11 replies to this topic

[Kenji]

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.

[BigDavy]

Have you checked to see if there's any processes running with a high CPU usage (CTRL-ALT-DEL, then 'Start Task Manager' and click on 'Processes' tab) that may be the cause of the thrashing HDD?

[jnelsoninjax]

Indexing service? That would seem to use the HDD allot...

[Detection]

Windows Search / Indexing service ?

I usually turn it off for this reason

EDIT - Ninja'd

[Hum]

Is a back-up running ? A virus scan ?

I lowered activity by adding more RAM.

[kizzaaa]

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!

[Kenji]

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.

[kizzaaa]

Kenji, on 18 July 2012 - 15:11, said:

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).

[Hum]

^ Bum-dee-dum-dummmmm

[Detection]

Kenji, on 18 July 2012 - 15:11, said:

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.

Check here when it happens again

[+Jdawg683]

1. how much RAM is there?

2. are there any programs installed that might be causing it?

3. how do you have the page file set in windows? is it set to "system managed" or something custom?

[Kenji]

After much investigation, Google Play Music manager is the cause.