Disk Thrashing On Windows 7

[venator]

My new machine was virtually silent for 3 months, but started disk thrashing last week. (that's when the hard drive starts clicking away for no apparent reason)

Looking at some forums, it's suggested that this is normal housekeeping on Windows 7. Has anyone had this?

[bibblebub]

A program that I've used for some time that can be useful in letting you know just what is accessing the disc is this http://www.itsth.com/en/produkte/Whats-my-computer-doing.php?fromwmcd - you'll need to be a bit technically minded because the list of programs displayed includes normal system activity i.e. those that are normally active.

[bibblebub]

(a bit of tautology at the end)

[bhg481]

That's a useful link Bibblebub - thanks.

[ivor4781]

its never occurred in win 7 for me in 6 years sound like the hard drive on its way out (faulty)

[Buenchico]

It might not be a hard drive fault. If something is hogging all of the RAM in your computer, it will switch to using 'virtual memory' for every operation it carries out, resulting in data being constantly passed to and from your hard drive.

[Quoi]

If you go to your task manager and in the performance tab click the resource monitor.
This graphically shows the disc activity but it also shows which process is doing it.
Thats a good place to start investigating.

[venator]

Thanks everyone. After a bit of forum research, I've tracked it down to Windows Media Player, which likes to do loads of hoiusekeeping.

It's a clunky program anyway, so I've uninstalled it, and my machinrehas stopped thrashing! woo woo!

Ivor 4871 - if you've had Windows 7 for 6 years where did you get it from?

[Buenchico]

Thanks for the feedback.

If you now find yourself in need of a decent media player, try VLC (which is widely recommended by the technical press and BBC technology programmes)
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
or GOM (which I think is possibly even better)
http://player.gomlab.com/eng/download/

[venator]

Yes Buenchico, I use VLC, which tackles most things, but I've never come across GOM, so I'll have a look at it, thanks.

Apologies to Ivor - Win 7 came out in 2009 - doesn't time fly...

[venator]

Buenchico - I tried to download GOM, but all the sites, including the developer's bundle the hated Conduit adware program, which took me ages to get rid of.

If I can find a clean version, I'll let you know...