View Full Version : Hard drive Problem OS Windows 98SE
rctempire
July 4th, 2003, 08:36 AM
Well here i am again asking my self why the hell is my harddrive kicking in when the PC is idle or doing nothing
Os windows 98 SE
Virus Scanner/Firewall Pc-Cillin 2000 - up todate virus files
I have no idea why the harddrive kicks in every so often.
I had this problem once before but i cant remember what i did to correct this. And i did not reformat the hdd when i had it before
Thanks
RCTEMPIRE
rctempire
July 4th, 2003, 11:20 AM
No one read this post at all ohno i must be in really bad conditions then
Thanks
Please help me please
FreakinWeasel
July 4th, 2003, 11:45 AM
Just a few thoughts,
1. pick and run Ad-Aware and see if you have any active spyware.
2. What do you have running in your sys tray? type "msconfig" at the "run" command and look under startup for monitoring applications liike scanners or other devcies.
3. I read somewhere here the other day that sometimes windows runs background defragging or something when idle?
4. How much ram do you have and does it all register correctly? Raeson I ask if you suddenly find your self on one stick then you are using virtual ram aka HD for basic functions.
Thats all I can think of to start. Maybe Krell will happen by. He usually has the skinny on this stuff.
cpugeniusmv
July 4th, 2003, 12:12 PM
FreakinWeasel hit the nail on the head for the most part.
Run Adaware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/aaw.html) and Spybot (http://security.kolla.de/)
Click the Start button, go to Run, and type msconfig and go to the startup tab. list what is in there.
Windows does not defrag automatically, if you have a third party defragmenting tool, such as diskeeper, it may very well be on a schedule to defrag when the computer is idle.
and as for the Pagefile causing it....when the computer is idle, i think that this is a slim chance.
Krell
July 4th, 2003, 02:20 PM
The page can and will resize while you "think" your sitting idle. Just because you arent proactively doing something doesnt mean Windows isnt. Remember that Anti Virus you mentioned . . . well Windows has to "manage it" .. that what an O/S does.
You really didnt describe the problem very well. Does it scan the WHOLE drive . . . does it take a minute or two? Do you just "happen" to have Explorer open while your "not" doing anything?
Of course clean things up, and use the System Information to observe your Free Resources, your Running Tasks etc etc
You also didnt mention how much RAM that you have, so the less RAM, the more that may need to be Paged.
In the BIOS, what is the AGP Aperture Size set for? I bet its too large.
.
thongsai
July 4th, 2003, 03:30 PM
u should dl those diagnostic proggies from the manufacturer..to check if its a damaged hard drive