How do i get rid of harddisk activity when idle. (XP)

[MindBuster]

K, i just installed a fanbus to get rid of noise from my pc when just doing "idle" work like websurfing, works fine and my pc is hardly audible....

...except that the harddrives makes some "whirring" noises once in a while, like they are doing something, dunno if it's the pagefile or whatever.

I have turned off all indexing services, choosing every partition in explorer, then properties and there turn off indexing service, also in administrative tools i have turned off indexing.

What else could cause my pc to access the harddrives and make funny noises ?
If it's the pagefile how do i turn that off, not the pagefile itself ofcourse but stop it accessing when i dont want it too ?

Any other things that could be the cause ?

[Ranma_Sao]

That is XP optomizing the disk for faster start times. (Defrag if you will)

I'm sure you can turn it off, but it really is for your benefit to leave it on.

[MindBuster]

Naah, ill rather defrag once in a while manually, where do i turn it off ?

[stevewm]

Its not just defragging...

Its XP doing optomizations for its fast boot system.

Is does things such as rearranging some system files and drivers so they load quicker. In some cases it will purposely fragment files to achieve this. It shouldn't take but a minute or 2.

If it takes longer than this more than likely its the Indexing Service causing the disk activity, not fast boot... To disable the indexing service open Control Panels, Adminitrative Tools, Services. Find Indexing Service in the list, double-click on it, click the STOP button and set the Startup Type to Disabled. Click Apply.

[MindBuster]

If it takes longer than this more than likely its the Indexing Service causing the disk activity, not fast boot... To disable the indexing service open Control Panels, Adminitrative Tools, Services. Find Indexing Service in the list, double-click on it, click the STOP button and set the Startup Type to Disabled. Click Apply.

Ive already done that as mentioned in first post.

Now i have also turned off the optimization via registry (local machine/software/microsoft/dfrg/ and set it to N for no).

But my harddisks keeps messing around :(

What else could it be ?

[SJConsultant]

Ive already done that as mentioned in first post.

Now i have also turned off the optimization via registry (local machine/software/microsoft/dfrg/ and set it to N for no).

But my harddisks keeps messing around :(

What else could it be ?

Sysinternals Filemon (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml) will show you what files are being accessed in real time.

[MindBuster]

Sysinternals Filemon (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml) will show you what files are being accessed in real time.

Thanks, very usefull program, i installed it and monitored it to see what file/files was being accessed when the annoying sound started, well, NO files was accessed :confused:

So i kept searching the web to find out what is was, and found out that it's my Seagate drives doing it....

"the noise is "STIR" (Seek to increase Reliability), a technology built into the drive controller that randomly seeks when the drive is idle in order to keep the drive head from sitting in one place too long (which creates heat that can potentially harm the integrity of the media)."

...and thats quite an annoying sound :(

I had one 120gb seagate and had it for months, then purchased another to go RAID, but now that i have decreased the noise from my fans, the noise from that STIR seagate function (which cant be turned off) is too annoying, im getting some other drives, or maybe take out a 200gb maxtor from my fileserver and use that instead for my main rig. Just gonna take alot of backup :(

Or maybe getting a small raptor, i dont have that much on my main rig, im using my fileserver for storage anyway.

This sux :(


/edit
Some ppl suggest having a program running that writes a log to the disks occasionally, i could use that until i get another drive, now i just have to find a program that could do that temporarely, just have to be one that doesnt use too many resources, and wont cause lag when working/gaming on the pc.

Anyone have a suggestion for that ?

[arkamw]

I had a Seagate SCSI that did that ALL the time. Still, I'll take a little extra noise for some long term drive protection... but that's just me.

Have you thought about getting some drive enclosures? I have heard that those cut down on the noise, but can't offer any personal experience. Just another thought.

Cheers.

[dave_graham]

good luck finding a quieter drive than the seagates...

:rolleyes:

cheers,

dave

[MindBuster]

good luck finding a quieter drive than the seagates...

:rolleyes:

cheers,

dave

Were talking IDLE sound level here, not when working, that STIR sound is VERY annoying when having a quiet case :o