Why does it sound like my hard drive is working too hard?
Why is it that my hard drive sounds like it has stomach pains or something! This is on one of my older computers that I just use for music and a bit of web browsing. It has always been noisy but lately its slow and noisy like its working too hard or something. Its almost sounding like a tractor idling next to me!!! What can I do? Its a Maxtor (which I know can be noisy) and running XP. At this rate I am either going run it over with a tractor or purchase ear plugs (ok, thats a bit extreme but you know what I mean by the noises it makes).
Wow - your computers certainly seem to have lots of ailments! Almost as bad as mine!
Lots of HDD chatter will obviuously signify that the computer is doing a lot of read and writing. I'm assuming you're not constantly copying a beethoven symphony or something! Do you have BBC Iplayer installed or the equivalent? It could be a P2P software or AV software running a scan.
Is there at least 15% free memory and is it defragged? Lots of fragmentation will obviously mean that the computer will have to chop and change files regularly.
C
What will you be doing on Christmas Eve? What better way to get your children into bed then to have them join the search for santa!
Yes I certainly do have lots of issues. The family expect me to fix theirs but I hardly know how to fix my own! I am trying to learn as I have been avoiding these things so I have various old ones set up now.
Thanks for the info. I don't have a lot installed on this one and I think it has about 23% free space or something last time I checked. I have AVG 7.5 installed as AVG8 refused to let my computer work! I will ask another question in a new thread about fragmentation because everyone seems to talk about it.
Geeks with culture - able to talk about beethoven too! :-)
You're right about banging on about defragmentation - but with 23% free its probably a good idea! Start --> Accessories --> Sys Tools --> Disk Defrag. Let it run overnight as it will take a while!
Did it give you a reason why it wouldn't let AVG8 install? I agree with Chris in that if it is slow AND a lot of hard drive reading/writing then anti virus software is the first place to look. Its a shame that you're not using Vista as it has a load of tools built in to detect overuse of the hard drive (one of the better features). Try disabling your antivirus software. Does this change anything?
I think I need the Beethoven to help me relax a bit with all the frustration this box of silicone has given me! lol
Ok, I tried the defrag on this computer. It has helped, it just took a hell of a long time to actually do it and it kept restarting, even though I (thought) stopped other things running. There is definitely a difference too when I try and launch something, like clicking the start button. The music is also not hanging like before when I did this.
Oh, and I am only using one ear plug now :-)
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