Why so much hard disk activity?

We have 2 identical Dell XPS desktop PCs, both with duo 2.66
processors, 240 GB hard drives, and running Vista Home Premium SP1.
For a few years now we've been using a Linksys cable modem which has 4
Ethernet outlets (numbered 1-4) and paired antennas for Wireless-G. My
PC was on Ethernet output 1 and my wife's PC was on a Wireless-G
adapter. Recently my ISP doubled its speed to 16,000 kbps, but this
seemed to have very little effect on my wife's Wireless speed. Rather
than hassle with the wireless system, I uninstalled the Wireless-G
adapter and ran a new Ethernet cable from output 2 to my wife's PC.
This worked great and my wife now is getting speeds matching mine.

The weird thing is that when both PCs are turned on and connected to
the Internet, my PC (Ethernet 1 output) seems to be continually
accessing the hard drive. While this is happening, the output 1 and
output 2 LED's on the modem are madly flickering, as is the disk
access light on the PC. No unusual hard disk activity is going on
with the wife's PC. If I shut down either PC, this excessive hard
disk activity doesn't take place and the output light (1 or 2) is
steady. I've even tried leaving both systems totally inactive for
many hours, other than an automatic check for mail every 5 minutes.
Every 1/2 hour or so I'd look in and see that the hard drive activity
is still going on and the output lights are flickering. Whatever is
going on is happening whether the PCs are active or idle. This has
been going on for 3 days now, 16 hours a day, ever since I added the
new Ethernet line!

Can anyone tell me why there's so much hard disk activity? If it's a
problem, how do I fix it?

Thanks, Bill

I would disable index services. Run a Trendmicro free virus scan. Try
Avast Pro trial anti-virus software to find any nasty things.

I dropped wireless because it was too flaky and could not maintain
speed. I installed a CAT 6 backbone on a Dlink DGL-4300 1 Gbps router
with DGS-2205 switches on each end of the CAT 6 plenum grade backbone
cable. Each workstation is 1 Gbps CAT 6 connections. I enabled Jumbo
frames=9000 and 9014 on my workstations. I can copy files between them
at 66 MB/s.


--
SCSIraidGURU

Michael A. McKenney
'www.SCSIraidGURU.com' (http://www.SCSIraidGURU.com)

Supermicro X7DWA-N server board
pair of Intel E5430 quad core 2.66 GHz Xeons
16GB DDR667
SAS RAID
eVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB video card

I doubt it has anything to do with being wired or wireless.
If one machine is accessing the network or internet and the other isn't, it
must be a program or setting on that machine.
If you had shares on the other machine, it may be looking for them.
Many possibilities and so little info.

--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!
CarGodZeroOne@hotmail.com
Change Alpha to Numeric to reply
"Bill" <NoSpam@NoSpam.Com> wrote in message
news:8pvi44dbpqd2f65eg2hvd96r9o1su4dpud@4ax.com...
> We have 2 identical Dell XPS desktop PCs, both with duo 2.66
> processors, 240 GB hard drives, and running Vista Home Premium SP1.
> For a few years now we've been using a Linksys cable modem which has 4
> Ethernet outlets (numbered 1-4) and paired antennas for Wireless-G. My
> PC was on Ethernet output 1 and my wife's PC was on a Wireless-G
> adapter. Recently my ISP doubled its speed to 16,000 kbps, but this
> seemed to have very little effect on my wife's Wireless speed. Rather
> than hassle with the wireless system, I uninstalled the Wireless-G
> adapter and ran a new Ethernet cable from output 2 to my wife's PC.
> This worked great and my wife now is getting speeds matching mine.
>
> The weird thing is that when both PCs are turned on and connected to
> the Internet, my PC (Ethernet 1 output) seems to be continually
> accessing the hard drive. While this is happening, the output 1 and
> output 2 LED's on the modem are madly flickering, as is the disk
> access light on the PC. No unusual hard disk activity is going on
> with the wife's PC. If I shut down either PC, this excessive hard
> disk activity doesn't take place and the output light (1 or 2) is
> steady. I've even tried leaving both systems totally inactive for
> many hours, other than an automatic check for mail every 5 minutes.
> Every 1/2 hour or so I'd look in and see that the hard drive activity
> is still going on and the output lights are flickering. Whatever is
> going on is happening whether the PCs are active or idle. This has
> been going on for 3 days now, 16 hours a day, ever since I added the
> new Ethernet line!
>
> Can anyone tell me why there's so much hard disk activity? If it's a
> problem, how do I fix it?
>
> Thanks, Bill

Hi Bill

Many useful tools here may help..
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...s/default.aspx

I would possibly start with tcpview
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...2acd2c271.aspx



"Bill" <NoSpam@NoSpam.Com> wrote in message
news:8pvi44dbpqd2f65eg2hvd96r9o1su4dpud@4ax.com...
> We have 2 identical Dell XPS desktop PCs, both with duo 2.66
> processors, 240 GB hard drives, and running Vista Home Premium SP1.
> For a few years now we've been using a Linksys cable modem which has 4
> Ethernet outlets (numbered 1-4) and paired antennas for Wireless-G. My
> PC was on Ethernet output 1 and my wife's PC was on a Wireless-G
> adapter. Recently my ISP doubled its speed to 16,000 kbps, but this
> seemed to have very little effect on my wife's Wireless speed. Rather
> than hassle with the wireless system, I uninstalled the Wireless-G
> adapter and ran a new Ethernet cable from output 2 to my wife's PC.
> This worked great and my wife now is getting speeds matching mine.
>
> The weird thing is that when both PCs are turned on and connected to
> the Internet, my PC (Ethernet 1 output) seems to be continually
> accessing the hard drive. While this is happening, the output 1 and
> output 2 LED's on the modem are madly flickering, as is the disk
> access light on the PC. No unusual hard disk activity is going on
> with the wife's PC. If I shut down either PC, this excessive hard
> disk activity doesn't take place and the output light (1 or 2) is
> steady. I've even tried leaving both systems totally inactive for
> many hours, other than an automatic check for mail every 5 minutes.
> Every 1/2 hour or so I'd look in and see that the hard drive activity
> is still going on and the output lights are flickering. Whatever is
> going on is happening whether the PCs are active or idle. This has
> been going on for 3 days now, 16 hours a day, ever since I added the
> new Ethernet line!
>
> Can anyone tell me why there's so much hard disk activity? If it's a
> problem, how do I fix it?
>
> Thanks, Bill

Two possibilities that I can think of.. I'm certainly not an expert
but you might look into; 1. Microsoft update being active when this
is happening. 2. The possibility of a Root kit that is causing the
problem.

To check on the possibility of a Root kit go to:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897445.aspx





"Teneo" <not@here.com> wrote in message
news:uJodHvAyIHA.1036@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hi Bill
>
> Many useful tools here may help..
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...s/default.aspx
>
> I would possibly start with tcpview
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...2acd2c271.aspx
>
>
>
> "Bill" <NoSpam@NoSpam.Com> wrote in message
> news:8pvi44dbpqd2f65eg2hvd96r9o1su4dpud@4ax.com...
>> We have 2 identical Dell XPS desktop PCs, both with duo 2.66
>> processors, 240 GB hard drives, and running Vista Home Premium SP1.
>> For a few years now we've been using a Linksys cable modem which has 4
>> Ethernet outlets (numbered 1-4) and paired antennas for Wireless-G. My
>> PC was on Ethernet output 1 and my wife's PC was on a Wireless-G
>> adapter. Recently my ISP doubled its speed to 16,000 kbps, but this
>> seemed to have very little effect on my wife's Wireless speed. Rather
>> than hassle with the wireless system, I uninstalled the Wireless-G
>> adapter and ran a new Ethernet cable from output 2 to my wife's PC.
>> This worked great and my wife now is getting speeds matching mine.
>>
>> The weird thing is that when both PCs are turned on and connected to
>> the Internet, my PC (Ethernet 1 output) seems to be continually
>> accessing the hard drive. While this is happening, the output 1 and
>> output 2 LED's on the modem are madly flickering, as is the disk
>> access light on the PC. No unusual hard disk activity is going on
>> with the wife's PC. If I shut down either PC, this excessive hard
>> disk activity doesn't take place and the output light (1 or 2) is
>> steady. I've even tried leaving both systems totally inactive for
>> many hours, other than an automatic check for mail every 5 minutes.
>> Every 1/2 hour or so I'd look in and see that the hard drive activity
>> is still going on and the output lights are flickering. Whatever is
>> going on is happening whether the PCs are active or idle. This has
>> been going on for 3 days now, 16 hours a day, ever since I added the
>> new Ethernet line!
>>
>> Can anyone tell me why there's so much hard disk activity? If it's a
>> problem, how do I fix it?
>>
>> Thanks, Bill
>
>

Short answer>>> vista was made by monkeys



"Bill" <NoSpam@NoSpam.Com> wrote in message
news:8pvi44dbpqd2f65eg2hvd96r9o1su4dpud@4ax.com...
> We have 2 identical Dell XPS desktop PCs, both with duo 2.66
> processors, 240 GB hard drives, and running Vista Home Premium SP1.
> For a few years now we've been using a Linksys cable modem which has 4
> Ethernet outlets (numbered 1-4) and paired antennas for Wireless-G. My
> PC was on Ethernet output 1 and my wife's PC was on a Wireless-G
> adapter. Recently my ISP doubled its speed to 16,000 kbps, but this
> seemed to have very little effect on my wife's Wireless speed. Rather
> than hassle with the wireless system, I uninstalled the Wireless-G
> adapter and ran a new Ethernet cable from output 2 to my wife's PC.
> This worked great and my wife now is getting speeds matching mine.
>
> The weird thing is that when both PCs are turned on and connected to
> the Internet, my PC (Ethernet 1 output) seems to be continually
> accessing the hard drive. While this is happening, the output 1 and
> output 2 LED's on the modem are madly flickering, as is the disk
> access light on the PC. No unusual hard disk activity is going on
> with the wife's PC. If I shut down either PC, this excessive hard
> disk activity doesn't take place and the output light (1 or 2) is
> steady. I've even tried leaving both systems totally inactive for
> many hours, other than an automatic check for mail every 5 minutes.
> Every 1/2 hour or so I'd look in and see that the hard drive activity
> is still going on and the output lights are flickering. Whatever is
> going on is happening whether the PCs are active or idle. This has
> been going on for 3 days now, 16 hours a day, ever since I added the
> new Ethernet line!
>
> Can anyone tell me why there's so much hard disk activity? If it's a
> problem, how do I fix it?
>
> Thanks, Bill

On Fri, 6 Jun 2008 14:02:34 -0500, SCSIraidGURU
<guest@unknown-email.com> wrote:

>I would disable index services.

I paused the index services . . . no change.

> Run a Trendmicro free virus scan.

What a turkey . . . first it told me that I didn't have Java, which
was not true. I had 6.5, so I updated it to 6.6 to get past this
error. Then the program told me that it could not download some
important files, without telling me what these files were or how to
get around the error, so I gave up on Trendmicro.

>Try Avast Pro trial anti-virus software to find any nasty things.

That worked fine, but no problems were found after scanning 325,000
files!

Avast Pro seemed like a nice program, but since I got a free 3-year
subscription to McAfee's security center with the purchase of my PC, I
uninstalled Avast.

To make a long story short, I spend hours disabling and re-enabling
various services - then I finally found the culprit! It's something
called "McAfee Network Agent" . . . so I guess my free subscriptin to
McAfee is worth what I paid! No real problem, I've found a couple
of other minor bugs in McAfee's software and notified their tech
support. In both cases they corrected the problem and sent me a thank
you E-mail. So I'll report this problem and run with the Network
Agent disabled, hoping that I don't get bitten on the rear end!

Thanks for the help, Bill

"Clear Windows" <carlferedeck@wizzmail.com> wrote in message
news:4849a045@newsgate.x-privat.org...
> Short answer>>> vista was made by monkeys
>
>
>
> "Bill" <NoSpam@NoSpam.Com> wrote in message
> news:8pvi44dbpqd2f65eg2hvd96r9o1su4dpud@4ax.com...
>> We have 2 identical Dell XPS desktop PCs, both with duo 2.66
>> processors, 240 GB hard drives, and running Vista Home Premium SP1.
>> For a few years now we've been using a Linksys cable modem which has 4
>> Ethernet outlets (numbered 1-4) and paired antennas for Wireless-G. My
>> PC was on Ethernet output 1 and my wife's PC was on a Wireless-G
>> adapter. Recently my ISP doubled its speed to 16,000 kbps, but this
>> seemed to have very little effect on my wife's Wireless speed. Rather
>> than hassle with the wireless system, I uninstalled the Wireless-G
>> adapter and ran a new Ethernet cable from output 2 to my wife's PC.
>> This worked great and my wife now is getting speeds matching mine.
>>
>> The weird thing is that when both PCs are turned on and connected to
>> the Internet, my PC (Ethernet 1 output) seems to be continually
>> accessing the hard drive. While this is happening, the output 1 and
>> output 2 LED's on the modem are madly flickering, as is the disk
>> access light on the PC. No unusual hard disk activity is going on
>> with the wife's PC. If I shut down either PC, this excessive hard
>> disk activity doesn't take place and the output light (1 or 2) is
>> steady. I've even tried leaving both systems totally inactive for
>> many hours, other than an automatic check for mail every 5 minutes.
>> Every 1/2 hour or so I'd look in and see that the hard drive activity
>> is still going on and the output lights are flickering. Whatever is
>> going on is happening whether the PCs are active or idle. This has
>> been going on for 3 days now, 16 hours a day, ever since I added the
>> new Ethernet line!
>>
>> Can anyone tell me why there's so much hard disk activity? If it's a
>> problem, how do I fix it?
>>
>> Thanks, Bill
>

To find out what file is being written to, go to
Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Reliability and Performance Monitor

Expand the Disk tab. Click on the Write column heading of the revealed
report.
That will sort write disk activity from largest to smallest. Whatever shows
up
on top is the likely culprit. Tells us what that is.

Dan Mercer

"Bill" <NoSpam@NoSpam.Com> wrote in message
news:8pvi44dbpqd2f65eg2hvd96r9o1su4dpud@4ax.com...
> We have 2 identical Dell XPS desktop PCs, both with duo 2.66
> processors, 240 GB hard drives, and running Vista Home Premium SP1.
> For a few years now we've been using a Linksys cable modem which has 4
> Ethernet outlets (numbered 1-4) and paired antennas for Wireless-G. My
> PC was on Ethernet output 1 and my wife's PC was on a Wireless-G
> adapter. Recently my ISP doubled its speed to 16,000 kbps, but this
> seemed to have very little effect on my wife's Wireless speed. Rather
> than hassle with the wireless system, I uninstalled the Wireless-G
> adapter and ran a new Ethernet cable from output 2 to my wife's PC.
> This worked great and my wife now is getting speeds matching mine.
>
> The weird thing is that when both PCs are turned on and connected to
> the Internet, my PC (Ethernet 1 output) seems to be continually
> accessing the hard drive. While this is happening, the output 1 and
> output 2 LED's on the modem are madly flickering, as is the disk
> access light on the PC. No unusual hard disk activity is going on
> with the wife's PC. If I shut down either PC, this excessive hard
> disk activity doesn't take place and the output light (1 or 2) is
> steady. I've even tried leaving both systems totally inactive for
> many hours, other than an automatic check for mail every 5 minutes.
> Every 1/2 hour or so I'd look in and see that the hard drive activity
> is still going on and the output lights are flickering. Whatever is
> going on is happening whether the PCs are active or idle. This has
> been going on for 3 days now, 16 hours a day, ever since I added the
> new Ethernet line!
>
> Can anyone tell me why there's so much hard disk activity? If it's a
> problem, how do I fix it?


It's possible that your wife's computer is using your computer as a gateway.
But is Internet Connection Sharing is being used, the internet connection
should be lost when your computer is shut down. Make sure the TCP/IP
settings in Connection Properties are set to automatic (if you are using
DHCP in you router).

ss.

The suggestions you gave were pretty good and short. The explanation of your
blazing systems is less important to us.
Thanks for sharing.
.....just kidding!

"The farce be with you"


"SCSIraidGURU" wrote:

>
> I would disable index services. Run a Trendmicro free virus scan. Try
> Avast Pro trial anti-virus software to find any nasty things.
>
> I dropped wireless because it was too flaky and could not maintain
> speed. I installed a CAT 6 backbone on a Dlink DGL-4300 1 Gbps router
> with DGS-2205 switches on each end of the CAT 6 plenum grade backbone
> cable. Each workstation is 1 Gbps CAT 6 connections. I enabled Jumbo
> frames=9000 and 9014 on my workstations. I can copy files between them
> at 66 MB/s.
>
>
> --
> SCSIraidGURU
>
> Michael A. McKenney
> 'www.SCSIraidGURU.com' (http://www.SCSIraidGURU.com)
>
> Supermicro X7DWA-N server board
> pair of Intel E5430 quad core 2.66 GHz Xeons
> 16GB DDR667
> SAS RAID
> eVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB video card
>