hard disk starts automatically when system is idle

[rahul]

Please help. I have a 20 GB Samsung Hard Disk with a intel 850 chipset motherboard and Pentium 4 (1.4 Ghz).

The problem is, that my Hard disk keeps doing some activity, either reading or writing, which I don't know. I mean to say, the hard LED keeps blinking continously even when I dont use the Pc and leave it idle, with no applications opened and no process happening, but as soon as I move my mouse or start doing some thing, this above mentioned problem stops. I have just freshly reinstalled the windows 98 SE operating system, but this problem is the same as it was with the previous windows installation. I have not installed any games or trial or sharewares, nor any problematic applications. Applications installed are just :- (1) Office Xp with Frontpage 2002 and publisher 2002, (2) Adobe acrobat reader, (3) Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99, (4) Winzip 8
and (5) Norton Antivirus 2001 and even the Screen saver is off and all cookies of Internet Explorer 5 have been Deleted by me. Please help. Is there a problem with my Hard Disk or what the hell is it. Please be descriptive.

[christo418]

The first thing that you need to do is to get into CMOS (check your motherboard manual on proper procedure). Ensure that all Power Management settings are off.
Save settings and do a full Reboot.
Also, check your Task Scheduler (there may be some extraneous task that was checked to run when idle). good luck.

[mike breck]

Hi rahul,

It may be some of the Office or other programs such as the Anti-Virus running in the background. "Findfast" which is part of older Office versions is notorious for using system resources.

Go to Start Menu>Run and type in msconfig. Click on the Start Up Tab and you will see everything that is loaded when Windows start. Now uncheck Microsoft Findfast and Microsoft Office Start Up (unless you want this running - I think it's a waste of resources). Restart the PC when prompted and see if that helps.

If the problem continues, then disable the Norton Anti-Virus in it's program from running in the background and see if that affects it.

[pstj]

The first thing that you need to do is to get into CMOS (check your motherboard manual on proper procedure). Ensure that all Power Management settings are off.

Is there any drawbacks in turning off the power management settings ?
Also, what is the purpose of Findfast ?
thanks,

pstj

[babylon5guy]

Hi pstj,
Unless you have a laptop there are no drawbacks to turning off power mangagement that I can think of. Matter of fact my PC does strange things when it is all turned on. Find Fast is a program in office that constantly keeps track of your Word files, that way I guess they load up about a half a second faster. I suppose if you worked in Word all the time it might be benefical other than that it just uses up system resources and keeps your hard drive spinning. I don't know if it is in Office XP but it was in the previous 2 or 3 versions of Office. I agree with mike breck disable it.
HTH

[highrisemech]

I let windows handle power management. control panel/power options/turn off hard disk after---

[Carl Price]

This is simply Windows being Windows and managing the swap file. The only way to get rid of this behavior is to go into virtual memory and assume turn off Windows management. This behavior does not hurt anything and you won't notice it except for some slight delays sometimes accessing the harddrive.

[rahul]

Originally posted by christo418 The first thing that you need to do is to get into CMOS (check your motherboard manual on proper procedure). Ensure that all Power Management settings are off. Save settings and do a full Reboot. Also, check your Task Scheduler (there may be some extraneous task that was checked to run when idle). good luck.

Hi christo418.
I did as you said, but the problem remains. In task scheduler I disabled live update, even disabled noton auto protect and disabled office startup, but it does'nt get solved. Now what do you say.

[rahul]

Hi! Mike breck.
I removed office starup, disabled auto protect of norton antivirus and the rest you told. now please suggest something else. The problem didn't solve.

[christo418]

Ctrl+Alt+Del. write down everything active except systray and explorer. end task everything except systray and explorer. post back with your research.

[mlw99]

Go to www.pcmag.com and search for a program called DiskAction under download / utilities.

It is touted as a program to tell you what is accessing your hard drive.

Good luck.

mlw99

[rahul]

Originally posted by christo418 Ctrl+Alt+Del. write down everything active except systray and explorer. end task everything except systray and explorer. post back with your research.

Hi christo. I finally found the problem.As I was using office Xp, this time instead of find fast,which used to come with earlier office packages, here a new application Mo search ( microsoft office 10 search) was creating the whole problem.so I removed it from startup with msconfig. Now it's all solved finally. Anyway, thanks for all the help.

goodluck.

[rahul]

Originally posted by mike breck Hi rahul, It may be some of the Office or other programs such as the Anti-Virus running in the background. "Findfast" which is part of older Office versions is notorious for using system resources. Go to Start Menu>Run and type in msconfig. Click on the Start Up Tab and you will see everything that is loaded when Windows start. Now uncheck Microsoft Findfast and Microsoft Office Start Up (unless you want this running - I think it's a waste of resources). Restart the PC when prompted and see if that helps. If the problem continues, then disable the Norton Anti-Virus in it's program from running in the background and see if that affects it.

Hi mike!. I found the problem. as I was using Office Xp, this time the problem creator was MO search (Microsoft office search). So I disabled it. Now the problem is solved. Thanks for the help.

[rahul]

Originally posted by mlw99 Go to www.pcmag.com and search for a program called DiskAction under download / utilities. It is touted as a program to tell you what is accessing your hard drive. Good luck. mlw99

Thank you very much mlw99.
I used the utility and found the problem creator. thank's a lot brother.

[Elektra]

I was having exactly the same problem and even posted a thread here on it. I also had recently installed Office XP and i wondered what the MO search was, but was afraid to disable it. I disabled it and rebooted, and now I can sleep without that annoying clickity-clak noise going on all night long in the background!!!
Elektra

[rahul]

So that's good Elektra. Now even you can have a good sleep like me.
goodluck.