Okay, I've turned off "Indexing", what else can I try?

  • Thread starter Thread starter itemyar
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itemyar

(RE: previous post - "My hard drive won't shut up")

I turned off Indexing but my hard drive is still constantly busy doing
something! Every 10-15 seconds it goes into a flutter of activity! It's
not Norton, or any othe programs that I've installed, it's been doing this
from the very beginning, right after I installed Windows XP Home for the
first time!
 
itemyar said:
(RE: previous post - "My hard drive won't shut up")

I turned off Indexing but my hard drive is still constantly busy doing
something! Every 10-15 seconds it goes into a flutter of activity! It's
not Norton, or any othe programs that I've installed, it's been doing this
from the very beginning, right after I installed Windows XP Home for the
first time!
Click to expand...

I missed the first part of this thread, but here are a few things
to check:

1. Make sure DMA mode is enabled for your IDE channels.

2. Make sure XP has a pagefile, preferably on a separate
physical drive (or at least on a separate/dedicated partition on
the same physical drive).

3. Make sure you have adequate system memory to avoid
constant pagefile swapping (at least 512MB, preferably more).

3. Disable XP services that aren't required for your installation
(careful with this one, look up an online guide for this).

4. Keep your drive(s) defragmented.
 
I missed the first part of this thread, but here are a few things
to check:
Click to expand...
1. Make sure DMA mode is enabled for your IDE channels.
Click to expand...
2. Make sure XP has a pagefile, preferably on a separate
physical drive (or at least on a separate/dedicated partition on
the same physical drive).
Click to expand...
3. Make sure you have adequate system memory to avoid
constant pagefile swapping (at least 512MB, preferably more).
Click to expand...
3. Disable XP services that aren't required for your installation
(careful with this one, look up an online guide for this).
Click to expand...
4. Keep your drive(s) defragmented.
Click to expand...

None of those will produce drive activity when the system is idle.
 
Rod Speed said:
None of those will produce drive activity when the system is idle.
Click to expand...

Idle is a relative term, e.g. load XP on a system with 128MB
memory and it'll thrash the hard drive almost constantly, even
before any apps are loaded.
 
Thanks Jack,

I've ordered a second drive, I'll put the "Pagefile" on it! Memory
shouldn't be the problem, I have 2 gigs! Plus, I don't have any IDE hard
drives; two DVD's on the primary and a Zip drive on the secondary. Brand
new drive, so I doubt if it's fragmented much, but I'll try that too!
 
Idle is a relative term,
Nope.

e.g. load XP on a system with 128MB memory
and it'll thrash the hard drive almost constantly,
even before any apps are loaded.
Click to expand...

Bullshit it will once its booted and its idling.

And its unlikely he's got 128M anyway.
 
itemyar said:
Thanks Jack,
Click to expand...
I've ordered a second drive, I'll put the "Pagefile" on it!
Click to expand...

Waste of time, that wont be the problem. XP runs fine on single drives.
Memory shouldn't be the problem, I have 2 gigs!
Yep.

Plus, I don't have any IDE hard drives; two DVD's on the primary and a Zip drive on the
secondary.
Click to expand...
Brand new drive, so I doubt if it's fragmented much, but I'll try that too!
Click to expand...

No point, fragmentation wont produce those symptoms.
 
itemyar said:
Thanks Jack,

I've ordered a second drive, I'll put the "Pagefile" on it! Memory
shouldn't be the problem, I have 2 gigs! Plus, I don't have any IDE hard
drives; two DVD's on the primary and a Zip drive on the secondary. Brand
new drive, so I doubt if it's fragmented much, but I'll try that too!
Click to expand...

What kind of drive is XP installed on? Again, I missed the first
part of this thread.
 
itemyar said:
(RE: previous post - "My hard drive won't shut up")

I turned off Indexing but my hard drive is still constantly busy doing
something! Every 10-15 seconds it goes into a flutter of activity! It's
not Norton, or any othe programs that I've installed, it's been doing this
from the very beginning, right after I installed Windows XP Home for the
first time!
Click to expand...

Get rid of Norton.
 
itemyar said:
(RE: previous post - "My hard drive won't shut up")

I turned off Indexing but my hard drive is still constantly busy doing
something! Every 10-15 seconds it goes into a flutter of activity! It's
not Norton, or any othe programs that I've installed, it's been doing this
from the very beginning, right after I installed Windows XP Home for the
first time!
Click to expand...

what 'bios tweaks' have you enabled in the bios in reference to the IDE
controller or Hard drive setup?
 
Jack F. Twist said:
2. Make sure XP has a pagefile, preferably on a separate
physical drive (or at least on a separate/dedicated partition on
the same physical drive).
Click to expand...

While putting the pagefile on a separate physical drive may help performance if
that drive is of equal or better performance than the boot drive, I don't think
there is any reason to put the pagefile on a separate partition on the boot
drive. Doing so will require more head movement between the OS/App files and
the pagefile. It will also likely move the pagefile further toward the inner
sectors of the HD, where access times will be slower.

Another pagefile tweak, especially if there is adequate physical RAM (512 MB or
more) is to make the initial and max sizes of the pagefile equal. That way the
pagefile will not resize dynamically, so performance (as well as boot time)
should improve slightly.
3. Disable XP services that aren't required for your installation
(careful with this one, look up an online guide for this).
Click to expand...

Another way to troubleshoot the thrashing is to stop the services one at a time
until the thrashing stops.

Boot as "cleanly" as possible, then stop all background apps such as firewall,
antivirus, etc. Open the Services menu from the Control Panel and Stop the
running services one by one, starting with those that are obviously not OS
services (e.g., remaining Norton or other firewall/antivirus associated
services), then with non-critical Windows services (Indexing, UPnP, Error
reporting...).
 
Your solution to everything? It was doing this before I ever installed
Norton! Here, this will really make you grimace, it's not just NAV that's
installed, it's Norton System Works, does that make ya wanna throw up? :-)
 
itemyar said:
Your solution to everything? It was doing this before I ever installed
Norton! Here, this will really make you grimace, it's not just NAV that's
installed, it's Norton System Works, does that make ya wanna throw up? :-)
Click to expand...

Thats: Scamantics Bloaten System Worse..............<<<<<<<puke!>>>>>>>>>>>
 
itemyar said:
Your solution to everything? It was doing this before I ever installed
Norton! Here, this will really make you grimace, it's not just NAV that's
installed, it's Norton System Works, does that make ya wanna throw up? :-)
Click to expand...
Once again, get rid of Norton.
 
Why not get rid of the page file all together?

He's got 2 GB physical memory which is more than enough to load the OS
and a few programs directly into memory and he would not be burdend by
the slow drive reads and writes anymore...

1. Right click on my computer...
2. Click on the properties...
3. Click the advanced tab, click on settings in the performance box.
4. Click the advanced Tab... on the bottom click change.
5. Select the "no page file". Click set. Click ok.
6. Reboot.

Good Luck!

-Randy
 
Randella said:
Why not get rid of the page file all together?
Click to expand...

Because that will cause problems in a wide range of applications,
as Microsoft points out in about a dozen different places in their
knowledge base. XP should have a pagefile, even if it's a small
one (e.g. 64 or 128MB).
 
Randella said:
Why not get rid of the page file all together?
Click to expand...

Because some things dont work very well without one.
He's got 2 GB physical memory which is more than enough to
load the OS and a few programs directly into memory and he
would not be burdend by the slow drive reads and writes anymore...
Click to expand...

Its more complicated than that in practice.
 
Get rid of Norton.
Click to expand...

Bob,

in reference to your reply and the followups in this thread, "getting rid
of Norton" is not helpful or even sound advice. I am the very first to
agree that Norton has become too overly aggressive in taking control of a
PC in its war to protect it. I hate programs that are meant to do a
service (here, protect against malware) but wind up practically taking
over the operating system. But Norton is indeed a high quality software,
and with proper tweaking of the options (as administrator) Norton will
learn to behave itself a bit.

If Norton is set up properly, or temporarily disabled (for example in
services) then it should not be the cause of the poster's excessive
hardisk activity.

One thing is definitely true today: an anti-virus software is absolutely
necessary. Norton may not be the best, I am using a freeware myself, but
something has to be there.

To the poster: I personally on another computer have Norton Anti-Virus,
but not any of the other Norton utilities. In deference to Bob's idea,
perhaps disabling a lot of Norton's various protections other than
anti-virus may be a good idea in general. I remember one time I installed
an operating system with a full version of Norton's system and was totally
irritated by its way of creating hidden recovery files on my hardisk. That
is one that I uninstalled right away.
 
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