Vista excessive disk writing problem is back :(

U

Ursa

New Member
Hi!

I thought I managed to get rid of the annoying "excessive disk writing" problem by turning off superfetch and readyboost in services.msc.

However now it seems like it is back. I've tried turning off ALL my services (background apps), but it's still there. IMMENSELY annoying.

When I look at my resource monitor (access it via the task manager), it looks like there is some sort of Vista service still running that is causing all this trouble. See the applied image for resource monitor screen capture.

vistabug1.jpg


sorry for the large image. I'll scale it better the next time.

Anyway: thanks for any input!! :)
 

My Computer

System One

yea it sounds like defrag too, but I've turned off scheduled defragmentation... shouldn't be that, but who knows.

in the end I just re-enabled superfetch, so that every time my hard drive is working, at least it feels like it's doing something constructive (kinda depressing, hehe :))
 

My Computer

System One

Ursa said:
yea it sounds like defrag too, but I've turned off scheduled defragmentation... shouldn't be that, but who knows.

in the end I just re-enabled superfetch, so that every time my hard drive is working, at least it feels like it's doing something constructive (kinda depressing, hehe :))
Click to expand...


Hi Ursa. The HD running for no reason drives me nuts too!! Keep in
mind I'm running Vista Home Premium 32 bit so your mileage may vary, but I think after
only 14 months I've finally settled my HD down!!

Here's as many areas as I can remember that need to be addressed:

Windows Media Player will want to catalog your media files, so it will
scan your HD.

If you have a Lan the system will try to make local copies of files so
you can work on them while off line.

Again with the network, it will keep checking to see what files are
out there and if they changed.

ReadyBoost I have disabled.

Superfetch I used the tutorial here to set it to only cache system
boot files.

But here is the really sneaky one that fooled me!! I kept looking in
WinPatrol for scheduled tasks because when my PC sat idle the HD would
start running and Process Monitor would show the shell just accessing
files all over the place for no reason. So finally I started messing
around with Scheduled Tasks. In the Menu you have to click
"Show Hidden Tasks". On the left is a tree view of stuff and I see
a Shell entry. Sure enough when I go inside it has "Crawl Start Pages"
and it's set to trigger when the PC is idle!! Bingo!!! I set that to
disabled and that made a big difference.

The other thing is I disabled Windows search to avoid indexing my
files yet again, and I use locate32 freeware to do searches. I run
the indexing manually so that it doesn't kick in while I'm burning
a DVD or whatever.


I have Scheduled Tasks now set to Manual. I can't disable because my
image backup program uses it probably so it can get sufficient privilege
to access system files when making the system snapshot. In any case,
if that "Crawl Start Pages" is there, killing it will remove about 95%
of the annoyance level.

btw there's a tutorial for creating a new scheduled task that
explains how task scheduler settings work, if you want to
go in and check for that Crawl Start Pages thingy. (The link
won't work for some reason if I paste it here so go to the
Tutorials and search on Create Scheduled Task.)
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G 2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
Whoa Miles!!

I actually never thought I'd get such a lengthy reply on something so... narrow. Now I've learned that Vista actually has ANOTHER hub program for running applications (in addition to Process Explorer and Services).

It looks like I had the "crawl start pages" at idle too.

Now it's really quit.

once again: thank you!
 

My Computer

System One

Ursa said:
Whoa Miles!!

I actually never thought I'd get such a lengthy reply on something so... narrow. Now I've learned that Vista actually has ANOTHER hub program for running applications (in addition to Process Explorer and Services).

It looks like I had the "crawl start pages" at idle too.

Now it's really quit.

once again: thank you!
Click to expand...

Glad I could save someone the aggravation. Nothing makes me more paranoid
than a HD flickering away when I know it has no good reason for doing it(esp. when
you have "always on" network connection it makes you think somebody is scanning
your files or something.) :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G 2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System) Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree) 2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
I've got a 5yr. old laptop produced by Xtreme a company that vanished just months after its purchase online buyer beware. Anyway long story short... The thing still ran great with its 64bit Vista Ultimate operating system until recently when it began overheating frequently and beeping annoying no-stop beeps until I'd kick in the additional built-in fans with a function key. That stopped the beep at times temporarily but with all 4 built-in fans running it sounded like a 747 taxiing down the runway and was too loud to enjoy watching videos or music. I too noticed that my blinking to solid hard drive light appeared overactive to say the least, figured that was the cause for overheating and came to this forum for help. I want to thank MilesAhead for the solution to my hyperactive hard drive. (see his entry below). Since shutting down 'Crawl Start Pages' the maddening beeps are gone, my hard drive activity has reduced drastically and the laptop is no longer overheating. Awesome!! Thanks dude.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Xtreme 917V Quad-Core laptop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700@ 2.66GHZ
    Memory
    4 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    dual NVidia GeForce 8800M GTX
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