Constant hdd writing/reading? Crazy stuff!
I can constantly hear my hdd being (ab)used. I am wondering what I can do to limit this. Because my system is very slow when running X, well... slow at starting up applications, when they are running, it's almost like flying. ;)
I just wish to know reasons for a lot of hdd activity, when I had ubuntu on this very machine, the hdd activity was much less active. |
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What does top show on memory usage?
It's also worth running hdparm to check your disk throughput is ok. |
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hdparm for hda1 and hda4: Code:
/dev/hda1: Code:
/dev/hda4: |
This may NOT have to do with your hard drive however I recently worked on a friends computer and the hard drive they had came with S.M.A.R.T. and SMART detected a problem with the hard drive. It was doing the very same thing (while running Windows). Hard drive access was slow, but programs running in RAM were fine. According to the users guide from the hard drive....the drive was toast. I installed a new one and everything was fixed. I HOPE it isn't a hardware problem, but those symptoms sounded familiar.
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what wm/de do you use?
after an upgrade a long time ago, my hdd light would be on constantly under kde. switched to a wm ...problem solved. |
If you are using KDE try disabling the KDED Media Manager.
Have a look at one of my previous posts here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=386967 |
I am using dropline GNOME, for your information.
@tubatodd: I certainly don't hope so. :( |
I am curious about this as well. I noticed a lot that my computer would just start cranking away at the hard drive when I wasn't even using it. I don't seem to be having the problem anymore since I upgraded my memory/cpu, but I would still like to see what my computer is doing when it thinks I am asleep ;)
Does anyone have any recommendations on how to spy on what's going on in my system after it goes idle? thanks! ...drkstr |
drkstr, have you looked at the sysstat package from http://perso.orange.fr/sebastien.god...mentation.html? I think it does what you're looking for.
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...drkstr |
I do notice that at midnight the linux goes crazy on every pc. I think that's the indexing tho.
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Just to eliminate the chance, why don't you run a SMART test on the disk?
Of course, you need a SMART capable BIOS and HD. Here's what you have to do**: (**First than anything, you may want to light-read "man smartctl" and "man smartd" -I said light-read because these man pages are huge)
Hopefully it will not be a HD issue. Good Luck. |
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my clock is never right on this pc. the darn KDE messes it up. i made the mistake of telling it my time zone, and now whenever I reboot from windows into this my time is always off. so yeah, LOL you're probably right. and if so, what am I doing awake at that time of day :D bye for now. |
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I have that system monitor on my GNOME panel. Where for some reason, hdd information does not work, so I just listen for the sounds. |
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I have found that smartmontools works on a pc where the bios does not work properly with SMART.
I agree that the manufacturers own diagnostics is the best way to check a drive. Sustainded activity when the cpu is idle could be the drive attempting to calibrate itself and having problems.. |
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