Continuous Disk Thrashing

  • Thread starter Thread starter bvandew
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bvandew

I've been running Vista Business since it was released. The last few days, I
have noticed the hard drive is being accessed almost continuously, even with
no applications open. There is nothing taking up excess RAM or CPU cycles
according to Task Manager. I made a few changes to the indexed locations a
few days ago, but nothing drastic (I have since gone back to the default
settings). The computer is on all night with nothing running, yet the disk
is still thrashing when I arrive in the morning.

This is getting to be a serious problem. What might be causing this?

--Bruce
 
Hello,

If you think it's not the indexer, my guess would be the automatic
defragger.

To confirm, you can check to see if defrag.exe is running in the task
manager when you click Show processes from all users.

To tell for sure what is causing the problem, you can use the new
performance monitor in vista:

- Click start
- Type: performance
- Click reliability and performance monitor
- Expand the disk section by clicking the down chevron next to it

Ignore the programs accessing files that start with a $, as these are system
processes doing NTFS bookkeeping.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
 
Jimmy Brush said:
Hello,

If you think it's not the indexer, my guess would be the automatic
defragger.

To confirm, you can check to see if defrag.exe is running in the task
manager when you click Show processes from all users.

To tell for sure what is causing the problem, you can use the new
performance monitor in vista:

- Click start
- Type: performance
- Click reliability and performance monitor
- Expand the disk section by clicking the down chevron next to it

Ignore the programs accessing files that start with a $, as these are system
processes doing NTFS bookkeeping.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
Click to expand...

How do I turn off the indexer. its go my drive running at 100% all the time.
its locking up my computer. XP never did this
 
Hello,

The indexer isn't supposed to bother you while you are using the computer.
Although it technically is using your disk all the time, it notices when you
are trying to do something and lets the stuff you are trying to do go first
(in the same way that Automatic Updates can download in the background
without affecting your internet browsing).

It should finish its indexing within a day or two, depending on how much
stuff you have on your computer. The benefits of having the index are really
worth waiting for, IMHO.

However, you can disable the search indexer this way:

-Click Start
-Click Control Panel
-Click System and Maintenance
-Click Administrative Tools
-Double-click Services
-If asked for permission, click Continue
-Scroll through the list and find "Windows Search"
-Right-click it, and click Properties
-Click Stop
-Click the dropdown box next to Startup Type
-Click Disabled
-Click OK


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
 
Hey thanks, I Understand what its trying to do and that it reduces the load
if the computer is in use doing other things. BUT one thing you guys didnt
notice is that when the using the media center to watch tv ,Vista thinks
nothing is going on the indexer uses the full capacity of the drive. this
causes the media center to hang and the TV tuner to freeze. My machine is a
d960, 4gb ram, ati1900xt and 2 500gb drives. that indexer really is a pain in
the arse.
 
Hi Jack,

The search indexing in Vista runs at low-priority for both CPU time and disk
I/O. So in general it shouldn't prevent media center from doing its thing,
but I'm interested if you have any more details on this.

For reference, the processes in which indexing takes places are
SearchIndexer.exe, SearchProtocolHost.exe and SearchFilterHost.exe, so
generally if you can see them using a lot of CPU then indexing is happening,
and if not then it's not indexing using your CPU ...

Dave Wood
 
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