XP: diskactivity when idle...

[VJ]

Hello,

Perhaps a strange question, but when my computer is idle for some time (i.e. when the monitor goes into powersaving), there is quite a lot of diskactivity. The disks remain highly active, until I 'wake up' the computer: screen comes back and diskactivity stops...

Any ideas what the computer is doing at that time ? And how to stop it ?
(it isn't virusscanning, occurs also when computer is not on a network, ...)

I'm running XP Pro on a dual Xeon with 2 10K SCSI disks.

edit: forgot to mention: my computer at work doesn't behave like this...

Thanks!


Jörg

[UtwigMU]

Check if you have indexing service turned on.

[VJ]

I'm not at that computer now but I'm pretty sure it is turned off (set to 'manual' according to the control panel | services)


Jörg

[mmp121]

XP's TweakUI program (which you can download from Microsoft here ) has a setting that enables disk defragmenting when the PC is "idle". I found that out by chance when my laptop was doing exactly what you say. The LCD goes to standby and HDD activity kicks on. Needless to say I turned that option off right away.

It is located in the General submenu of TweakUI and you have to scroll down to the bottom of the checklist to find it and uncheck it. Oh and I think its only listed on TweakUI version 2.10.0.0 or higher, which requires that you have XP SP1 installed.

[spadnos]

MS Office has indexing turned on by default (separate from the OS indexing service). I don't remember where to turn it off, but that was the culprit on one machine I've seen.

(symptoms: leave machine for 2-3 minutes, and the HD goes crazy. Keeps being crazy until mouse motion or keypress - even if left for hours).

- Steve

[Heed]

Most likely the disk defrag. when idle -- it's actually fairly handy once you know why the disk is suddenly chewing on and on. I did the "WTF!" for a few days until I discovered what it was. I've found it increases the time between having to do full defrags, but the disk will still gradually become more fragmented over time.

Cacheman has an option to switch it on/off too.

[VJ]

spadnos: that is the MS Search feature (if it hasn't changed, it can be found in the control panel), which provides for searching word documents for content. I haven't installed that, so this cannot be the culprit...

mmp121: it could well be the defrag-setting in the powertoys; Powertoys are installed, and I don't remember having unchecked that box. Strange though that my computer at work doesn't do it (just verified: it has that very same checkbox set). Will check tonight!


Jörg

[VJ]

Now this is odd...

On my computer at home, I don't have the 'optimize hard disk when idle' option... It is present on my computer at work... Could the fact that I only have SCSI harddisks at home could play a part in this ?


Jörg

[VJ]

Ok, problem found: I was using an older version of TweakUI...
I installed the new one, unchecked the box, and gone was the diskactivity when idleing !


Jörg

[mmp121]

Glad to see it worked! I hope you sleep easy now