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Question

Why is HDD Churning?

Feb 15, 2014 9:39PM PST

Why does my HDD churn when I boot to XP PRO? Fresh install. Latest updates. Does not churn when booted to Linux.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
(NT) It's probably doing a defrag
Feb 15, 2014 10:30PM PST
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Answer
Remember you are asking a question
Feb 15, 2014 10:57PM PST

That has answers for about a decade. Indexing is one but as the direction of the OS changed it's no longer a quiet OS. Just sitting there it no long boots and stops disk access. Those days look to be over.
Bob

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Answer
numerous
Feb 16, 2014 11:28AM PST

creating prefetch files, updating the pagefile, updating any hibernation file, Bob mentioned the indexing system, and you might have it crammed into a small hard drive space which creates the constant defragging which Bob also mentioned. You can change some things that might help in the Performance settings area. Turn off hibernation function, maybe set pagefile to a smaller static size, give preference to running programs instead of background services, etc.

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When did
Feb 16, 2014 10:22PM PST

When did XP pick up some kind of automated defragmenting program? Last I checked, that wasn't a standard feature of any version of Windows. Some programs, proving that even in this economy plenty of people have more money than sense, will allow you to do this automatically for all the good it doesn't do you.

But to add to things, we also don't know if Linux is installed on the HDD or maybe it's running via a LiveCD style distribution, in which case it would be cause for concern if the HDD were churning. We could also be dealing with the infamous XP DMA bug as well.

There are simply too many unknowns and I'd feel pretty confident in my guess that the OP wouldn't really even know how to answer the necessary questions to pin it down to a specific cause.

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Not XP, but Vista
Feb 17, 2014 12:37AM PST
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True
Feb 17, 2014 3:35AM PST

Win 7 has defragmenter which one can set to automatically defrag the internal drive(s) at least once a week. Just be sure to leave system on when this is scheduled to run.

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Good to know
Feb 17, 2014 8:54AM PST

Good to know, but still doesn't really change the fact that disk fragmentation has an absolutely minimal impact on overall performance that it's a constant wonder it hasn't faded into obscurity ages ago.

And it was early, I was in a rush, so I should clarify slightly that I meant no particular slight towards the OP with that final comment. We all have to start somewhere, but just as I wouldn't even know where to begin if someone wanted me to repair a lawn mower engine, the OP's post being so light on details for a topic that, as we've amply demonstrated, could have dozens of possible answers, strongly suggests that they would be firmly out of their depth in trying to answer the questions. Otherwise they would have known to include more details. Again, we all have to start somewhere, but this is one of those where there's basically no way to answer.