Why my hard drive frequently the race, for an extended intermittently?

My hard drive accelerates frequently (even when I'm not using it) and seems to be racing (for up to 30 minutes at a time). It seems that the computer is actively working on something and runs very slowly if I try to open Explorer or Outlook. The events come & go and can fluctuate quickly. It's driving me crazy. It's noisy and irritating. Don't know if it's a software is automatically updated (eg. Updates Windows or PC Tools antivirus). I did all the checks the system, etc. defragmented. The machine runs well between these events. System checks do not seem to identify all errors. A recent check by a technician after a blue screen error, identified faulty RAM, since replaced, but not other issues.

I suspect it has something to do with the analysis of the components of the PC Tools software in real time.  According to the options you have installed/enabled, you do not have to all or they are in competition with other things.

What is your version of XP and the Service Pack?

Do you have other AV tools installed such as McAfee, Symantec, Norton, Spybot, AVG, Avira!, MSE, Panda, Trend Micro, CA, Defender, ZoneAlarm, Comodo, etc..

You can temporarily disable PC Tools and see what things look like.

You needn't Download Process Monitor.

You need to download Process Explorer from here:

http://TechNet.Microsoft.com/en-us/Sysinternals/bb896653

You'll like Process Explorer when you get the hang of it.  Process Explorer is the Manager of Windows taskbar on steroids.

Process Explorer installs nothing so it won't slow down your system since it works only on request.

Process Explorer can seem a little intimidating at first because it has so much information, but you will begin to make love the way it works when you're looking for performance problems.   You can even say EP you want it to be your new default 'Task Manager' value in the future.  You can always run the original tasks as Manager.

Once you get Process Explorer running, expand the columns, made drag the corners of the screen for it's largest, etc., so you can see as much information as possible in the window.  Now you can really see what is running on the system.

Here's a screenshot of my poor system when I use Process Explorer:

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2567/ProcessExplorer.PNG

The small window at the top right shows graphic things.  Each window is a different as rolling graph:

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT
Validation of the system
Physical memory
Network
Disc
E/S

Roll your mouse over each small window to see what it says that you can see what they are doing.  Double-click the window to make it bigger.

If your drive is too busy, look a peak in the disc window or double click it to make it bigger.  When you see a spike, you pass the mouse over it and it will tell you the process on your system that is the cause.

For the experience, when PE upward and running and things are settled down, choose Tools in the properties of your HARD drive and then scan your HARD drive for defragmentation.  You don't need actually to defragment the volume since that take too long - just it will analyze and watch the graph of disk in Explorer process for the tip.

When analyze you the volume for fragmentation, see the drive activity in process Explorer and hover your mouse over the edge and he'll say dfrgntfs.exe, so now you know that cause the Spike.

Close all applications that you don't need to your troubleshooting so that they don't clutter things, is PE up and running, let things settle down and wait for the fly and the outbreak in the graph of the disc, hover your mouse over the edge and find out who is the culprit.

Tags: Windows

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