Constant HDD activity

By Kenji
in Hardware Hangout

 Share

Recommended Posts

Mentor

Kenji

Posted
Posted

As of recently, one of my HDDS has been constantly active. It does not effect the performance of my PC but the noise drives me up the wall. Both my HDDs are fully defragged and I cant seem to find what is making it do this. HDD tune reports that my hdds are healthy (one has a warning due to a broken cable a while back but its fine now). Ran a full system scan and nothing shows up.

I dont know what to do and I dont really want to format my system, that would be a last resort as I dont have the time to do that.

Anyone got any ideas?

I have a ST3320820AS and ST380011A. I am not sure what one is making noise.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1092145-constant-hdd-activity/
Share on other sites
Grand Master

temple_treefrog

Posted
Posted

Monitor the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drives.

In the past several years I owned two hard drives which failed. The same set of circumstances occurred with each drive, both had a high amount of 'activity noise' even though the system was idle. After two-three weeks of hard drive issues, the S.M.A.R.T./PFA detected a potential failure and recommended to replace the drives.

You might wish to consider isolating each drive you own, to find out where the noise is coming from. If I were you, I'd then backup any essential data.

Good luck! :)

  • ndoggfromhell
  • Like 1
Grand Master

temple_treefrog

Posted
Posted

CPU usage is around 0-2% when it happens. Currently the thrashing has stopped so I cant do anything else. Indexing is off and as i said, my drives are healthy.

The previous hard drives I mentioned were healthy too. Always zero to little fragmentation, well maintained OS etc. Ironically they were both Seagate as well (ST31000528AS).

  • 1 year later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Game I've been Working On

      By +pmrd · Posted

      I made a new Cinematic/Trailer for the game, this will be the intro, still a work in progress!  I also updated the Steam page with a ton of new screenshots! 👀 https://store.steampowered.com/app/3925340/Incoherence_Dark_Rooms/  
    • Microsoft Opens Fairwater: Wisconsin AI Campus Runs as One Supercomputer via 800G Ethernet

      By +TRS-80 · Posted

      Closed-loop cooling and a custom 800G network protocol let the $7.3B campus run as one AI training machine. Microsoft confirmed June 23, 2026, that its Fairwater campus in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, is fully operational — and the engineering behind it makes the facility something fundamentally different from every data center that came before it. Where conventional cloud infrastructure racks up general-purpose servers and parcels out workloads to each one independently, Fairwater links hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GB200 Blackwell GPUs into a single, coherent cluster using a two-story building design, 800-gigabit-per-second Ethernet fabric, and a proprietary networking protocol co-developed with OpenAI and NVIDIA. The result, according to Microsoft, is the closest thing to a purpose-built AI supercomputer that any company has ever placed in commercial operation. https://www.techtimes.com/articles/319205/20260627/microsoft-opens-fairwater-wisconsin-ai-campus-runs-one-supercomputer-via-800g-ethernet.htm  
    • The official Funny Pictures thread

      By +Edouard · Posted

    • Why it's almost impossible to produce a smartphone in the United States

      By +TRS-80 · Posted

      Last comment on this article Decades of serving as a global manufacturing hub have allowed China to build a massive talent pool in the production sector that is almost unmatched worldwide. Decades of using "forced labor" have allowed China................. UN experts alarmed by reports of forced labour of Uyghur, Tibetan and other minorities across China https://www.ohchr.org/en/press...ibetan-and-other-minorities
    • Why it's almost impossible to produce a smartphone in the United States

      By morpheus6969 · Posted

      BIG Meat Hands

  • Recent Achievements

    • Conversation Starter
      jessse3334 earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • Reacting Well
      JuvenileDelinquent earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • One Month Later
      Excellence2025 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Excellence2025 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      505
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      208
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      151
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      73
    5. 5
      macoman
      62
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!