Why is the HardDrive running non stop in Vista64 at begining ?

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Zorachus

[H]F Junkie
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When I turn on my system, once it gets into Vista64-Ultimate the harddrive runs non stop for like five minutes, and I have a pretty fast computer, surpised it is runnings the disc so hard and fast......Same thing on my Brother's I just built, first get on and it runs for a long time......Anyway to change a setting ?

And then other times just surfing the web all quiet and nice, the harddrive goes crazy again, like it is searching for something, and will do this for like 60seconds, then just slow down again ? WTF
 
windows vista has a few features that constantly use your hard drive even when you think its idle. theres nothing wrong with ur system or windows. its only a feature
 
start-run and type services.msc-find windows search engine service in the list-rightclick it and select disable
 
It's perfectly normal operation and a big component of Vista now, why disable it? This is just something people are going to have to get used to if they want to run Vista as it's designed to be run. Start disabling components and aspects of it, might as well keep running XP, geez...
 
Strange but true fact. I've had my copy since retail launch. Most of my programs usage has now set in nicely. Where as when multi-tasking Adobe products, Macromedia products and Microsoft products --all for web development-- programs are snapper, quicker to load and use less RAM. I also have an installation of FEAR running on this machine to play around with while Nvidia gets it's stuff together. I actually noticed I was running at 63% RAM usage of my 2gigs this week, on almost max settings @ 1680x1050. Of course, my habits on my pc are pretty much like clockwork, but it's interesting to see "SuperFetch" work so well so soon.
 
@bbz_Ghost, because some of us like nice and quiet machines and not computers that think they are revving up for a few laps around Daytona. I'll file it under just another Vista annoyance.
 
I have to admit that after one week of Vista64-Ultimate it runs very smooth and nice, at first it was tough to get it up and running stable, but after a bios flash, newest driver's, and a week of use I love Vista alot
 
Gatticus said:
@bbz_Ghost, because some of us like nice and quiet machines and not computers that think they are revving up for a few laps around Daytona. I'll file it under just another Vista annoyance.
Click to expand...

Why is it an annoyance, when it subsides after a few days or so? I have three Vista boxes up and running, and none took more than a few days to a week to settle down. It's the indexing service, which only enhances the snappiness of Vista, that so many are thrilled about.
 
I turned off indexing already and it is still scanning my HDD's on bootup. I don't use Vista much so a week to settle down for you will be a month for me. It's more than indexing causing it and I will probably turn off that search service next. I don't need fast searching of my hdd's. It's my PC and I will run it how I like - dammit!
 
I honestly had forgotten about that specific element of Vista--and it was forced back into my head after I installed Ultimate (a preview copy I got from a local MS conference the other day, build 5840) on my PC. It doesn't seem to hurt performance at all, as opposed to XP/x64 (my primary OS), but it is plenty distracting...
 
As has been discussed in the past, if you're that concerned with having a quiet box you'd probably already know how to make it quiet on several fronts:

- better case
- quieter fans
- larger HSF that runs at slower RPMs (Zalman, etc)
- grommet or rubber-band mounted hard drives

As also was discovered in the past, if you can hear your hard drives in operation, then something is either:

- up and needs to be addressed (see above)
- your hearing is fuckin' sensitive

I've worked in customer's homes that do video editing in the extremes and some of them splurged and have SCSI setups with 15K rpm drives - and when I'm done with 'em they can't hear jack squat. In fact the only time they hear any noise emanating from their cases is when they put in a CD/DVD and it spins up in the drive, and that's it.

So, if you consider it an annoyance, why not do something about it instead of making a post like the one you did earlier and make us add something to our own annoyances file? :)

Noise is preventable 99% of the time. If you don't like it in your hardware, do something about it...
 
The only way I can tell my harddrive is in use is if I look at the LED indicator on the front of the case. It's nice and quiet, so it's not going to bother me when I eventually move to Vista.
 
Vista is on a Samsung HDD and I have an Antec case with rubber grommets on the HDD's and 120mm fans with volt mods on them so they run at a lower RPM. Been there, done that. Next!

I read that Vista auto-defrags in the background so that is probably what is causing all the HDD accessing. Have to find out how to turn that annoyance off next. HDD's don't need to be continually defragged, even if Microsoft thinks they do.
 
bbz_Ghost said:
As has been discussed in the past, if you're that concerned with having a quiet box you'd probably already know how to make it quiet on several fronts:

- better case
- quieter fans
- larger HSF that runs at slower RPMs (Zalman, etc)
- grommet or rubber-band mounted hard drives
Click to expand...
Which of these is going to help a hard drive running out of control indexing when I'm trying to play a hard drive-intensive game, and the game slows down? Which cooling component helps with that?
 
SuperSubZero said:
Which of these is going to help a hard drive running out of control indexing when I'm trying to play a hard drive-intensive game, and the game slows down? Which cooling component helps with that?
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm just gonna say it: that's the most ignorant thing I've seen here in a week or two. If you and other people would just take some time to learn more about Vista and how it works - most notably the low-priority I/O stuff - this kind of questioning simply wouldn't exist. But then again...

To quote:

"Low-priority I/O

Memory is not the only resource needed to help ensure responsiveness. One of the benefits of Windows is that multiple programs can run simultaneously. However, if multiple applications are simultaneously trying to use the same system resource—such as the hard disk drive—performance can suffer.

Windows Vista introduces the concept of low-priority I/O, which enables background processes to run with lower-priority access to the hard disk drive than other programs. If an application is written to use low-priority I/O, it can run at the same time as one of your high-priority programs, such as Microsoft Office Outlook, without slowing down the high-priority program. In Windows Vista, a number of services use low-priority I/O, including search indexing, automatic disk defragmentation, and the daily system scan in Windows Defender.

Taken from:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/performance.mspx

But of course, now all I can do is wait for someone to jump on it and bitch about it being "Microsoft marketing hype and propaganda" instead of the way things are done now.

Good lord...
 
My Ubuntu install does the same thing on startup. It's dreadfully annoying. I just leave my computer on all the time so I don't have to hear it.
 
My vista 64 seems to get better as time goes on, outa nowhere after 3 weeks or so it just started running much better
 
Low priority still means it is using some cpu resources. When I run games I like to see nothing using any resources. If Vista doesn't use much resources when I am running a game then why did Microsoft put in some sort of one click control in the Ultimate version that turns all the crap off for when running games? Sure would be nice to have a feature like that in regular Vista and not just the Ultimate version. I don't care about Vista using any resources for Indexing and defragging during normal operation but if it is going to negatively affect my games in any way then I don't want those features. Many games require max resources of the computer so the best OS for me is one that is light and efficient. Sort of like Dos. :)
 
Gatticus said:
Many games require max resources of the computer so .....
Click to expand...

What a complete load of bullshit!

Modern 3D video games might demand powerful systems to enable them to be run at high screen resolutions and levels of detail, but if a game is using all of your available physical resources then that simply indicates that you're not using a powerful enough system for the work you're asking of it.
 
Software will generally run as fast as possible. Ideally this means using 100% of the cpu time.

A system whose resources are used fully (or close to) when under load is optimally configured. If there are available resources, then you are not running the software as fast as you could be.
 
bbz_Ghost said:
Ok, I'm just gonna say it: that's the most ignorant thing I've seen here in a week or two. If you and other people would just take some time to learn more about Vista and how it works - most notably the low-priority I/O stuff - this kind of questioning simply wouldn't exist. But then again...
Click to expand...
They said similar things about SpeedStep. "Only slows down when you don't need the power".. Of course the very first laptop I got with SpeedStep, and the very first game I tried to play with SpeedStep running (Unreal Tournament) proved to be utterly incompatible. UT apparently didn't "register" as needing max CPU all the time, so the processor would constantly jump in and out of SpeedStep mode, causing the game to be jumpy and laggy. Disable SpeedStep, problem solved. When the VERY FIRST APP I try to use under SpeedStep failed, that was an indicator to me. I have set the power settings in XP to "always on" on every PC I've ever owned since then, so I don't have to deal with that nonsense. If I want it, I'll turn it on. I know where it is. I don't need MS holding my hand and doing it for me.

I don't like someone in an office somewhere else trying to determine what *I* consider to be low-priority or not with some ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS CAN'T POSSIBLE GO WRONG code, since we all know Vista is absolutely perfect. Not. Algorithms fail. When I do a search, I don't mind waiting. When I'm not doing a search, I mind waiting because the system thinks I might want to do a search. I can count the number of times I've done a "Start->Search->For files or folders" in the last year on one hand. Just because every option in Vista strokes your bulge, doesn't mean it strokes mine.

Every day I see more frustrated Vista users, and every day I look at that Vista disc and I find it easier to put off installing it another day.
 
Depends upon what you consider ;'resources' to mean. The comment responded to mentioned resources of the 'computer' rather than resources of the 'operating system'.

Alters the meaning somewhat, that does. Especially when you consider that the background tasks which generate the 'drive thrashing' step aside when the machine is used to run games. There isn't any performance detriment involved.
 
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