Force GT 120 GB "busy" so often it's slowing me down

[Mugsy323]

Anyone else having this problem?

 

I don't know if it's unique to my new GT120, an issue with Windows 7, or SSD's in general, but my SSD (on a SATA-II connection) is busy so often, it's actually making some things take LONGER than when I was using a HDD as my main drive. (The whole reason I bought the GT was to speed things up.)

 

I did a fresh install of 64bit Win7 on my GT, and have spent the last few days setting everything up the way I like. Boots and shutdown is much faster than before, which is great. But every so often during use, the drive gets very busy and I can't do anything for between 30sec-2minutes while I wait for the disk activity light to go out. I'm assuming the drive is actively "cleaning" out free space during this time, but it's so frequent it has become irritating.

 

I've redirected all my "temp" folders to a separate HDD, as well as my browser cache file, reducing the amount of writing to the drive, but still it goes on these "read/write" binges. (I did all this in an effort to solve the problem by reducing SSD activity, so it is not the "cause".)

 

The problem is worst when downloading... even to a HDD. The drive (stupidly?) appears to waste time clearing space for the download even when I'm not saving to the SSD. This can add as much as ten minutes to a large download, and double the time to grab small files.

 

Am I alone here, or is this how SSD's act normally? Would upgrading to SATA-III "fix" this? Is this perhaps a Windows issue? Is there a patch to improve the drive's performance (drive bios was already v1.3.3 on installation) so that it's not so busy all the time?

[Garvin]

This doesn't sound normal by a long shot. In order to figure out what's being so greedy, head over to Majorgeeks and grab a copy of Anvir Task Manager Free:

 

http://majorgeeks.com/Anvir_Task_Manager_Free_d5892.html

 

Install it, then start it, L-click on the Processes tab, then R-click on the same horizontal bar the word Processes is in and put a check mark next to disk load and memory usuage (as long as they don't have a checkmark already there), note where the Disk Load column and Memory Usage column are. You might need to adjust window sizes a bit while you start downloading videos or whatnot so you can see both on the monitor at the same time. When the busy hard light activity happens, you should be able to see in real time what process and application is sucking up all your disk resources.

 

Once I'm done using the Manager, I close the main window, then right click on it's icon in the Taskbar's notification area as well and L-click exit.

 

ps: this tool comes in handy for checking for sneaky infections and programs with memory leaks as well. Doubt either apply in your case, just for future reference.

[Yellowbeard]

Are you using the MS AHCI driver or the AMD driver? Try changing the drivers and see if that helps. If you have an older AMD driver, they were not very good so I'd suggest trying a different driver from whatever you are using now.

[Mugsy323]

This doesn't sound normal by a long shot. In order to figure out what's being so greedy, head over to Majorgeeks and grab a copy of Anvir Task Manager Free

Thanks for the follow-up.

 

I haven't had much of a chance yet to do any serious debugging this morning, but I installed ATM and set the tray app to monitor disk activity.

 

When the drive became busy at one point this morning, ATM reported "100%" Disk resources were being consumed by "explorer.exe" (file explorer). File explorer was not open.

 

Since I am still migrating my Windows installation to the SSD, I still have Win7 installed on my HDD allowing me to boot into it as needed. I noticed that when my HDD is the boot drive, the problem goes away (or is greatly reduced due to lack of use), supporting my original theory.

 

My MoBo is set to AHCI mode (I tried installing Win7 w/o it -long story-, but it refused) with the SSD on SATA port-0.

 

I'm noticing the issue only pops up when I do a lot of file activity (whether it's to that drive or not does not matter.) When just browsing or writing (like now), the drive is at rest. But during Startup when Windows is loading my startup apps, or (as mentioned) when downloading, everything comes to a halt (through fortunately background processes don't freeze) until drive activity drops back to normal.

 

Ex: Last night when watching TV (DVR), when the program was over, I couldn't stop recording or change the channel for two minutes until the drive finished whatever it was doing. But the TV continued playing/recording just fine during that time.

 

AMD Phenom II X4 920

8gb ram.

120gb Force-GT boot drive

1.5TB HDD (across two drives).

[Mugsy323]

This doesn't sound normal by a long shot. In order to figure out what's being so greedy, head over to Majorgeeks and grab a copy of Anvir Task Manager Free

Hey Garvin, a brief follow-up for anyone that might run across this thread in the future.

 

The problem with my computer being frequently busy has gotten worse... much worse... but I think I have an answer now.

 

After installing "AnVir" (not to be confused with "AntiVir" antivirus), I discovered my C: drive (the SSD) was frequently hitting 100% Disk Load with the offending process as "explorer.exe" (the file explorer) even though it wasn't open.

 

Now, according to AnVir, my F: drive (a 500GB HDD) is reporting 100% Disk Load, with "SearchIndexer" as the top process.

 

So, it appears that my fresh installation of Win7 is busilly indexing all of my drives for searching. I'm hoping that eventually Win7 will finish indexing all my drives and everything will go back to normal. (It's taken me nearly a half hour to type this simple message because every 30 seconds or so, the computer gets "busy" and I must wait about a full minute for Disk Load to return to normal so I can resume typing.)

 

I'm going to try leaving my computer on overnight to see if it can "finish up". :(

[Garvin]

explorer.exe does alot more that just file management and Windows Explorer. Windows operating systems since Windows 95 load in two stages. First comes Windows HAL (hardware abstraction layer), the low level quering and setup of all the hardware devices in a system. Next approximately half way through the animation sequence where the balls come together, Windows HAL hands off control to explorer.exe. explorer.exe loads your drivers and the rest fo Windows along with all it's services and your background apps. Once Windows is fully loaded, explorer.exe continues to run as the principal conductor of the Windows orchestra (cheesey analogy but cliff notes accurate).

 

Mugsy323, as Yellowbeard pointed out, which AHCI drivers are you using? Some of the older AMD ones are problamatic. Additionally do you have both Windows 7 bootable drives hooked up at the same time, both the SSD drive and the spinning platter drive? This would explain why the SearchIndexer portion of Windows on your SSD is going hog wild trying to map the spinning platter drive. If that drive is fairly loaded; it could take awhile. The easiest solution is to turn off SearchIndexer for that drive. In my opinion, running the Indexing service found in both Vista and Windows 7 is a waste of cpu resources. It amounts to about a 2 to 4 percent increase in file access speed on a spinning platter drive when you use the search box. The benefit on an SSD is virtually nil. The only real utility that slightly benefits from the Indexer is the search box. I don't know about you but I know where everything is stored on my hard drives, plus like most folks I use descriptive titles for directory names. For me the search box is virtually useless. This is why I always disable the Indexing service on all drives. To turn off the Index service for a particular drive: go to Start, Computer, R-Click on the drive you want to disable the service on, L-Click Properties, under the General tab, remove the checkmark next to "Allow Files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties."

[kablam0r]

wow, my post was deleted?

[Mugsy323]

I don't know why your post was deleted, but here is what I've tried so far:

 

I went into the Properties for each drive and unchecked "allow indexing of this drive", but it didn't seem to help.

 

I am noticing that the problem is worst when I'm online and using my browser (currently Firefox, but I'll check again using IE.)

 

I had disabled write-to-disk caching for Firefox to speed things up, and suspected that might be playing a part, but I have the same problem under my old install of Win7 (HDD), where the SSD isn't even my boot drive.

 

According to AnVir, I'm hitting 100% disk load on my F: drive (a 500GB HDD). If the problem persists, I'm going to try unplugging it.

 

At this moments, I am scanning my Win7 installations for a virus (via Linux). Doubtful, but just in case. I'm running out of ideas.

 

Pretty sure it's not the Corsair since all the activity is on a different drive now.

[Garvin]

kablam0r,

 

It wasn't deleted, it was moved to it's own seperate thread, entitled "Issue." It can get very confusing when two semi-related issues are posted in the same thread; you end up giving the wrong set of advise to the wrong user (already did this once this month, required lot's of editing to correct). Fortunately the Moderators caught it and fixed it. See you over there.

 

Mugsy323,

 

Part of the problem is related to the fact that you have two active boot drives with identical versions of the same OS on them plugged in at the same time. Microsoft doesn't want you to do this and the only way I know of to do this without major problems arising is to employ a third-party boot manager. When you boot the machine, does a screen come up asking you which drive do you want to boot to (the Windows Boot Manager)? Was the old hard drive hooked up when you installed the new version of Windows 7 on the SSD? It looks like which ever operating system you boot off of, say the SSD drive, is trying to "fix" the other operating system on the other drive. When you boot off of the other drive spinning platter drive, it tries to "fix" the SSD drive. Such a cycle can go on and on and on and on........

[Mugsy323]

Part of the problem is related to the fact that you have two active boot drives with identical versions of the same OS on them plugged in at the same time. Microsoft doesn't want you to do this and the only way I know of to do this without major problems arising is to employ a third-party boot manager. When you boot the machine, does a screen come up asking you which drive do you want to boot to (the Windows Boot Manager)? Was the old hard drive hooked up when you installed the new version of Windows 7 on the SSD? It looks like which ever operating system you boot off of, say the SSD drive, is trying to "fix" the other operating system on the other drive. When you boot off of the other drive spinning platter drive, it tries to "fix" the SSD drive. Such a cycle can go on and on and on and on........

Thanks for the reply Gavin, you may have helped solved the mystery, but not as you might think.

 

I have several drives in my system (the result of years of upgrading but keeping my old data), and my old Win7 installation is on my 1TB D: drive, while the drive consuming all my resources is my 500gb F: drive... with my old copy of WinXP on it. I don't use any Boot Manager software. I just choose whichever drive to boot via the bios Boot Menu (F12). By default, I'm booting the SSD with Win7 (on sata port-0), but I can also boot my old Win7 (on the 1TB) and even Ubuntu Linux from a 32gb Thumb-Drive. (I currently can not boot XP (on the 500gb) due to a bios limitation (read below), but did so frequently before adding the new drive.

 

In response to your reply, I first tried disabling the 1TB with Win7 on it, and it made no difference. So I shutdown, physically unplugged the F: drive (with XP and all my backups on it) and the problem went away. But that drive has all my backup data on it, so I need it, I'll have to put it back eventually, but I need to confirm whether it is the presence of XP on that drive, or all my Backup files (zip, rar, etc) that are the source of the activity. I don't think it's my AV software, but I'll try disabling it first before I start moving things around. :)

 

My MoBo (Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H) has six SATA-II ports on it, but in AHCI Mode, I can only configure SATA-4/5 as "IDE", and I must use one for my Optical drive if I'm to boot from CD, allowing me to boot only one other "Windows" installation by plugging it into SATA-4. I haven't been able to boot my XP drive since I added the SSD because of this limitation. I kept the Win7 D: drive active: 1) because I'm still switching between the two setting up my new install, 2) Because I'm reinstalling all my old software to D: to keep from filling up the SSD, and 3) It's a 1TB drive, giving me lots of needed space.

 

I may try plugging the 500gb XP drive into SATA-5, which means I won't be able to boot from CD, but I can always swap it back in an emergency. (I can boot from a Thumbdrive, so maybe I can just clone my boot CD's to one should I need a boot disk.) Eventually I'll be able to move the old Win7 to a non-booting sata port, freeing up port-4 for the XP drive.

 

Now, if I can just figure out what the GT is doing with my XP drive that's causing it to be so busy. :(

 

Thx.

[Garvin]

It's not your Backup files it's not your AV software. You need a third party Boot Manager. Among other things, the manager will prevent whatever version of Windows you're booting into from seeing any of your other drives as Boot drives.

[Mugsy323]

It's not your Backup files it's not your AV software. You need a third party Boot Manager. Among other things, the manager will prevent whatever version of Windows you're booting into from seeing any of your other drives as Boot drives.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Would a third party boot manager hide just the Windows installations or the entire drive, because I need my drives.

 

I now have a temporary "fix" in place, but the mystery deepens.

 

I first tried disabling my AV software ("Avast"), which did nothing (natch).

 

So I unplugged the 500gb F: drive completely from the MoBo and the problem went away. But I needed access to the drive. So I moved my optical drive off the 2nd IDE channel (sata port-5) and plugged the F: drive in it's place. This meant I wouldn't be able to boot from CD.

 

When I rebooted, my GT vanished from the BIOS. Connections all good, BIOS (Phoenix) just couldn't detect it with both HDD's plugged in. Unplugging the 500gb brought it back. Hmmm.

 

So I unplugged my 1tb (with my old Win7 install) and rebooted. SSD was back AND I could boot into XP. Also, when I went into Win7, the problem I was having was also gone (Win7 on the SSD, XP drive plugged in, and no "100% disk load" problem!) Weird.

 

Wondering if temporarily unplugging the F: (XP) drive had "fixed" the problem, I went back to my original configuration and the issue returned. At least ONE of my sata HDD's had to be unplugged to avoid this "bug". But I needed both drives. So I got creative:

 

I took a cheap SATA-to-USB adapter and plugged my XP drive into a USB port (still mounted internally and powered off my p/s, but with the data cable plugged into a USB port via an adapter.) Viola' problem fixed! Kinda.

 

I now have access to all my drives w/o the annoying 100% Disk Load "bug", but I still can't boot XP (XP won't boot/run from a USB drive). :thinking:

[Garvin]

Boot Managers operate functionally at the DOS level. It's screen pops up after the BIOS finishes asking which drive you want to boot from, then which ever version of Windows/drive you selected loads. Once in Windows, the other disks look like secondary hard drives. You do have to be careful not to modify or delete anything associated with Windows on those secondary disks though because doing so can prevent that disk from being able to boot the next time you select it to boot from. Free space on those now secondary drives is essentially like any other free space. Do with it as you will. As a side benefit, you won't need to go onto the BIOS everytime you boot to select a drive, just point it to the drive you installed the boot manager on. It will do the rest.

[Mugsy323]

Boot Managers operate functionally at the DOS level. It's screen pops up after the BIOS finishes asking which drive you want to boot from, then which ever version of Windows/drive you selected loads. Once in Windows, the other disks look like secondary hard drives.

Hi Garvin,

 

I'm not going into the BIOS and switching boot drives. My BIOS includes an "F12 Boot Menu" option at startup that does the same thing you just described. I can boot any drive (including USB drives and CD's) this way, and once in, Windows automatically rearranges the drive letter associations.

 

Brief update on my "USB solution": After about 20 minutes, Windows hard crashed in mid-session. Not even a BSOD. Just a freeze-up then auto reboot. So I must unplug the XP drive from the USB port when not in use (I continue to use the Sata-to-USB adapter because it allows me to hot-swap the drive in/out as needed.)

 

I need to find a way that lets me leave the drive connected permanently (and boot XP when needed). I never had this problem until I added the SSD. Had Win7 and XP drives running side-by-side for over a year w/o trouble before this.