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spotteddog
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July 28th, 2007 11:00
Excessive Hard Drive Activity
I've had my XPS for about 2 months. Every once-in-a-while (maybe 6-7 times in 2 months), when I boot, the hard drive just never stops writing/seeking. The PC boots ok and even if I don't start anything except the normal start-up apps., the hard drive sounds terrible. If I wait 15-20 minutes, it stops on it's own. If I re-boot right away, it doesn't do it when it comes up again.
I have checked in the device manager and there is nothing unusual running and nothing seems to be causing excessive CPU activity.
I never had this happen on any other of my PCs (XP and Win98). How do I pin-point this problem? Might it be the drive, the PC or Vista?
Other than this, I have had absolutely no problems with the new PC. I like the PC and I like Vista, but when this happens, it just sound like my HDD might fly apart.
Thanks
Spott
XPS 410
C2D E6320 (1.86GHz)
4GB 667 MHz RAM
SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Nvidia GeForce 8600GTS
Vista Home Premium
I have checked in the device manager and there is nothing unusual running and nothing seems to be causing excessive CPU activity.
I never had this happen on any other of my PCs (XP and Win98). How do I pin-point this problem? Might it be the drive, the PC or Vista?
Other than this, I have had absolutely no problems with the new PC. I like the PC and I like Vista, but when this happens, it just sound like my HDD might fly apart.
Thanks
Spott
XPS 410
C2D E6320 (1.86GHz)
4GB 667 MHz RAM
SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Nvidia GeForce 8600GTS
Vista Home Premium
spotteddog
2 Intern
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403 Posts
391
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Posted July 30th, 2007 21:00
ChrisM
Since posting this question, I have done some more research and it seems this a Vista problem. There are many threads on this subject in other forums. Nobody has an definite answer or solution. Some seem to think it is the Vista Prefetch, others say it could be one of the many services. Nobody has claimed to have fixed it.
I ran the HDD diagnostic you requested and both my drives passed. So if you want to move (or delete) this thread, go ahead.
I do think anyone with the same problem/question would look in the Hard Drive Forum, not the Vista Forum, since it IS the hard drive.
Thanks,
Spott- Vista is far different software than XP, you cannot believe what goes on in the background constantly, seems like this activity declines with more uptime usage.If you doubt it, download this utility to watch what is going on constantly, behind the scenes.
Tusken Legion
8 Posts
391
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Posted August 16th, 2007 01:00
I have had my machine two weeks and the endless hard drive chatter is non stop - although it does lessen if the PC has been on for a few hours untouched.Is it the Superfetch functionality in Vista anyone?If I look in performance monitor there is definately a lot of read/writes going on and for files not in use.Has anyone got to the bottom of this issue?
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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56891 Posts
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232143 Points
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Posted July 30th, 2007 18:00
Run this to rule out a hard drive hardware failure.
* Restart the PC, at the Dell splash screen press the Ctrl - Alt - D keys to initiate the hard disk drive diagnostic
* The test may take up to three minutes to run the diagnostics (the time is dependent upon size and speed of drive)
* What are the results? If it passes, it is a Vista issue. If so, repost your questions here
DELL-Chris M (old account)
#IWork4Dell