OT: (know this forum for that) disk activity.

[Paul Anderson]

For about the last month I hear the hard drive going all the time.
I have Windows XP home 32 bit, running MSE and Spywareblaster for the protection programs.
I have turned off indexing on both my hard drives (long time ago) and recently (after drive chatter) disabled indexing service.
Have loaded some Microsoft utilities (process monitor and process explorer) to try and determine what is running.
I see NVSVC32.exe a lot, deleted and reinstalled NVIDIA video driver and no change.
Have run full virus scan, it found nothing suspicious except Java, which I have since deleted.
Tried suspending NVSVC32.EXE and activity persists.
Any thoughts?
(suspended MSMPPENG.EXE, had to reboot after that because things really slowed down)

[N2056]

Having dealt with multiple HD deaths in the last year I can tell you that as soon as I suspect something is not right with the drive I am backing up the important stuff pronto!
I also do that every month or so just 'cause it's a good thing to do.

[WarHorse47]

Seems like you are on the right path to check programs and services that might be running in the background. You may want to look at a freeware utility called EndItAll that also identifies these things and allows you to shut them down temporarily to determine if they are causing the disk activity.

Also, when was your last defrag? The drive will work harder if its highly fragmented.
:ernae:
--WH

[hey_moe]

Paul, do you have it to where your OS does a back and saves all data. The restore point as far as I am concerned is a waste but some people like it.This is a default setting that will cause the HD to run. The more data you have on your HD the more it runs. You can go here for details on how to stop this >> http://www.blackviper.com/2009/10/01/black-vipers-windows-7-super-tweaks/#two

[TeaSea]

N2506's caution is right on.....back this drive up now.

Having said that....I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with it. I actually think you are on the right track with a "process" executing. Hey Moe has a good point in that you (or some of your software) may have told this drive to execute a Restore Point or other process that you do not want.

I run a back up program to and external HDD that runs more or less continually. While the drive doesn't spin, it does consume resources and that translates to a stutter is FSX. I eliminate the delay by shutting down the process before game play. The software restarts itself every 12 hours. I must confess that it took me a bit to figure that out.

[arfyhun]

Paul - thank you very much for highlighting this problem. My PC, (XP) is riven with it when I switch on. Sometimes it behaves normally but most of the time the drive crunches and clatters as if it's typing the History of the English Speaking Peoples! Everything else grinds to a halt, sometimes for up to fifteen minutes. At that stage I have been restarting it in the forlone hope of a better behaviour next throw of the dice.
'Er' indoors, (my friendly and ever-helpful local support group), 'as been on at me to buy a new PC; "Cos this one is knackered".

Mo - thanks for the possible fix. I have turned off 'indexing' on my 'F' drive to see how thing are. If no joy, the 'C' drive will get the treatment.

Maybe now my left ear will be spared the noise, (not the one, I hasten to add, from the PC)...

Thanks again fellows.

Graham.

[Paul Anderson]

75469

Looks like nvsvc32.exe is doing a lot of looking and not finding.
Saw on web not recommended to stop because could incorrectly report temperature readings.
Will have to check and see if this activity coincides with last video driver update.
Also wonder if NVInspector is interfering with Nvidia program.

Still grasping at straws.

Could be barking up the wrong tree, maybe nvsvc32 is just checking all ok when I scroll to bottom of activity screen.

[GypsyBaron]

Last month I Noticed my HD going crazy and at some point, after checking running
processes to no avail, I ran a utility that monitors all access in and out over my LAN to the router.

I noticed peculiar packets going OUT to an IP that is registered in Europe...I forget the
country at the moment. I had no browser open and there shouldn't have been any
activity beyond my LAN. I went into my router and added the site to my list of sites
to 'block all activity'. That seemed to 'fix' the issue.

A scan with rootkit revealer showed nothing nor did one of the anti-virus scan programs.
I suspect some 'call home bot' got onto my system at some point. Blocking the access
to and from that IP was all I could do.

I have a dual-boot system. This issue was on my Xp boot, where I do most of my
browsing. My Win7 Pro x64 boot did not exhibit the problem.

Paul

[Gdavis101]

How old is the drive? Have you tested the drive for errors? There is a really good utility called HD Tune (Free) that you can test the drive with, at least that way you could rule out a hardware problem.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/HD_Tune_d4130.html

[Paul Anderson]

Ran CHKDSK on both hard drives last night (took hours), no errors.
Hard drive activity almost constanly now, even when I'n not running anything.
Modem lights don't blink unless I'm on the internet, and then coincides with me doing something,
so guess is just an internal thing.
Will search for another activity monitor, if that doesn't highlight something will
go through tedious process of ending services one by one and rebooting in between.
If not solved, will do likewise with startup items.
(just like it was watching, it kicked in as I am typing this)

[hey_moe]

Paul,something else ya might wanna try. Go to the run in the start menu,type msconfig,go to start up and at the bottom,click disable all. Then reboot and see if your HD still runs. If that stops it go back into msconfig and start checking a few at a time till ya find out what program is causing the problem.

[Paul Anderson]

Oddly enough, just tried something like that.
Used msconfig to use diagnostic startup with basic devices and startup only.
3 essential services and no startups showed after restart, disk activity still began after a minute or two.
I set to normal startup and restarted, again quiet for a few minutes, now drive activity again.
Starting to think something introduced in last windows update, maybe checking for changes to disk drives and logging in journal file.
Some of the activity shown in monitor program showed changes to the system objects log files.
Will wait until next windows update before investigating further.
It is a pain to know main drive being worn (replaced last year) without any benefits that I can see.
USN journaling is the current suspect.
If part of the core operating system, not much I can think of to remedy the situation unless Microsoft has a fix. (sigh)

Drive just a humming now after posting, can't rule out latest changes to MSE antivirus program either.

[Paul Anderson]

75529

Usually check Windows updates a couple times a week in case something available before scheduled check, saw this today.
Even with indexiing on in the default startup (it's indexing now, still less activity than before).
Wonder if I can bill Microsoft for the extra wear and tear on the hard drive. (I remember the flying pig windows logo back in early days, think that was a statement from someone)
Will let indexing complete and retry my selective startup.
Imagine things will improve, will post later if not.
Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Looking forward to PC silence.

(I remember an old line 'Silence is golden, I wish you great wealth.')
Applies to PCs too.

[hey_moe]

Paul, I got so tired of hearing the hard drives turn I brought 2 of those electronic drives. Now I got peace and quite:mixedsmi: