ghosting and defragmenting

daven1986

daven1986

daven1986

Soldato
Joined
29 Oct 2005
Posts
3,298
hi guys,

2 things, i defragmented my HDD and ever since i am getting a lot of HDD activity when surfing the net. i used tunexp to defrag the boot files, then i got the high activity used diskeeper to defrag again but still high activity - it was not like this before.

sometimes it subsides, but it is irritating me. any ideas on what i can do?

also i want to replace my 30gb ide boot drive with a 200gb ide drive, can i ghost an image of my 30gb drive on to my 200gb drive then simply replace it? if not how would i replace it.

thanks

daven
 
1: Check all running processes and make sure it isn't something running in the background.

Also what make, model is the HDD? I believe some HDDs do things even when they're not being used and is a normal function. Perhaps defragging allowed it to do this again [unlikely but you never know].

2: Should be fine ghosting then replacing.

SiriusB
 
Oooh a Maxtor... bin it! :p

Hmm to be perfectly honest I don't know what the issue could be. All I can suggest at the moment is either test the HDD in another computer or download PowerMax from Maxtor's website, burn it to CD, boot from it then do a diagnostic on the HDD to see if it picks anything up.

SiriusB
 
Try running some decent virus/spyware checking stuff as well. It may just be coincidence that it's started to do it once you defragged your HDD. I picked up a virus a few months back that appeared to be accessing my HDD and uploading info - almost constantly. Slowed both my internet connection and my main system down to a crawl at times and made it noticeably slower overall. Just so happens that I hadn't long defragged my HDD as well - although I think that's a coincidence rather than the two being related.

Only became aware of it using my connection when I reinstalled and turned on ZoneAlarms - had removed it a while ago to try a different package. The green/red in/out data flow display in the system tray was running almost constantly.

Had to disable my internet connection and run a couple of antivirus and spyware programs before it found the virus. Deleted it and then re-enabled my internet connection.........only to find it started again within minutes. Repeated the process, only this time I ran registry key software as well. It removed a few items - most of which I had no idea what it was for. But seemed to run fine there after. Might be worth checking.
 
SiriusB said:
Oooh a Maxtor... bin it! :p

Hmm to be perfectly honest I don't know what the issue could be. All I can suggest at the moment is either test the HDD in another computer or download PowerMax from Maxtor's website, burn it to CD, boot from it then do a diagnostic on the HDD to see if it picks anything up.

SiriusB
Click to expand...

it is getting binned :D for a 200/250gb WD/samsung/maxtor - which would be the better? just wondering why it started.

thanks for the info fatfish i will have a lickle scan see what i find.

thanks

daven
 
no viruses, no spyware. if i change drives what is the likelyhood of this continuing on the ghosted image. argh i so wish i just left alone sometimes!

daven
 
From all accounts, Maxtor drives should be avoided like a bout of the clap. :p Oh, and if your mobo supports SATA, I'd go for one of those instead of IDE.

Seagate or Western Digital appear to be the prefered options (especially the 7200.10 versions of the Seagate).

I would suggest a process of elimination. Have you go another HDU you could install your OS on to and try running with that (not the disk image, just a fresh install)? See if the problem still occurs once the hardware and software has all been removed.
 
that wouldnt work as it is eliminating 2 things at once. the defragmetation and the HDD. im gonna stick with IDE for now as i have a conveniently located spare cable. thanks though.

have been offered a 320gb WD so will go for that or a 250 seagate or samsung

daven
 
Assuming the WD you have been offered isn't super cheap, I would go for the Seagate drive as they are the lastest technology and also very quick. Not quite Raptor speeds but who wants a Raptor? :p

SiriusB
 
was offered it at £60 but asked for £50 but i havent got a reply yet!

the seek time for the seagates is much higher than others, what makes it good?

i might just add it as an extra harddrive, be less hassle!!

daven
 
Last edited:
using the task manager i found that flock (my web browser) was writing to the HDD a lot, have since gone back to firefox and the activity has gone away.

daven
 
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