HDD slowing down computer?!?!

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sinikal

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Oct 19, 2007
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Hello,

I just built a new computer about a month ago. Everything was working fine (computer was very fast, no BSOD, etc.) before I left for Christmas Break. When I returned about 2 weeks later my computer decided it was going to run extremely slow! The computer was shut off during my 2 week vacation. When I open nVidia monitor it shows the Hard Drive at 100% like its doing something (this will occasionally return to normal for a sec or two before going back up to 100%). The Memory, CPU usage is normal. I did overclock my computer and I thought that may be why it was running slow so I changed it back to the default values and it still ran slow. Does anyone know what is going on?!? I think it has to do with the HDD reading/writing constantly but I may be wrong.

Comp. Specs
Q6600 @ 2.4 (Zalman 9500)
eVGA 680i A1
eVGA 8800 GT SLI
4GB Crucial Ballistix (800)
Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium (OEM)

Thanks for the help in advance!
 
leo2kp

leo2kp

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Oct 9, 2006
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Yea could be system restore and/or Antivirus/Antispyware. If your HDD is still clicking away, check your Processes in Task Manager, and sort them by CPU (click CPU twice to get ascending order). That should tell you what is using your CPU (if even a little bit), which could show you what's making your HDD run so much.
 
nhobo

nhobo

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Dec 5, 2006
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Make sure NTune isn't running a stability test. Turn off windoze indexing service. Use Process Explorer 10.2 (version *before* M$ took it over) to see what's going on.
 
K

kcrush

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Oct 18, 2004
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Its definitely your OS playing "catchup" in the background. Nothing big to worry about. Its just doing stuff like patching (os, antivirus/spyware, drivers, etc), running virus/spyware scans, defraging, and possibly the system restore feature rebuilding itself. Eventually it will do all of its "catchup" work and return to normal.

It all depends on what setup you have for the various software on the computer, they probably expected to be on all the time so they could do the stuff in the background without a problem. When it stops being a problem run a quick defrag on it and everything should be back to normal.
 
rwpritchett

rwpritchett

Splendid
Mar 17, 2006
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It sounds like indexing to me. Or it could be defragging since Vista by default defrags without user input. Best thing to do is leave the system on overnight to let it do what it needs to do and then it should return to normal.
 
L

LoneEagle

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Oct 19, 2006
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When I see the HD light and don't know why, I use the Vista Performance monitor which is really great to know what going on.

Task Manager - Performance - the button at the bottom {not sure, not in front of Vista and I have a shortcut on my desktop}

This will tell you which process is using the HD, network or CPU.
 
S

sinikal

Distinguished
Oct 19, 2007
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I think what it was is that my computer was trying to defrag in the background. I could only stand to try to use it for 10 mins at a time before I got up and left. Then I think it would go into sleep mode after so long, thus stopping the defrag. When it powered back up it started the defrag process all over again. So basically I just turned off Scheduled Defragmentation and it solved the problem. I will just manually defrag my computer from here on out.

Again, thanks for the help.
 
nukemaster

nukemaster

Titan
Nov 23, 2004
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How can i not try it :)
 
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