Why, when I'm doing nothing at all, will my hard disk suddenly start thrashing?

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A *new* common cause is Windows XP's System Restore. It monitors changes to a wide range of files and squirrels away restore information. This often looks like unexpected disk activity as it does so.

PC very slow, upto 3 mins opening or closing progs prog seems to "wash" down the screen, icons disappear leaving only background pic for 5-10 secs, then reappear); hardisk access light almost continuously on, etc.(1)Resorted to original config. using System Restore, but initial improvement, then back to SLOW;(2)Configured WinXP for best performance, with virtual memory set at 754 MB (min) and 1024 MB (max) as per suggestions of HP customer support;(3) Virus checks (Norton, AVG) are clean;(4) SpybotS&D and Ad-Aware cleaned adware/spyware and now show clean;(5) Used a RegCleaner to clean the system without alteration;(6)installed and enabled firewall (successively by Norton, WinXP and ZoneAlarm Pro);(7) at HP customer support's suggestion, closed all startup progs except antivirus and firewall, used Disk Cleaner & Defrag, then restarted the pc. Even uninstalled some progs I didn't use frequently, all to no avail; (8)HD capacity shows drive C is 29% free (9.7 GB) and drive D 15% free at 6

Only 128mb of ram under WinXP is likely to be one of your problems. Your swap file is consuming it all. Buy at least 512mb of ram, preferably 1gb to run XP. You likely have an onboard video card which is consuming 32mb of your system's ram which is why only 96mb appears under Windows. Does your motherboard have an AGP port? If so, I'd recommend buying a videocard for it. Check whether the motherboard supports AGP 1x / 2x / 4x / or 8x and buy a compatible video card.

Your hard drive will thrash because you've told it to have 784mb minimum swap file. The access time to your hard drive is magnitudes slower than for your ram. Hence your system runs like a dog.

My Pc's hard disk is still 85% full after all cleaning and removal of non-necessities. After defrag. there is not very much free space leftover either. I removed a bunch of media files and it seemed like I had less space after I erased them. How can I clean it up without compromising the programs and files that I have(which isn't very many).Thanx for your help.

Have you emptied your recycle bin? This article may also help: http://ask-leo.com/how_can_i_tell_whats_taking_up_so_much_disk_space.html

Nicely done Leo. Systm restore was using a LOT of resources. All is quiet now...

Thanks,

P.

Hello Leo & Everyone

My hard disk has started thrashing whenever Outlook 2003 has been running on idle for a few minutes. If I close Outlook 2003 the disk stops thrashing.

I tried FileMon and captured the screen as soon as the thrashing started - it was full of the line "OUTLOOK.EXE:2144"

The machine is running Windows 2000 Pro with Service Pack 4. It has 1.5Gb of RAM and the hard drive is a 123Gb IBM. Can anyone help me?

Many thanks

Simon.

Actually, try letting it "thrash" for a while. Outlook compacts its PST file in the background at idle time. At some point the file will have been compacted, and the thrashing should stop. (And technically it's not thrashing ... unless it somehow impacts your ability to do other things.) Conversely you could force compaction and see if that makes the thrashing stop as well.

Hello Leo,
My laptop has been thrashing the HD, Also MS WORD won't open and after it tries it leaves a rectangle of screen that does not repaint on the desktop also Norton Internet security 2006 does not open. I have phoned Symantec and run SYMNRT.exe and reinstalled Norton Internet security 2006 and reinstalled Norton Ghost 10 and reinstalled Word 2003 pro but I am right back at the starting point. Ctl Alt Del does not shut the computer down so I have to manually shut it down. The last time I restarted the laptop the screen was black so I manually shutdown again, after leaving the laptop shutdown for an hour I restarted it and it opened fine but the above problems are still there any help appreciated.
My laptop specs are
990 Megabytes Installed Memory, Slot 'U5' has 512 MB, Slot 'U6' has 512, Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600), 2.67 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4, 8 kilobyte primary memory, cache, 512 kilobyte secondary memory cache, 40.00 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity, 26.93 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space, SiS M650 [Display adapter]Default Monitor,

I believe it is Norton Antivirus 2006 Autoupdate program that is stuck and is causing problems. Symantec who own the product won't help find the answer without a 39.95 Euro charge and suggested I contact a local engineer to get my problem sorted. Any help appreciated...

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