Strange HD activity in WinME

[Ovi]

Hi Topha
You might want to try this: Run Msconfig and through it disable "PCHealth", "WinMgmt". Although you have disabled system restore, these services given above still run in the background and sometimes frequently access the HDD. Best of luck!!
Cheers
Ovi

[Topha]

hey ovi, thats how i disabled system restore (that and with the system properties)

[az]

indexing is "indexerstellung" and it is installed with ms office i think, to keep track of document changes... slows down the whole system..

AZ

[omegaRED]

Topha, had the same problems ( i still have `em from time to time ).

1. Kill System Restore ( done )
2. Kill the screen saver
3. Kill ALL progs running except Explorer & Systray

It still happens on occasions, about 3-4 times while defragging, but it`s not critical. If Defrag restarts, it quickly goes thru the defragged area of the disk without Reading/writing, so it only prolongs the process 1-2 mins.

BTW, on my 15 Gig Maxtor DiamondMAX 66, being 9 Gigs full, it takes about 1hr 20mins to defrag.

Abit BE6II
P!!! 500
256Mb RAM
Vanilla G400 16Mb
Maxtor DiamondMAX66 15 Gb

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Seth, are you ok ?
I`m peachy, Kate. The world is my oyster.

[Ovi]

Topha:I just remembered that this happens with Norton Speed-disk too on my system,sometimes. What happens is that while processing program startup data, Speed disk will sometimes keep restarting in an endless loop, citing 'write detected' as the reason. In such a situation,I simply close speed disk and then rerun it, which then works properly. So you can also try closing defrag when it does this, and then run it again!
Hope it works!!
Cheers
Ovi

[xortam]

The best way to defrag a system disk is outside of that OS (e.g. floppy boot) or in safe mode.

[2Whyzzi]

I noticed this activity too (poor defrag performance) after I updated my Winamp (now using 2.72/2.73).

It seems to me that even if you say no to the anonymous statics report, the installer still puts the winampa.exe (winamp agent) in the run section of the windows registry.

Once I removed this annoying little thing, I was finally able to defrag the hard disk properly.

If you have winamp installed, you can quickly check to see if the winamp agent is running by pressing the "ctrl-alt-del" combo ONCE to bring up the dialog box, and check to see if winampa.exe is in the list. If it is, select it by clicking on it once with your mouse and pressing the "End Task" button. Then run your defrag, looking to see if it defrags normally.

Your milage may vary, but that is what worked for me. Any users with Winamp want to try this and report back in this thread with your results?

Cheers ppl,
PeterV

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Abit BH6 r1.01
Celeron2-566 o/c to 850MHz+Slotket!!! 1.8v
256 Megs PC-133 Cas3
Matrox G400 SH OEM (not oc'd) rev=03h
Diamond Monster Sound MX400

[This message has been edited by 2Whyzzi (edited 07 April 2001).]

[Jorden]

Well 2Whizzy, I just checked and I don't have any Winamp running in the background. Might be because I totally closed down the Agent (Under Options, Preferences, Setup, Agent, uncheck all boxes there. Close down Winamp, rerun Winamp)

So I can't say that was it...

Jord.

[Topha]

okay, i gave it up and installed win2k, which is pretty cool, stable and faster than i expected, even faster than i hoped it to be. no problems yet. if anyone got any tips how to make win2k run even faster or better/nicer etc. you may post them here

thanks for the support, and sorry for giving up

[2Whyzzi]

mmm.. Well, I just "uninstalled winamp" (poor uninstaller btw - left behind way too many registry entries).

Then I re-installed the full version 2.73. During the install process I choose not to send anonymous info to Winamp. Finished up the install, checked 'Options-Preferences-Setup' and indeed, the 'Allow winamp to report basic anonymous program use information' is UNCHECKED.

However, I just finished doing a "ctrl-alt-del" in my Win98, and guess what? Winampa is one of the tasks in the list. I load up regedit, and lo-n-behold I find in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Run" I have WinampAgent listed there - meaning it will be started every time I reboot my computer (unless I remove the registry entry). Now removed.

I'm sure NullSoft would attribute it to 'Programming/Installer error', but if you ask me thats the same as installing spyware onto ones computer.

However - it did not interfer with my defrag, even after I rebooted. I guess I was jumping to conclusions (about winampagent interfering with defrag). Sorry about that.

I just thought that Matrox Users might be interested in that info.

Cheers, ppl

PeterV

[az]

There is an easier way than removing startup registry entries by hand, at least in win9x: MSconfig. Just select which programs should be loaded on startup and which ones shouldn't

AZ