What Keeps Hogging My Pc's Hard Disk?

[ProDave]

Acer laptop with Windows Vista.

Lately it appears "busy" periodically.

What's actually happening is exactly every 30 seconds, something is hogging the hard disk for exactly 5 seconds.

this repeats every 30 seconds.

So obviously any application that wants disk access has to wait, giving the impression of the PC grinding to a complete standstill every 30 seconds.

I've spent hours on it. ran every diagnostic I can find, no malware, no viruses.

I've tried exploring with task manager, and can't pinpoint what application or process is doing this. Looking at disk activity that shoots up to 100% every 30 seconds, but again, I can't pinpoint one application or process responsible, instead it seems whatever process is accessing the disk at the time is the one that shows the high disk activity.

So I am wondering could this be something the hard disk is doing itself? some internal calibration? perhaps the HDD is not well?

If you listen carefully when this 5 seconds of disk activity happens, it's not the random movement of the head that you normally hear, it's about 8 or so bursts of the head motor stepping, which is what's leading me to think the head is scanning back and forth from end to end a few times perhaps.

Anyone had anything like this before? if so what was the solution?

 

[OnOff]

Or the HDD could be about to go t!ts up. Have you back ups of your critical data?

 

[sprocketflup]

How much disc space is allocated for the 'system restore' memory? if this has been set particularly high, the drive could be full of older versions of itself

 

[Steve3948]

Also you have defragged and disk clean up.

 

[Marvo]

If you think the drive is heading South check the SMART logs for disk I/O or read/write failures. Not sure about Vista but in XP they're at Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management. Then in the left hand menu under Event Viewer>System.

It's more likely to be a background service than a hardware problem but anything is possible. Try disabling drive indexing, this has a nasty habit of using large resources at the most inconvenient time.

Finally try booting into safe mode, that way you could rule out your hardware theory. Oh and full malware and virus scan preferrably from a live disk such as Hirens Boot Disk or similar.

Good Luck   

 

[ProDave]

I've looked at the SMART logs. Some things do look a bit strange, but haven't found a way to capture it yet to paste the data.

One thing I HAVE noticed, is using windoze task manager, is that for the 5 seconds in every 30 that the disk usage jumps up to 100%, the data rate also drops to ZERO

That kind of confirms my suspicion that it's not a process or application hogging the disk, rather than the disk is simply not available for those 5 seconds in every 30.

 

[ProDave]

Attached are screen grab shots of the SMART data for this drive.

I can't find a way to copy the data, and I can't even find a way to enlarge the window to get it all displayed on the screen at one time.

so best I can do is a screen grab of the upper and lower sets of data.

It all looks a bit supicious to me, with many values seeming to have exceeded the "theshold"

And what does the right hand column "warranty" mean?

 

[steptoe]

OK, and it may not be the most popular solution, and I have intentionally not replied before,

can you download and burn a copy of Ubuntu? there is an app within there that you can use to analyse  both your disc and hardware,

you can simply run it 'LIVE' , ie, BOOT your laptop from CD drive and it will run from the CD, a bit slower than normal, but it frees up all your laptop to be checked,

Ubuntu will then check all your system to see if any hardware has an issue, including your HDD, thereby eliminating either a hardware fault, or not.

 

[ProDave]

Do you mean a CD or a DVD?

If it will fit on a CD then I can burn a copy on my desktop PC and try it.  If it's too large for a CD and must be a DVD then the only DVD RW drive is on the laptop itself.  Not impossible but a little more complex.

do you have a link to the easiest place to download it without a lot of bu99ering about?

 

[Marvo]

Hi Dave, I don't know what 'warranties' means but nothing there stands out as being a hard drive problem. Have you checked all the basics before you go any further? Did you run a full virus/malware scan? Have you checked the CPU heat sink for dust blankets and fans operation? If so you're going to need to dig deeper into the system logs. Do you know how to open an elevated command prompt? How computer savvy are you? It might be easier to try one of the built-in Acer reinstall options, the laptop should have a hidden restore partition and there should be an Acer program somewhere that offers an option to reinstall whilst saving you settings etc. Obviously backup everything first, there's lots of ways things can go wrong. 

 

[Marvo]

If you want to try the Ubuntu route then check here. 

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/burn-a-dvd-on-windows

 

[ProDave]

I know what a command prompt is, and was using DOS long before windoze was invented, but I've never heard on an elevated command prompt.

I really don't want to go down the re install route unless it dies.  When we got this PC the instructions were to burn a recovery DVD.  I think I tried 5 times to do that, and all failed on "verifying the data" at which point I gave up the will to continue.  So I don't even know if we have the means to re install.  If it came to that, I would try putting windoze XP on it, a far superior OS than the POS Vista is.

I'm sure I've already said, but I've tried Malware bytes, CCleaner and the AVG Pc tuneup utility. Nothing found anything wrong.  I'm willing to try anything else you care to suggest.

I've not downloaded any monitors to check CPU temperature etc, but I do know the fan turns on and off periodically just as it always has.

 

[steptoe]

Dave, I'll upload a CD version of Ubuntu for you with G-parted on it, thats the bit you want to check your HDD with, I think most of the newer versions are DVD and dont have the HDD thingy as default anymore.

just give me 5 minutes. [or an hour,    ]

 

[Sidewinder]

Is this link any good?

http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/

 

[steptoe]

Is this link any good?

http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/

thats a cracking link SW,

but, if its like the one Ive used in the past its all command line, I was thinking more of a GUI for Dave if he hasnt used Ubuntu before, Im just waiting for my transfer to finish then was going to upload it to the cloud for him,

9.10 I think is IMHO one of the easier ones to use for this sort of thing, and, it fits on a CD .

 

[Sidewinder]

IIRC this was the link I used to "rescue" the damaged HDD on my lappy that got me looking at Ubuntu in the first place!

I've just had another HDD issue with Windoze, but not sure if i was a Win issue or HW, tbh.

So, just wiped it after checking it with Ubuntu & getting the data I needed, doing a low level partition & format, to re-install Windoze, to get access to the 2 disk RAID1 running under the Windoze m/c before I create a better solution.

 

[steptoe]

Do you mean a CD or a DVD?

If it will fit on a CD then I can burn a copy on my desktop PC and try it.  If it's too large for a CD and must be a DVD then the only DVD RW drive is on the laptop itself.  Not impossible but a little more complex.

do you have a link to the easiest place to download it without a lot of bu99ering about?

Dave , here is a copy of Ubuntu that will fit on a CD , its the version I normally use for sorting out dodgy windows machines,

its got a fairly simple version of Gparted on it

http://ubuntuone.com/2HIvTuGxYXHm1pizPa342D

you need to burn it as an image file, it is a .iso filetype,

maybe someone else will be able to tell you the best software for doing that on a windows machine,

simply save it to your desktop, then burn it, Im fairly certain  infrarecorder will burn image files on a windows machine.

 

[Marvo]

Imgburn is the best option for burning to disk on a Windoze pc. This is their page of download mirrors.

 

[Marvo]

I just had a thought,it might be worth making a brand new user account in Vista. Just install the very basic drivers and programs such as a web browser etc. If the problem doesn't carry across into the new user then it narrows the problem down to software. 

 

[steptoe]

I just had a thought,it might be worth making a brand new user account in Vista. Just install the very basic drivers and programs such as a web browser etc. If the problem doesn't carry across into the new user then it narrows the problem down to software. 

Im not so sure that would work on a windoze PC, isnt everything shared apart from the personal files?

the resources will still be the same, just not accessible by all accounts,

could be wrong though, I often am, ask the wife for more details.