I sleep lightly. Any idea what this is, or how I can put an end to it?

ls /etc/cron.daily lists logrotate and slocate. and ls /etc/cron.hourly lists kmod. I can't tell what time they are set to run at though.

I think the problem come from your hard disk. Only manufacturer can help you.

Move every script out of '/etc/cron.daily', maybe put logrotate elsewhere.

I don't think so ... I mean it makes it at exactly 4:45AM, so I'm betting it's cron ... specifically cron.daily.

Use crontab -l to list and crontab -e to edit.
The default crons run with the root user, so it's safe to do this as root

It's slocate - it's updating it's filesystem databases and it schedules it for that exact time on a default Slackware system.

chmod -x that or remove it from cron. The other two hardly do anything - logrotate copies about three files about (less than a meg each usually) and kmod doesn't touch the disk at all (releases unused kernel modules).

But slocate is reading the filename of every file on every mounted disk and storing the info in a compressed database. It takes about 30 minutes on my computer, slagging the disk all the time, and I've only got about 150Gb.

If you do disable it (crontab -e or chmod), then the slocate command won't work properly (stale data) but everything else will be absolutely fine. Most people don't even know about slocate, let alone use it.

Think of it as the Linux equivalent of Microsoft Find Fast.

I agree - it'll be the updatedb. Should never even be in cron for most people IMHO.
Stupid idea to run it every day.

I turn it off on every desktop, and run updatedb when I feel the need.
And don't even mention Beagle ...

Try 'locate *.wav' and marvel at the speed of it. Don't discount slocate lightly, I use the database often.

I agree the problem maybe come from updatedb or beagle. I facing this issue to and I simply turn off.

Coming back to the 'noise' issue, a HD really shouldn't be considered 'noisy' unless it is pretty old or pretty unhealthy. Within reason, does it sound 'normal' ?
I can't even hear mine, at all..
Well, just something to keep in mind: have backups up to date.

I can hear mine in my laptop not my desktop. But on my desktop you can hear the fans instead ... much louder than my laptop.

If you want, you can try to use hdparm to make the drive quiter:

Cron daily runs at 4:40am by default, It's a good idea to keep slocate database up to date. I would change the time that cron daily runs to a more convenient time.

In my experience, few possiblity (maybe more) will mae noise. some of them can be solve and some of them can't.

1. manufacturer fault, a faulty hard disk escape from quality control department. normally won't apear easily since the manufacturer doing 100% testing. However, due to special accept rejected component from their production line may cause the hard disk quality drop within short period. Some defect like noise, motor jam and etc can be occur after short period (probably few month).

2. almost end of live, since hard disk is turning really fast (normally 5400rpm or above), this is easily the hard disk motor or archiveter arm(the reader) reach end of live after few years. Meaning the mechanical or electrical wear off.

3. Some usb hard disk will make noise if your pc/laptop provide not sufficient electricity. In that condition the usb hard disk's motor won't spin well and will make noise.

4. of course heavy read/write will cause the hard disk motor spin much faster, but normally (good hard disk) I believe it won't too noisey(but the fan yes).

In my opinion, the hearth of hard disk play important role whether it make noise or not. And the hearth of hard disk is hard to control since it will wear off after some times.

Recommended hard disk is western D.


Hope thats help.

Regards,
Ks

I've never had a HDD fail. I don't think this is the case here, not for such a specific time (4:40 - :45) when cron.daily runs. I can't really recommend one HDD over another, since none has broken yet , and even if they do break, they have served me well, may they RIP.