PC Hard drive always running

[heyskull]

My home PC hard drive is always running and the light is on always flickering away as if it is doing something.
I have knocked everything off so the basics are just running but it still is doing something!!!
I need help as I have searched all over the internet and all the suggestions don't work.
When it's first switched on it is OK but as the day goes by midday it's spinning away doing stuff!!!

SC

 

[DRW]

What operating system are you using? If your using Vista, make sure you have SP1, and try disabling Windows Super Fetch.

 

[heyskull]

I'm running XP pro with service pack 3 and have loads of free disk space and 2G of RAM.

SC

 

[Bigdawg]

I have an HP that's been doing that for about 2 years... no idea why...

 

[American & Proud]

Right click on a blank area of your screen and click Properties, "Display Propeties" will open on screen, click the "Screen Saver" Tab at the top.

Now at the bottom in "Monitor power" click on the "Power" button, now click the "Power schemes" Tab, you can then choose when your hard disks shut down, from Never down to After 3 minutes.

When your computer is just sitting idle those settings tell it when to turn your Monitors off and your Hard Disks off. There are other settings you can choose for power saving.

I have mine set to shut down the hard drive after an hour of sitting and monitors are set to Never. Both my computers sit on 24/7.

 

[David Wright]

Some process is running. Run the task manager and click on processes and see what activity is going on. In my case system update was trying to run but there was some corruption in the system which wouldn't let it work so it kept trying.
Could be a lot of things.

 

[GB2]

The last computer I had that did that was virus related so you might want to scan your PC.

 

[heyskull]

It has nothing to do with the power monitors!
It does not come up on the task manager.
I have no viruses or spies on this computer it is well covered.
Can you believe it, it isn't doing it today!!!!!!!

I hate computers!

SC

 

[Salmoneye]

It's all of your illegal software trying to contact the internet. lol

 

[heyskull]

LOL

I would more likely say it is Microsoft accessing our computers to check that we have registered software!
Big Brother is Watching and his name is Bill!!...LOL

SC

 

[choucove]

It could also just be writing files to the pagefile from out of memory. This is very common for your computer to do, pretty much all of the time, and is nothing to worry about. If this is the case, then the only way to fix it is to add more RAM.

 

[greenmachine]

I would say the operating system is indexing the hard drive for faster searches. it could be turned off. I don't remember off thr top of my head, but you can Google it.

greenie

 

[heyskull]

I have a little programme called Ebooster that allows you to use a memory stick as additional memory which ups my memory to 6Gig!.
I have checked and it isn't this thats slows the computer down or makes it access the drive all the time. In fact when this is removed and it is just working on the standard RAM it is impossible to use.

SC

 

[SignBurst PCs]

SC,

These would be my guesses:

File Indexing - Microsoft, Google Search, or similar
Cleanup Utilities
Scheduled Antivirus scans
Malware
Someone hacked into your system, working remotely
Hard Drive Corruption/Damage

 

[GB2]

Yes Casey, in addition to the virus issues I mentioned, I ultimately had a failing hard drive that contributed to my similar problem.

 

[ncpdfsb]

Salmoneye said: It's all of your illegal software trying to contact the internet. lol
great response..

BACK UP YOUR HARD DISK! ...to many variables to diagnose a hard drive that is active 24/7..software installed on your pc can have a influence.. definitely agree to run a virus scan. not a surface scan.. a deep scan.. usually when you go into properties to scan a hard disk the default is only set to surface "quick" scan. if you are running a decent anti virus program you should have an option. make sure you install all windows and virus updates first then reboot and deep scan for malware and potential active virus..