Constant writing to hardrive

[tekkite09]

I have Windows 7, and I am posting the specs here. The problem I am having is that there is a red light constantly going, which indicates that something is writing to the hard drive.  Also, the computer appears unable to go into sleep mode. I am about to try a complete re-install, but would first like to see if there is something else I could do.  Help would be greatly appreciated!

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]

[Allan]

1) Open task manager to the processes tab. Sort on the cpu column. Which process is using the cycles?
2) Check Scheduled tasks to see if something is scheduled to run in the background.
3) Check your av & defrag apps to see if they are set to run on a regular basis.
4) Does the same thing happen in safe mode?

[Johnehm]

Hi, that was a friend posting about my computer; I will be taking over from here.  I was ready to reinstall but my friend said, "Hey, let's give this site a try, " so here I am.

1) Open task manager to the processes tab. Sort on the cpu column. Which process is using the cycles?

The weird thing is is that it doesn't start writing until the monitor goes to sleep.  I did just have a problem with Google Earth doing the writing but I have resolved this, at least the writing going to "C:\Users\Johnehm\AppData\LocalLow\Google\GoogleEarth\unified_cache_leveldb_leveldb2" (Around 1 gig of space - whew!)

2) Check Scheduled tasks to see if something is scheduled to run in the background.

I have 48 scheduled as "Active Tasks" in the Task Scheduler and according to the upper part of the same window none have been active in the last 30 days.  How do you tell if something is supposed to run in the background or not?

3) Check your av & defrag apps to see if they are set to run on a regular basis.

Defrag every Wed at 1 am but it hasn't.
Various Comodo with multiple triggers except Cache Builder - when computer is idle.

4) Does the same thing happen in safe mode?

No, but there was only the option of my monitor going to sleep (and it didn't - set for 5 min).  There were advance options but I didn't know what to choose from. 

Let me also give you a little more background.  The computer is a build by some local shop and it's always acted a little weird.   I don't currently (pun intended) have it surge protected.  About a month ago there were a couple of surges and it has been acting weirder:  I have Ubuntu installed alongside.  The grub file hasn't appeared in some time (when installing w7-32 from w7-64 - It behaved better with 32 bit.) when booting and after the surges it just suddenly reappeared.  When new, their appeared, while booting, an option "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD" that I also haven't seen in a long time but just reappeared today - I was toggling via BIOS to boot from either and Voila, there it was again.

Maybe the BIOS is damaged too?  Time to flash?  Reinstall Windows?

[Johnehm]

Oops, make that 100 gigs of space with Google Earth.

[Allan]

Well you can't "damage" the bios - but if you want to flash it just to update it that's fine. And if the hd doesn't show activity until the monitor "goes to sleep" then it's probably something set to run when the system is idle. Could be av, search indexing, etc.

[Computer_Commando]

Win7-32 or Win7-64?
2GB RAM is about minimum & could explain the excessive hard disk activity.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/system-requirements

[Johnehm]

I guess I’m a little on hyper-alert since the Google Earth issue as that was causing writing while the computer was in use even when I didn’t have GE open.  I’ve been observing it a little more and it doesn’t seen to be as bad as I thought since.  When I first posted, my computer had written around 500 Mb overnight to my C: drive but not as much since.  I used Crap Cleaner to see where the “crap” was and found this:

Google Earth 35 Mb
Temp files 217 Mb
Memory dumps 255 Mb
Firefox cache 98 Mb

I cleaned it up and the writing doesn’t seem to be as severe now, if that makes sense. 

As for the sleep mode:  I usually have 4 HDs going (all but C: usually asleep until called upon).  I disconnected all but C: yesterday and the computer went to sleep as it should have.  I reconnected all HDs and then even the monitor wouldn’t sleep.

Memory:  I’m running W7-32 bit and usually have only FF, Windows Explorer, two instances of Agent, and frequently a simple game like Freecell running most of the time.  That takes my memory usage to about 1G.  I sometimes open Photoshop 7 with a couple of images and that bumps it up to around 1.5.  It doesn’t seem to start up the writing.  I’ve had units in the past where I definitely have overextended the memory capacity so I know what that’s like.  I once had a 120 Mhz system that came with 16 Mb (EDO)ram.  It also had a very noisy HD so I could really hear it using the swap file.  When I upgraded to 32 Mb it was a LOT quieter.

Thanks for the input.  It’s opened me up to more methods of observation than I would have come up with on my own I guess.  And that’s what I’m going to do - more observation - before I do the reinstall.  I really wouldn’t mind doing that though, as I have done it many times in the past, I’m not very trusting of Windows in terms of holes in the dike and tend to use a reinstall as a way of fixing the holes that develop over time.  But it does help to learn more about it too!

[patio]

I'd suggest DLoading and installing Startup CPL from Mike Lin...and get your startup apps under control.
It's not uncommon for Google apps to do whatever they want on your PC.

[Johnehm]

Startup CPL: Thanks, I'll look into it.  FWIW, I use DuckDuckGo as a search engine but still use Google Earth (great app in some ways) and gmail.  Gotta kick those habits.

[patio]

It's not neccessarily habits...it's the fact that an app can choose to run in the background without the User's choice.

[Johnehm]

Habits:  I was talking about kicking Google out of my life.    And is Startup CPL good for W7-32 also?  His website states that it's for XP and Vista.

[patio]

Yes...
It's small and completely unobtrusive...
I've known the Author Mike Lin for a long time.
It will place an item in your Control Panel called Startup...from where you can run it.

P.S. Don't turn anything off if your not familiar with it...check in here 1st if any questions.