Windows Vista Hard drive runs continously sometimes

On occasion after booting up the hard drive runs continously and the only way I can get it to stop is reboot. Running continously does not seem to appreciably slow down performance, I just don't think it should nor do I want the extra wear on the drive. This occurs on 1 out of 5 to 10 boot ups.
Ideas?
Thanks,
jdr37

 

A lot of ideas:

1. Run chkdsk on the drive.
2. Download & run drive manufacturers utility to check your drive.
3. Update your antivirus & scan.
4. Turn off file indexing.
5. Turn off unnecessary startups.
6. Defragment hard disk.

 

If it doesn't run "hard" every startup, I expect it is the antivirus/antimalware. If you startup after say, 24 hours and there is little activity, but if you startup after several days and there is a lot of activity, that would reinforce my guess that it is the antimalware running scans. (For some reason they think they have missed something )

Do you only run one antimalware (one antivirus, one antispyware, etc)? Running more than one will "fight" over scanning and extend or disrupt it.

If you do a full antimalware scan manually occasionally, that seems to satisfy the scanner/s for a while. Look in the setting for the antimalware scanner/s, see if you can set them to a lower activity rate if you are not paranoid or expectant of malware intrusion.

You might want to go to Task Manager and see if you can identify what program might be accessing the drive.

Matt

 

YThanks for the responses. I'll try to address several of the issues mentioned.
I run ONLY McAfee AntiVirus. It auto updates daily, the only other function enabled is "On-Access Scanner ".
I run defrag and checkdisc regularly -- it does not affect the situation.
HP auto runs system diagnostics on scheduled basis -- has never found a problem.
As a general rule, I shut the system down when every night and turn it on when in the AM.
With NO programs open task manager indicate 43% of memory (I have 3GB) and 5% to 8% of CPU being used and 80 "Services" running.
I do not know how to "turn off file indexing" or what startups are not necessary.

Thanks for the help.
jdr37

 

In Task Manager, under the Processes tab, you can click on the column heading CPU to list the usage from top to bottom. Make a note of what program or programs are using the most. You might be able to identify it that way.

Go to Start (orb) and type msconfig in the search bar and open msconfig.exe. Under the Startup tab are the programs loading at startup. If you can't identify it by the information, put the name of the program into a websearch, that should tell you it's origin. (Check Reliability and Performance as suggested.)

Look up "indexing" in Help and Support. Vista uses Indexing for searches, so if you turn off indexing locations, you will need to search locations yourself in Computer.

43% physical memory sounds about right, Vista fills/maintains around that level. 8% CPU usage at the desktop seems somewhat high. Identify what is using it as I suggested. Obviously, compare the usage when the HDD is running hard and when it has ceased.

Matt

 

I was following mattman's suggestions RE "indexing ", hit a button -- I don't know what -- and problem went away.
jdr37

 

If the problem "stays away" (we hope ). Come back and mark the thread Resolved.

Thanks for letting us know.