Hard Drive Runs Continuously After Some Idle Time

Question

I posted this message in the Hard Drive Forum but got no response.   I am running XP-SP2 on a home built box using a Maxtor 40 Gb 5T040H4 7200RPM Diamond Max Plus 60 Ultra ATA 100 hard drive.  Recently it has begun to run as described in the Message Subject after about 15-20 minutes of idle time.  In Control panel>Power Options I have the hard drive set to never shut down.  I have tried other setting in Power Options but get the same results.  This is an older model Maxtor (about 4 years old) and the driver date according to AIDA32 is 7/1/2001.  I do not know if this is an outdated driver or if the driver is even a concern.  To stop the drive from running on I can access a program, the Internet or any Windows folder or file to stop it.  Any advice?   Jim

Mookers · Answer

What O.S ????

Find Fast that comes with Microsoft Office is the worst for this. It makes an index of all words so you can access text quickly and advanced searches faster.

Another thing doing it could be your swap file compacting to save space.

The swap file also has whats called "dirty memory" (memory blocks with changes made to it) and when the system sits idle it will write the contents of them.

Other then that the onlt other thing I can think of would be a virus or Adware/spyware. Make sure you run scans for those offten.

Hope that helps.

Message Edited by Mookers on 10-29-2004 12:58 PM

JH · Answer

Mookers,   As I indicated in my post I am running XP-SP2.   I have allowed the hard drive to run on as long as 15 minutes.  Is that not enough time for Microsoft Office do it's indexing?  Should I disable Find Fast to see if that is the problem and if I do how might that affect Microsoft office?   My understanding of the swap file is that my hard drive will be access if my memory is not adequate to handle a running task.  The problem occurs regardless of any running program.   Having to do with 'dirty memory as you expressed it, it seems that would not cause the drive to run on for 15 minutes or longer.   I run Ad Aware, Spybot S&D, NAV 2005 and Zone Alarm and am clean as a hound tooth.  Any more ideas?   Thanks for your input.   Jim

sgtcasey · Answer

JH,   Find Fast is a major resource hog.  If you have FF running and when using your system it suddenly becomes sluggish for a while that is probably FF doing it's thing.  After I install Microsoft Office and such, Find Fast is the *first* thing I make sure won't start up when I boot the computer.  To date, I have never seen a problem running Microsoft Office programs (Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point) with it turned off.   In short, you should be okay with it disabled.  Just go to the Startup folder in your Start menu and remove it from there.  That way, it won't start up when your system boots up.   Dave

JH · Answer

sgt casey,

I don't have any sluggishness running programs. The problem of drive run on only occurs when the computer is idle. However, I'll do as you recommend and disable Find Fast for the time being in Control panel> Find fast and see if I can get past the 15 minute barrier I seem to be faced with before the hard drive gets into it's next unwanted excursion .

Thanks,

Jim

sgtcasey · Answer

JH,

Hey, I just read through the thread again and don't see mention if your anti-virus program might be thinking the system is idle enough for it to scan the hard drive. Do you have Norton's set to scan on its own? Maybe Norton's is doing its own indexing of system files so it can more efficiently scan later on? Something to think about. :smileyhappy:

Dave

JH · Answer

sgt casey,

I have NAV set to scan manually so we can rule that out. Since I disabled Find Fast I haven't taken the time to allow the computer the requisite 15 minutes of time for the beast to get into it's routine.:smileywink:

Jim

Windows General

Hard Drive Runs Continuously After Some Idle Time

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