Yahoo Groups archive

Digital BW, The Print

Index last updated: 2026-04-28 22:56 UTC

Thread

Hard Drive Activity

Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-25 by Richard Smallfield

Hi,
I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem.

Contrary to logic, my computer slows down when I have an external 750GB archived images hard drive switched on. (The disc also has a scratch partition for Photoshop. I use a laptop - but otherwise, funds permitting, would have a RAID scratch array.)

The thing is, when I switch on this external drive, the internal hard drive spins like mad for ages - half an hour? Ages, anyway. And the computer becomes impossibly slow.

I thought it was McAfee doing a scan this morning (which it was doing), so I turned off the scan, but still the hard drive was going nuts for half an hour or so.

So, power management issues aside, I leave my four external hard drives turned off unless I need them for something.

Can anyone suggest a reason why this might be happening?

thanks,
Richard
____________
www.richardsmallfield.com

Re: [Digital BW] Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-25 by Gary Weaver

Sounds like Windows housekeeping. Often file indexing, but there are host of critical useless services.

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
Show quoted textHide quoted text
On 6/26/2009 at 9:40 AM Richard Smallfield wrote:

>Hi,
>I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem.
>
>Contrary to logic, my computer slows down when I have an external 750GB
>archived images hard drive switched on. (The disc also has a scratch
>partition for Photoshop. I use a laptop - but otherwise, funds permitting,
>would have a RAID scratch array.)
>
>The thing is, when I switch on this external drive, the internal hard
>drive spins like mad for ages - half an hour? Ages, anyway. And the
>computer becomes impossibly slow.
>
>I thought it was McAfee doing a scan this morning (which it was doing), so
>I turned off the scan, but still the hard drive was going nuts for half an
>hour or so.
>
>So, power management issues aside, I leave my four external hard drives
>turned off unless I need them for something.
>
>Can anyone suggest a reason why this might be happening?
>
>thanks,
>Richard
>____________
>www.richardsmallfield.com
>
>
>
>------------------------------------
>
>Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, and other resources as
>they are often being updated.
>
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint
>
>If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to
>unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same
>page.
>
>Please follow these basic guidelines:
>- As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep
>them short.
>- Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or flames.
>Hostile, aggressive or argumentative users may be removed from the
>membership without notice.
>- Keep your posts and threads related to the group topic of digital B&W
>printing. Users who persistently make off-topic posts may be removed from
>the membership.
>- By posting on this forum you agree to abide by the group rules and
>guidelines, and to abide by the actions and decisions of the group Owner
>and Moderators. See �Group Topic, Rules and Guidelines� in the Files
>section:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
>
>BY PARTICIPATING IN AND/OR POSTING MESSAGES TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT
>YAHOO! GROUP YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE �OWNER� AND
>�MODERATORS� OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO
>YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR
>EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF
>PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF THE 
>�OWNER� AND �MODERATORS� OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP HAVE BEEN
>ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE
>OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; (ii)
>UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iii)
>STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT
>YAHOO GROUP; OR (iv) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE
>PRINT YAHOO GROUP.
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

Re: [Digital BW] Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-25 by Michael King

you've probably go windows search autoindexing enabled

2009/6/25 Gary Weaver <garww@...>

> Sounds like Windows housekeeping. Often file indexing, but there are host
> of critical useless services.
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 6/26/2009 at 9:40 AM Richard Smallfield wrote:
>
> >Hi,
> >I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem.
> >
> >Contrary to logic, my computer slows down when I have an external 750GB
> >archived images hard drive switched on. (The disc also has a scratch
> >partition for Photoshop. I use a laptop - but otherwise, funds permitting,
> >would have a RAID scratch array.)
> >
> >The thing is, when I switch on this external drive, the internal hard
> >drive spins like mad for ages - half an hour? Ages, anyway. And the
> >computer becomes impossibly slow.
> >
> >I thought it was McAfee doing a scan this morning (which it was doing), so
> >I turned off the scan, but still the hard drive was going nuts for half an
> >hour or so.
> >
> >So, power management issues aside, I leave my four external hard drives
> >turned off unless I need them for something.
> >
> >Can anyone suggest a reason why this might be happening?
> >
> >thanks,
> >Richard
> >____________
> >www.richardsmallfield.com
> >
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------
> >
> >Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, and other resources as
> >they are often being updated.
> >
> >http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint
> >
> >If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to
> >unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same
> >page.
> >
> >Please follow these basic guidelines:
> >- As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep
> >them short.
> >- Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or flames.
> >Hostile, aggressive or argumentative users may be removed from the
> >membership without notice.
> >- Keep your posts and threads related to the group topic of digital B&W
> >printing. Users who persistently make off-topic posts may be removed from
> >the membership.
> >- By posting on this forum you agree to abide by the group rules and
> >guidelines, and to abide by the actions and decisions of the group Owner
> >and Moderators. See �Group Topic, Rules and Guidelines� in the Files
> >section:
> >http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
> >
> >BY PARTICIPATING IN AND/OR POSTING MESSAGES TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT
> >YAHOO! GROUP YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE �OWNER� AND
> >�MODERATORS� OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO
> >YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR
> >EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF
> >PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF THE
> >�OWNER� AND �MODERATORS� OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP HAVE BEEN
> >ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE
> >OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; (ii)
> >UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iii)
> >STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT
> >YAHOO GROUP; OR (iv) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE
> >PRINT YAHOO GROUP.
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, and other resources as
> they are often being updated.
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint
>
> If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to
> unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same
> page.
>
> Please follow these basic guidelines:
> - As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep
> them short.
> - Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or flames.
> Hostile, aggressive or argumentative users may be removed from the
> membership without notice.
> - Keep your posts and threads related to the group topic of digital B&W
> printing. Users who persistently make off-topic posts may be removed from
> the membership.
> - By posting on this forum you agree to abide by the group rules and
> guidelines, and to abide by the actions and decisions of the group Owner and
> Moderators. See �Group Topic, Rules and Guidelines� in the Files section:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
>
> BY PARTICIPATING IN AND/OR POSTING MESSAGES TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT
> YAHOO! GROUP YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE �OWNER� AND
> �MODERATORS� OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU
> FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY
> DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS,
> GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF THE  �OWNER� AND
> �MODERATORS� OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
> POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY
> TO USE THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; (ii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR
> ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iii) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY
> THIRD PARTY ON THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; OR (iv) ANY OTHER
> MATTER RELATING TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP.
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re:Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by Tom Fielder

I finally had someone straighten me out of RAID.  As we all know, RAID
provides a second drive that mirrors the first drive in real time.  The
issue is that if you totally screw-up a file and save it by mistake, RAID
will automatically mirror the screwed up file and you're left without a
backup.  The better arrangement is a system of backup disks that backup
every hour or once a day or whatever time schedule that you want to
establish.  Many folks have a primary drive backed up daily (or more often)
on a second drive and then a third drive that is kept offsite and backed up
once a month.  Some also do DVD backups to be kept offsite.  



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re:Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by Greg

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Tom Fielder" <tfielder@...> wrote:
>
> I finally had someone straighten me out of RAID.  As we all know, RAID
> provides a second drive that mirrors the first drive in real time.  

There are many forms of RAID, what you describe is RAID 1.


>The
> issue is that if you totally screw-up a file and save it by mistake, RAID
> will automatically mirror the screwed up file and you're left without a
> backup.


So what do you want, the software to know when you are doing something stupid so it can save you from it? If you make a mistake own it and fix it, don't blame something else for it.

Re: [Digital BW] Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by C D Tobie

On Jun 25, 2009, at 5:40 PM, Richard Smallfield wrote:

> I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem.
>
> Contrary to logic, my computer slows down when I have an external  
> 750GB archived images hard drive switched on. (The disc also has a  
> scratch partition for Photoshop. I use a laptop - but otherwise,  
> funds permitting, would have a RAID scratch array.)
>
> The thing is, when I switch on this external drive, the internal  
> hard drive spins like mad for ages - half an hour? Ages, anyway. And  
> the computer becomes impossibly slow.
>
> I thought it was McAfee doing a scan this morning (which it was  
> doing), so I turned off the scan, but still the hard drive was going  
> nuts for half an hour or so.
>
> So, power management issues aside, I leave my four external hard  
> drives turned off unless I need them for something.
>
> Can anyone suggest a reason why this might be happening?

You did not mention your OS and other relevant factors, but given the  
comment about McAfee, we can assume Windows.

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
CDTobie@...


  ----------


Datacolor
www.datacolor.com/Spyder3



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re:Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by Seth Rossman

Change your AV schedule to manual (but, remember to do so.)
Turn off the indexing, at least on the external.
Also, Photoshop scratch on a USB drive is REALLY slowing you 
down--partition or not.
Seth



      ========================================


      Posted by: "Richard Smallfield" r.smallfield@...
      <mailto:r.smallfield@...?Subject=%20Re%3AHard%20Drive%20Activity>

Contrary to logic, my computer slows down when I have an external 750GB 
archived images hard drive switched on. (The disc also has a scratch 
partition for Photoshop. I use a laptop - but otherwise, funds 
permitting, would have a RAID scratch array.)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Digital BW] Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by Richard Smallfield

Windows Vista SP1; Dell Inspiron, 3gb ram.

Thanks David. 

Richard

At 02:41 a.m. Saturday 27/06/2009, you wrote:



>On Jun 25, 2009, at 5:40 PM, Richard Smallfield wrote:
>
>> I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem.
>>
>> Contrary to logic, my computer slows down when I have an external 
>> 750GB archived images hard drive switched on. (The disc also has a 
>> scratch partition for Photoshop. I use a laptop - but otherwise, 
>> funds permitting, would have a RAID scratch array.)
>>
>> The thing is, when I switch on this external drive, the internal 
>> hard drive spins like mad for ages - half an hour? Ages, anyway. And 
>> the computer becomes impossibly slow.
>>
>> I thought it was McAfee doing a scan this morning (which it was 
>> doing), so I turned off the scan, but still the hard drive was going 
>> nuts for half an hour or so.
>>
>> So, power management issues aside, I leave my four external hard 
>> drives turned off unless I need them for something.
>>
>> Can anyone suggest a reason why this might be happening?
>
>You did not mention your OS and other relevant factors, but given the 
>comment about McAfee, we can assume Windows.
>
>C. David Tobie
>Global Product Technology Manager
>Digital Imaging & Home Theater
><mailto:CDTobie%40datacolor.com>CDTobie@...
>
>----------
>
>Datacolor
>www.datacolor.com/Spyder3
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>


____________
www.richardsmallfield.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Digital BW] Re:Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by Richard Smallfield

Hi,
there are different versions of RAID.

I can't remember the name for the version I was talking about, but this version stripes data across, say, five discs and ends up with performance from the scratch disk that is as fast as RAM - so you can end up with the performance equivalent 80GB of ram for photoshop.

Amadou's book talks about this and a friend up the road, who has this setup, told me about the speed equivalence. 

r54[p-0 (The cat wrote that bit, but it looks very techy to me.)

Richard

At 01:50 a.m. Saturday 27/06/2009, you wrote:


>I finally had someone straighten me out of RAID. As we all know, RAID
>provides a second drive that mirrors the first drive in real time. The
>issue is that if you totally screw-up a file and save it by mistake, RAID
>will automatically mirror the screwed up file and you're left without a
>backup. The better arrangement is a system of backup disks that backup
>every hour or once a day or whatever time schedule that you want to
>establish. Many folks have a primary drive backed up daily (or more often)
>on a second drive and then a third drive that is kept offsite and backed up
>once a month. Some also do DVD backups to be kept offsite. 
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>


____________
www.richardsmallfield.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Digital BW] Re:Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by Richard Smallfield

Hi Seth,
this is a quote from the Vista Help files:

>Can I turn the Windows search index on or off?
>
>No, but if you have Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed, you can pause the index for 15 minutes at a time. For more information about installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), see Learn how to install Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).
>
>The Windows search index improves the efficiency of your searches by keeping track of file names and important file properties for most of the files stored on your computer. The index is what makes it possible for searches to take just a few seconds instead of several minutes. The index is always on, unless you pause it, because it is essential for fast searches.
>
>When the index is running, it generally won't affect your computer's performance. When you make changes to files, however, the index quickly updates those changes, momentarily putting a small additional load on your computer's resources. 


Richard


At 03:15 a.m. Saturday 27/06/2009, you wrote:
>Change your AV schedule to manual (but, remember to do so.)
>Turn off the indexing, at least on the external.
>Also, Photoshop scratch on a USB drive is REALLY slowing you 
>down--partition or not.
>Seth
>
>========================================
>
>Posted by: "Richard Smallfield" <mailto:r.smallfield%40paradise.net.nz>r.smallfield@...
><mailto:r.smallfield@...?Subject=%20Re%3AHard%20Drive%20Activity>
>
>Contrary to logic, my computer slows down when I have an external 750GB 
>archived images hard drive switched on. (The disc also has a scratch 
>partition for Photoshop. I use a laptop - but otherwise, funds 
>permitting, would have a RAID scratch array.)
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>


____________
www.richardsmallfield.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Digital BW] Re:Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by Gary Weaver

Gee, I thought that is what memory(brain cells) is for.

What would be nice is if it could find my network.

gar

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 6/27/2009 at 9:42 AM Richard Smallfield wrote:

....... The index is what makes it possible for
>searches to take just a few seconds instead of several minutes. The index
>is always on, unless you pause it, because it is essential for fast
>searches.
>>
.......
Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
>Richard
>

[Digital BW] Re:Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-26 by Greg

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Richard Smallfield <r.smallfield@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> there are different versions of RAID.
> 
> I can't remember the name for the version I was talking about, but this version stripes data across, say, five discs and ends up with performance from the scratch disk that is as fast as RAM - so you can end up with the performance equivalent 80GB of ram for photoshop.
> 


Sounds like RAID 0 (zero) and offers no data redundancy. Great for PS scratch disks, system page file (swap file), and printer spool space.

There is also something new, it's a PCIe card that runs 4+ sticks of RAM and appears to the system like a disk, this is supposed to be very fast (forget who makes it though).

And some solid state disks are extremely fast, run them in a RAID 0 array and you would get really good speed. This is probably the most expensive choice and would easily double or triple the cost of an equal number of Velociraptor drives and a good hardware RAID controller like the ones from 3ware.

Re: [Digital BW] Re:Hard Drive Activity

2009-06-28 by StudioPBG@Gmail

Richard

You are referreing to Raid 5

Paul
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> From: Richard Smallfield <r.smallfield@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:40:44 +1200
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re:Hard Drive Activity
> 
> Hi,
> there are different versions of RAID.
> 
> I can't remember the name for the version I was talking about, but this
> version stripes data across, say, five discs and ends up with performance from
> the scratch disk that is as fast as RAM - so you can end up with the
> performance equivalent 80GB of ram for photoshop.
> 
> Amadou's book talks about this and a friend up the road, who has this setup,
> told me about the speed equivalence.
> 
> r54[p-0 (The cat wrote that bit, but it looks very techy to me.)
> 
> Richard
> 
> At 01:50 a.m. Saturday 27/06/2009, you wrote:
> 
> 
>> I finally had someone straighten me out of RAID. As we all know, RAID
>> provides a second drive that mirrors the first drive in real time. The
>> issue is that if you totally screw-up a file and save it by mistake, RAID
>> will automatically mirror the screwed up file and you're left without a
>> backup. The better arrangement is a system of backup disks that backup
>> every hour or once a day or whatever time schedule that you want to
>> establish. Many folks have a primary drive backed up daily (or more often)
>> on a second drive and then a third drive that is kept offsite and backed up
>> once a month. Some also do DVD backups to be kept offsite.
>> 
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> ____________
> www.richardsmallfield.com
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------
> 
> Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, and other resources as
> they are often being updated.
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint
> 
> If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to
> unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same
> page.
> 
> Please follow these basic guidelines:
> - As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep
> them short.
> - Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or flames.
> Hostile, aggressive or argumentative users may be removed from the membership
> without notice.
> - Keep your posts and threads related to the group topic of digital B&W
> printing. Users who persistently make off-topic posts may be removed from the
> membership.
> - By posting on this forum you agree to abide by the group rules and
> guidelines, and to abide by the actions and decisions of the group Owner and
> Moderators. See „Group Topic, Rules and Guidelines‰ in the Files section:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
> 
> BY PARTICIPATING IN AND/OR POSTING MESSAGES TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT
> YAHOO! GROUP YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE „OWNER‰ AND
> „MODERATORS‰ OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU
> FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY
> DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL,
> USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF THE  „OWNER‰ AND „MODERATORS‰ OF
> DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
> DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE DIGITAL BW,
> THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; (ii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR
> TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iii) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE
> DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; OR (iv) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE
> DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP.
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
>

Move to quarantaine

This moves the raw source file on disk only. The archive index is not changed automatically, so you still need to run a manual refresh afterward.