computer hard disk light stays on performence slows down HELP!

[zone12]

Does anone know whats going on I just got this comp and its hard disk light is always on.

[CharleyO]

***

Well, you have not really given us much information to go on. Maybe some computer specs, software you've loaded onto it, etc.


***

[Lisandro]

Which is the computer? Notebook?
Does this occur only after login or at any time?
Does the light on and off or keep always on?

[DavidR]

A common suspect in this is the windows indexing service updating its database to help speed up file searches, etc. Personally I think this is a huge waste of time as most people don't do enough searches (or have low performance systems) to make this overhead worthwhile.

[Lisandro]

A common suspect in this is the windows indexing service updating its database to help speed up file searches, etc. Personally I think this is a huge waste of time as most people don't do enough searches (or have low performance systems) to make this overhead worthwhile.

Yeah... sometimes I feel it slow down the shutdown of the computer also, am I wrong?

[DavidR]

Well it is possible, it would depend if just before you shut you were working on lots of files. I have had it disabled on my systems for years and occasionally I get a shutdown that takes a little longer, so that can't be down to the indexing service.

[Lisandro]

I'll have to change my notebook, maybe I never discover what made this HP have a slow shutdown.
Of course, I do not want my new Dell come with this problem...

[DavidR]

So that can't be down to the indexing service.

I'll have to change my notebook, maybe I never discover what made this HP have a slow shutdown.
Of course, I do not want my new Dell come with this problem...

Well your quote on what I said is rather restricted because I have the indexing service disabled, so in my circumstance any slow shutdown couldn't be attributed to the indexing service. If you still have it enabled it could have an impact.

If this happens all the time try disabling the indexing service and see if it makes any difference.

I don't know what OS is on your system but XP used to have a common problem with slow shutdowns and I had to run the user hive profile closure tool UHPClean I think and that did help, but it doesn't seem to work with XP SP3.

[Lisandro]

User Profile Hive Cleanup Service seems to be only for XP and not Vista :'(

[zone12]

im on vista 64 bit
6gb of ram
Amd phenom cores
750 hard drive

its a pc with a reg tower

[DavidR]

I don't know much about Vista and less about the 64bit version, but I suspect that it too would have this indexing service, so you would have to see if it exists in the Vista64 Services or its equivalent. normally I would get that via the Administrative Tools (in XP Pro) or by typing services.msc in the Start, Run window.

[Hard_ROCKER]

Indexing enabled here and a it's a huge huge database i have(yes i use the search tool ALOT), but i don't see any slowdowns at shut down(besides the search indexer stops as soon as there is any user activity detected). However the hdd is working continuosly at boot up for a few minutes but i don't believe it's the indexing service causing this since all files are already indexed(i usually rebuild the index manually after i've added any big amount of new files not to mention it runs in the background when the computer is not used and since i don't restart that often this should be taken care of). 

What could be causing this hdd activity ?

Well it could be any one of the following things or all of them together ...

Search Indexer
SuperFetch(for me it's this one that is usually causing the hdd activity but it get's better over time, same goes for indexing service)
Automatic Restore points/Shadow Copies creation
ReadyBoost

[DavidR]

Thanks for the input darth_mikey, hopefully it will give zone12 some other things to check out.

[zone12]

i disabled the indexing and it doesnt seem to do alot its faster by a little but it seems to be slow for the frist few hours if you use it. I reallly dont know whats happening i disaled alot of the start up things too

[DavidR]

I wish I could help more but this will need the attention of someone with mush more Vista experience that I have.