntpreg.gif

Paul
 
Ah, but you're checking something it _calls_ "last sync time"; whether
it _actually_ synced/updated then, rather than just said it did, could
only, AFAICS, be checked by deliberately setting your clock wrong, and
seeing when it was corrected.
Click to expand...

What's next, setting up Wireshark to make sure it's really doing what
it says?
 
This is for XP, sp3.

I've just installed XP-sp3 on a new motherboard and I'm in the process
of turning off a lot of garbage services and in general optimizing it.

I've turned off indexing service as well as the cache-thing that's
supposed to make it boot-up faster. The system does auto-login as the
default user (with admin privledges) just the way I like it. So at
power-up within about a minute I have the desktop up in classic mode.

I notice that if I do nothing - just let it start up and sit there, I'll
see the hard-drive light pulse on about once per second - and it will
just to this indefinately.

It bugs my ass and I'd like to know what's goosing the drive like this.

Is there any utility or program that can tell me what's accessing the
drive?
Click to expand...

If you have an ATI graphics card, google ATI poller service.
That damn thing seems to constantly write hundreds of event log entries.
Disabling it is possible, but will stop certain ATI programs from
working properly.
 
We're talking about syncing the PC's clock to an Internet time
reference. In that respect, yes, they do the same thing.
Click to expand...

The only thing that w32time does not do is it fails to set the clock
if the BIOS time is too far out. I have a crappy ECS motherboard on
one of my PC and sometimes it loses the time settings completely. I
can't rely on windows to sort this out :-(
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
 
Back
Top