Vista - What's with constant disk activity?

I have Vista home premium edition and it was loaded as a clean install.
There is constant disk activity without any programs running other than
some simple utilities and a few widgets. I never experienced anything
like with XP. Sure there was some disk activity at times with XP when
the computer was virtually idle, but you would think that Vista was
constantly trying to start programs the way the disk activity light
flashes. When the system runs Linux (dual boot) and it sits idle, there
is almost no disk activity at all in comparison.

Are the rest of you experiencing this with Vista?

It is the disk indexing doing it's job. It's indexing your disk so when you
go to search for something, it's really quick and doesn't have to search the
whole hard drive from scratch.

--
Dustin Harper
dharper@vistarip.com
http://www.vistarip.com

--
"Usenet User" <me@here.now> wrote in message
news:%23TJmL5mbHHA.2088@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I have Vista home premium edition and it was loaded as a clean install.
>There is constant disk activity without any programs running other than
>some simple utilities and a few widgets. I never experienced anything like
>with XP. Sure there was some disk activity at times with XP when the
>computer was virtually idle, but you would think that Vista was constantly
>trying to start programs the way the disk activity light flashes. When the
>system runs Linux (dual boot) and it sits idle, there is almost no disk
>activity at all in comparison.
>
> Are the rest of you experiencing this with Vista?

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:44:00 -0400, Usenet User <me@here.now> wrote:

>I have Vista home premium edition and it was loaded as a clean install.
>There is constant disk activity without any programs running other than
>some simple utilities and a few widgets. I never experienced anything
>like with XP. Sure there was some disk activity at times with XP when
>the computer was virtually idle, but you would think that Vista was
>constantly trying to start programs the way the disk activity light
>flashes. When the system runs Linux (dual boot) and it sits idle, there
>is almost no disk activity at all in comparison.
>
>Are the rest of you experiencing this with Vista?


Probably file indexing. Harmless, but annoying. You can turn it off.
Right click any drive letter from within Explorer. The jury is still
out on if or not it is worth indexing your drives. It is suppose to
make finding files faster, but with today's high speed drives, faster
computers, you probably won't see that much a tanagable difference. It
tends to slow down and go away over time. How fast depends on the
indvidual system.

Also the new defrag tool will start up by itself, that can cause a lot
of disk activity too.

/Usenet User/ said:

> I have Vista home premium edition and it was loaded as a clean install.
> There is constant disk activity without any programs running other than
> some simple utilities and a few widgets. I never experienced anything
> like with XP. Sure there was some disk activity at times with XP when
> the computer was virtually idle, but you would think that Vista was
> constantly trying to start programs the way the disk activity light
> flashes. When the system runs Linux (dual boot) and it sits idle, there
> is almost no disk activity at all in comparison.
>
> Are the rest of you experiencing this with Vista?

I saw that with the initial install of RC1. Disk activity lessened with
time. Bump up from 512 to 1GB of RAM virtually stopped it; I never
hear the drive working now...using the release version.

I tried to disable the indexing and it says that I need admin priv's to do it, and I am the admin. Then it goes through each file and says that access is denied. It never asks me to enter any info or anything.

WTF?

Several good things happening. Firstly, the excellent new indexing
facility, that finds searchable text in all kinds of files. Secondly, it
may be the defragger, which runs automatically. Thirdly, Vista preloads
commonly used files into RAM, so they load faster. Fourthly, every so often
it shuffles files around to improve boot up times.

In other words, it's just Vista doing its job. Nothing at all to worry
about.

Steve

When I found myself with that problem, I went crazy looking for answers
until someone told me that it was just Vista constantly checking the
cd/dvd drives for the presence of disks. I proved to myself that that
was, in fact, what was causing my continually blinking HD LED by simply
disconnecting both dvd burners, whereupon the blinking stopped. I hooked
them back up and the blinking resumed. To avoid being driven crazy by
the constantly blinking LED, I covered it up with a tiny piece of
electrician's tape.

Daze
--------------

Usenet User wrote:
> I have Vista home premium edition and it was loaded as a clean install.
> There is constant disk activity without any programs running other than
> some simple utilities and a few widgets. I never experienced anything
> like with XP. Sure there was some disk activity at times with XP when
> the computer was virtually idle, but you would think that Vista was
> constantly trying to start programs the way the disk activity light
> flashes. When the system runs Linux (dual boot) and it sits idle, there
> is almost no disk activity at all in comparison.
>
> Are the rest of you experiencing this with Vista?

You found wrong. Vista or windows does not continually poll removable
drives. The drives tell windows when the disk is removed.
"Daze N. Knights" <Daze@microchip.com> wrote in message
news:egtxjDobHHA.4720@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> When I found myself with that problem, I went crazy looking for answers
> until someone told me that it was just Vista constantly checking the
> cd/dvd drives for the presence of disks. I proved to myself that that was,
> in fact, what was causing my continually blinking HD LED by simply
> disconnecting both dvd burners, whereupon the blinking stopped. I hooked
> them back up and the blinking resumed. To avoid being driven crazy by the
> constantly blinking LED, I covered it up with a tiny piece of
> electrician's tape.
>
> Daze
> --------------
>
> Usenet User wrote:
>> I have Vista home premium edition and it was loaded as a clean install.
>> There is constant disk activity without any programs running other than
>> some simple utilities and a few widgets. I never experienced anything
>> like with XP. Sure there was some disk activity at times with XP when the
>> computer was virtually idle, but you would think that Vista was
>> constantly trying to start programs the way the disk activity light
>> flashes. When the system runs Linux (dual boot) and it sits idle, there
>> is almost no disk activity at all in comparison.
>>
>> Are the rest of you experiencing this with Vista?

..

When I originally had this problem, I investigated running processes,
turned off the indexing, etc, etc, all to no avail. So I brought my
problem to this forum, and eventually a poster came along to say that
Windows (previous versions, as well as Vista, he said) checks the drives
for disks about once per second and, every new version of Windows that
comes out brings with it new complaints about blinking HD LEDs. I was
initially dubious, having never experienced, heard of, or seen such a
phenomenon before until I built my computer and installed Vista. But
sure enough, once I disconnected the DVD drives, the blinking
immediately stopped. When I reconnected them, the blinking immediately
resumed. And when I disconnected them again, the blinking immediately
stopped again. And when I reconnected them, the blinking immediately
started again. At which point I could only conclude that, whatever the
exact explanation for the blinking may be, it definitely has something
to do (in my case, and perhaps in that of the OP, as well) with the
cd/dvd drives. And I have not thought of any reason since then to
believe otherwise. Nor does one occur to me now. If you would like to
pay me a visit to get an in-person demonstration, please let me know. Or
if you can explain how my experience (as described above) might actually
have nothing to do with my cd/dvd drives, please do so, instead of just
telling me that I am wrong.


Daze
----------------



.. wrote:
> You found wrong. Vista or windows does not continually poll removable
> drives. The drives tell windows when the disk is removed.
> "Daze N. Knights" <Daze@microchip.com> wrote in message
> news:egtxjDobHHA.4720@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> When I found myself with that problem, I went crazy looking for
>> answers until someone told me that it was just Vista constantly
>> checking the cd/dvd drives for the presence of disks. I proved to
>> myself that that was, in fact, what was causing my continually
>> blinking HD LED by simply disconnecting both dvd burners, whereupon
>> the blinking stopped. I hooked them back up and the blinking resumed.
>> To avoid being driven crazy by the constantly blinking LED, I covered
>> it up with a tiny piece of electrician's tape.
>>
>> Daze
>> --------------
>>
>> Usenet User wrote:
>>> I have Vista home premium edition and it was loaded as a clean
>>> install. There is constant disk activity without any programs running
>>> other than some simple utilities and a few widgets. I never
>>> experienced anything like with XP. Sure there was some disk activity
>>> at times with XP when the computer was virtually idle, but you would
>>> think that Vista was constantly trying to start programs the way the
>>> disk activity light flashes. When the system runs Linux (dual boot)
>>> and it sits idle, there is almost no disk activity at all in comparison.
>>>
>>> Are the rest of you experiencing this with Vista?
>

If you wish to pay for a 24 000 km airfare or passenger ship (I don't like
flying) then I will. However I don't think your Govt will let me in your
country.

Your experiments, while admirable, don't necessarly support the conclusion
you reached. You would need to rule out all other causes before accepting
this as fact. You also haven't tested a large sample of other computers.

I can tell you my computer doesn't. I've also not seen any computer that
does. You perhaps need to get Process Explorer from www.sysinternals.com
(this will redirect to correct page at MS MS own them now) and gather
additional infomation on what file operations are taking place at that time.

Something may be polling the drive, but it isn't windows.

"Daze N. Knights" <Daze@microchip.com> wrote in message
news:uc$ZD7pbHHA.2088@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> .
>
> When I originally had this problem, I investigated running processes,
> turned off the indexing, etc, etc, all to no avail. So I brought my
> problem to this forum, and eventually a poster came along to say that
> Windows (previous versions, as well as Vista, he said) checks the drives
> for disks about once per second and, every new version of Windows that
> comes out brings with it new complaints about blinking HD LEDs. I was
> initially dubious, having never experienced, heard of, or seen such a
> phenomenon before until I built my computer and installed Vista. But sure
> enough, once I disconnected the DVD drives, the blinking immediately
> stopped. When I reconnected them, the blinking immediately resumed. And
> when I disconnected them again, the blinking immediately stopped again.
> And when I reconnected them, the blinking immediately started again. At
> which point I could only conclude that, whatever the exact explanation for
> the blinking may be, it definitely has something to do (in my case, and
> perhaps in that of the OP, as well) with the cd/dvd drives. And I have not
> thought of any reason since then to believe otherwise. Nor does one occur
> to me now. If you would like to pay me a visit to get an in-person
> demonstration, please let me know. Or if you can explain how my experience
> (as described above) might actually have nothing to do with my cd/dvd
> drives, please do so, instead of just telling me that I am wrong.
>
>
> Daze
> ----------------
>
>
>
> . wrote:
>> You found wrong. Vista or windows does not continually poll removable
>> drives. The drives tell windows when the disk is removed.
>> "Daze N. Knights" <Daze@microchip.com> wrote in message
>> news:egtxjDobHHA.4720@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> When I found myself with that problem, I went crazy looking for answers
>>> until someone told me that it was just Vista constantly checking the
>>> cd/dvd drives for the presence of disks. I proved to myself that that
>>> was, in fact, what was causing my continually blinking HD LED by simply
>>> disconnecting both dvd burners, whereupon the blinking stopped. I hooked
>>> them back up and the blinking resumed. To avoid being driven crazy by
>>> the constantly blinking LED, I covered it up with a tiny piece of
>>> electrician's tape.
>>>
>>> Daze
>>> --------------
>>>
>>> Usenet User wrote:
>>>> I have Vista home premium edition and it was loaded as a clean install.
>>>> There is constant disk activity without any programs running other than
>>>> some simple utilities and a few widgets. I never experienced anything
>>>> like with XP. Sure there was some disk activity at times with XP when
>>>> the computer was virtually idle, but you would think that Vista was
>>>> constantly trying to start programs the way the disk activity light
>>>> flashes. When the system runs Linux (dual boot) and it sits idle,
>>>> there is almost no disk activity at all in comparison.
>>>>
>>>> Are the rest of you experiencing this with Vista?
>>