Hard drive is always processing something.

Abomb · 05-20-2006, 11:43 PM

Hey guys! I just did a clean install of Ubuntu 5.10 and the hard drive is continously processing something. I have nothing running and top doesn't show anything. It just keeps making that "grinding" noise like it's trying to do something.

It's a 5400rpm IDE on an Acer Aspire 1640 laptop.

Any reason why and how can I make it stop? Thanks!

oneandoneis2 · 05-21-2006, 12:55 AM

Try using the lsof command to see what's accessing it

kencaz · 05-21-2006, 01:06 AM

How much memory do you have installed. You may want to check your SWAP (#fdisk -l) partition size and monitor how much swap is being used.

KC

Oxagast · 05-21-2006, 02:39 PM

Pennies taste alot like blood too. Try checking /proc/meminfo to see how much of that swap us used, and try killing X and other stuff that takes alot of memory, then turning your swap partition all the way off with swapoff and see if the grinding stops.