Have you got it so that the drive shuts down after a specific time in Power Management in XP?

Just an idea..

Pete

Thanks for the reply.

I wish it would shut down :)

I have changed the power settings to get it to shut down and to leave it running but it didn't make a difference. I have left the settings so the disk doesn't shut down at all.

When I had XP on my 5150 (its only a month old), the system was unstable, and once the hard drive didnt stop crunching from boot-up.... Sent it back to dell, couldnt find anything wrong (typical).. Got it back, dumped XP, and installed Win2000Pro, now it runs like a dream...... Not saying this is your problem..

I'd call Dell, and explain your problem to them, maybe they can suggest a few things.

Did the problem appear when you installed new software? Or has it always been like it?

Cheers matey

I tried calling Dell and got....nowhere!!

I was told that putting the Accustic mode to quiet in the BIOS would cure it. Even after I explained that it wasn't a hard disk noise that was the problem but a system search was being performed. I did do what they said though, and guess what, no difference.

Anyways I searched on the web and there were many references to HDD spinning under certain virtual memory settings. So I changed the VM setting from manual to computer set and it seems to have cured the problem/stopped it spinning every so often.

So thank you for your help, its good to know theres a sympathetic ear out there.

cheers

C

Also, if your running XP, the prefetch option uses a lot of disk accessing, see this link: HERE and HERE (becareful if you edit the registry, do so at your own risk :) )..

Sorry that I cant be much help :s