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    HDD Light always on?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Easy301, Jun 14, 2008.

  1. Easy301

    Easy301 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey guys, I just noticed while running vista on my M1530, the HDD light is always on. Is this just Vista being, well...vista, or something I should worry about? Thanks!
     
    Easy301, Jun 14, 2008
    #1
  2. roy_bo

    roy_bo Notebook Guru

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    i have just got used to that
     
    roy_bo, Jun 14, 2008
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  3. The_Observer

    The_Observer 9262 is the best:)

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    Probably due to many "features" of vista which causes HDD thrashing.Did you follow the tweak guide?
     
    The_Observer, Jun 14, 2008
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  4. Easy301

    Easy301 Notebook Enthusiast

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    No I have not. Although if I leave it as it is, is it decreasing any preformance? If not, having the light on does not bother me. Edit: it seems to stop after about 5 mins or so.
     
    Easy301, Jun 14, 2008
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  5. RedBaronK

    RedBaronK Notebook Consultant

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    it did on mine too.... takes long time before the hardrive settles down again. vista is a POS.
     
    RedBaronK, Jun 14, 2008
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  6. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    flipfire, Jun 14, 2008
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  7. Just Lou

    Just Lou Notebook Evangelist

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    This is mainly caused my Vista's "Superfetch". If you turn it off, the constant HD access will stop. There are many threads on the subject here. Here's the latest one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=260206

    Myself and many others have turned this off, and find Vista is much better without it. It is supposed to speed up program starts, but I find it pretty useless.
     
    Just Lou, Jun 14, 2008
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  8. Just Lou

    Just Lou Notebook Evangelist

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    Someone read my mind. ;)
     
    Just Lou, Jun 14, 2008
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  9. Easy301

    Easy301 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks guys. Will keeping Super Fetching on hurt my hard drive? From what I read, it works well, I like it's purpose and would be willing to keep it on if it wont hurt anything.


    Edit: Also, will turning indexing off improve preformance?
     
    Easy301, Jun 14, 2008
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  10. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    Disabling it will stop the HD thrashing. Theres no definate proof that it will wear your HD
     
    flipfire, Jun 14, 2008
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  11. Just Lou

    Just Lou Notebook Evangelist

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    Superfetch won't hurt your HD, but I'd like to know where you read it works so well. The vast majority of subjects on the matter that I've read have nothing good to say about it. My personal test also show it to be pretty useless and annoying. I have indexing off because I never use the search function, but turning it off will not improve performance that much.
     
    Just Lou, Jun 14, 2008
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  12. Easy301

    Easy301 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Lou, I read it in a couple of posts on various forums. Although, please dont take my word for it as I am very new to vista and still learning. In your personal tests did turning Superfetch off do anything beneficial, preformance or otherwise?
     
    Easy301, Jun 14, 2008
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  13. Just Lou

    Just Lou Notebook Evangelist

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    I've been playing with Superfetch for weeks now, and the only difference I can see with it on or off is that when it's on, my system has constant disk activity for several minutes at a time. I've seen nothing beneficial to leaving it on. I suggest you experiment with it yourself, and see what your results are. There are people that think it's great, but I'm trying to figure out why since I can't get any positive results.
     
    Just Lou, Jun 14, 2008
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  14. Easy301

    Easy301 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Alright will do, thank you.
     
    Easy301, Jun 14, 2008
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  15. jfdube

    jfdube Notebook Evangelist

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    Whatever you do, do NOT disable Superfetch. This is the single most important performance improvement feature of Vista. If anything, disable the indexing service.
     
    jfdube, Jun 14, 2008
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  16. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    yeah its such a important performance improvement, that when i disabled it the performance is exactly the same.
     
    flipfire, Jun 15, 2008
    #16