Constant disk read write

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We have noticed that the disk read/write lights on the front of our workstations are constantly blinking – even when the PCs should be asleep or hibernating.

Our concern is excessive wear on our drives.

The apps that appear to be running when the machines are idle include:

• System
• Managed machine Service Mini
• Ppped (32 bit)
• Search
• Service Host: Diagnostic Policy Service\Service Host: Connected devices Platform User Service_30e3b40, and
• Service Host: Windows Event Log

Do we need to be concerned?

If so, how do we fix it?

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If you didn’t know already, the Managed Machine Service Mini process is from Acronis, and the Ppped (32 bit) is from Cyberpower.

Search is probably the search indexer indexing what it may be perceiving as changes to individual files’ properties or contents. On both of my machines, (NOT in a networked or in an environment where they were controlled through WSUS) I disabled the search indexing service through the options in the GUI, and I haven’t heard a peep since. If I need to search for a file, the search works well for my tastes, in that it isn’t “instantaneous” (due to no index), but it isn’t anywhere near being as s l o w as molasses.

Kathy, are the symptoms you’re describing occurring on work-related machines in a client-server (WSUS-type) of environment? Is this happening on the machine(s) you just acquired within the last month or two?

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Kathy Stevens

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Bob99

Thanks for getting back.

We will try to disable the problematic functions in Acronis and Cyberpower.

We have reduced the search indexer of our PCs to indexing files in the Documents director already.  May need to reduce further.

The machines in question are not part of a network.

The problem is occurring in both new and old workstations.

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I’m a multi-year Cyberpower user.  If you have the Cyberpower software to set to automatically shutdown your computer(s) during a power outage (vital) and notify you with a pop up screen and by email, etc., then disabling the software will disable your monitoring and shutdown protection settings.  The Cyberpower UPS will still provide backup power until the battery is exhausted, but then just cuts the power with no shutdown.  My Cyberpower CPU usage is very small.

I was also an Acronis user for a while and it’s CPU usage was high if I had set to create automatic backups,  especially for backups of real time changes continually.

Desktop mobo Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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Kathy Stevens

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

Our concern is excessive wear on our drives.

When was the last time you had a drive wear out? The last one I saw was 30 years ago – you had to tap the drive to get it to spin up, then copy the data off quickly.

Modern drives (HDD & SSD) are very reliable and we know you have solid backups, so your new years resolution should be “relax more in the knowledge of a system well protected”.

cheers, Paul

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Kathy Stevens

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Paul T

Thanks.

Good advice to relax in the New Year.

Will turn Acronis and Cyberpower back on.

But I still question why the two apps continue to read/write to disk when the system is supposed to be asleep or hybernating.

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

But I still question why the two apps continue to read/write to disk when the system is supposed to be asleep or hybernating.

When a PC is in sleep/hibernate mode, the drives are powered down. So, if you’re seeing read/write activity, then it’s not in sleep or hibernate mode!

The most likely reasons for this would be either…

1- Some process/service is not shutting down to allow the PC to enter sleep/hibernate mode.

2- The power settings aren’t configured properly for it to actually enter sleep/hibernate mode.

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Kathy Stevens, b

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There is a chance that the built in Windows feature SleepStudy might give clues about what and why is happening in sleep modes.  I much prefer Hibernate to Sleep since Hibernate is a full power off mode with IMO more predictable behavior.  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/device-experiences/modern-standby-sleepstudy

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Kathy Stevens, windbg, b

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I started this post due to a concern about the disk read/write lights on the front of our workstations  constantly blinking – even when the PCs should have been asleep or hibernating.

Our concern is excessive wear on our drives.

The problem turned out to be that a number of apps continued to work away even when we were not at the computers.

After fiddling around with settings of the problem apps we took a step back and thought about it.

And then went back to the old standard – keep it simple stupid.

Instead of fiddling around under the hood the solution was simple.  Simply click the Microsoft flag on the lower left-hand corner of the monitor, click power, then click sleep.

The problem goes away by forcing the computer to go to sleep.

Now all we have to do is undo all of the tweaks we made to Acronis, Cyberpower, Indexing, etc.

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We thought that we had solved the continuous disk read/write activity when our work stations are idle. Simply put the machines to sleep.

Not so. Our work stations have continued to wake up from sleep on their own and the disks begin to spin.

But on one of our new workstations, I noticed that the notification manager on the bottom right corner of the screen was reporting what is happening when the machine wakes up.

We will monitor the notifications tomorrow and see if it helps to discover what is going on when the computer is trying to sleep.

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Open a Command Prompt – you may need to be admin.
Type: powercfg /waketimers

What is shown?

cheers, Paul

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