Vista Disk Thrashing

HrundiBakshi · External Since: Feb 16, 2007 Posts: 17

What is going on w/Vista? I am running Vista Ultimate on a Xeon system w/4G
of RAM, and I keep experiencing these annoying unresponsive periods now and
then--quite randomly as far as I can tell--characterized by heavy HDD
thrashing (HDD LED on). They sometimes last 20 seconds.

A close description of this issue (or something closely related) can be
found here:
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/wireless/ontherun/archives/whats-with-all-t...disk-th

Thomas D. · External Since: Jun 11, 2007 Posts: 2

"HrundiBakshi" wrote:
> What is going on w/Vista? I am running Vista Ultimate on a Xeon system
> w/4G
> of RAM, and I keep experiencing these annoying unresponsive periods now
> and
> then--quite randomly as far as I can tell--characterized by heavy HDD
> thrashing (HDD LED on). They sometimes last 20 seconds.
>
> A close description of this issue (or something closely related) can be
> found here:
> http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/wireless/ontherun/archives/whats-with-all-t...disk-th

There could be many reasons:
- Search Index
- Automatic defragmentation
- Windows Defender
- AntiVirus Scan

Use the task manager (perfomance tab). Note, the cpu time isn't important.
At least try to use ProcMon from SysInternals and you will see, which
process is using your hard disc drive.

Regards,
Thomas

HrundiBakshi · External Since: Feb 16, 2007 Posts: 17

> There could be many reasons:
> - Search Index
> - Automatic defragmentation
> - Windows Defender
> - AntiVirus Scan

Thanks. Of these, only the first is plausible in my case. So, what do I do?
Disable search index? Well, that's one of the main features of Vista. What do
I end up with? Why did I bother switching to vista in the first place.

Anyway, is that what one should expect from the index service (i.e. by
design), or is it that mine might be defective?

Steve Thackery · External Since: Feb 05, 2007 Posts: 171

> Anyway, is that what one should expect from the index service (i.e. by
> design), or is it that mine might be defective?

It runs with low priority, and it also uses the new low priority I/O, so it
really shouldn't affect the responsiveness at all.

Steve

HrundiBakshi · External Since: Feb 16, 2007 Posts: 17

"Steve Thackery" wrote:
> It runs with low priority, and it also uses the new low priority I/O, so it
> really shouldn't affect the responsiveness at all.

Yeah, this certainly makes sense. So, then, no diagnostic yet. How can I
diagnose such a condition? Any tools?

TechByter · External Since: Aug 04, 2007 Posts: 1

"Steve Thackery" wrote:

> It runs with low priority, and it also uses the new low priority I/O, so it
> really shouldn't affect the responsiveness at all.

It shouldn't, true. But apparently it does. There are lots of complaints
about this and no clear solutions. I have 2GB of RAM on a 3GHz machine with 2
Seagate SATA drives and any audio application I use produces choppy audio,
sometimes the mouse is unresponsive for a second or two, and the HD light is
always on.

For those of us who are experiencing the problem is is most frustrating.

HrundiBakshi · External Since: Feb 16, 2007 Posts: 17

> ... unresponsive for a second or two, and the HD light is
> always on.

Whoa! "A second or two"? And you're complaining? Mine goes out for at least
20 seconds at a time!

They say you should get more memory, but I have 4G to start with! They say
you should get one of them newer native NCQ fast drives for a boot drive, but
I have the newest Raptor as a system drive! They say you should get a
dual-core processor, but I've had a dual core Woodcrest from the very
beginning!

Here's what others suggest:

"My fix was to disable these:

Search
Indexing
Defender
SuperFetch
System Restore."

Well, in this case, screw Vista! Why would you need it in the first place?

HB

HrundiBakshi · External Since: Feb 16, 2007 Posts: 17

"Thomas D." wrote:
> Use the task manager (perfomance tab). Note, the cpu time isn't important.

What else could it be then? Where else in the Task Manager shoudl I look?

> At least try to use ProcMon from SysInternals and you will see, which
> process is using your hard disc drive.

ProcMon looks promising, however I'd like to know how exactly to use it in
order to figure out what is the root of my problem. What would I be looking
at? How concretely to tell? (Alright, I may have to spend some time w/ProcMon
to figure out how to use it for my problem, however I could use a hand here
please.)