Silent SSD concern (m1330)

Hi all.

I installed a few programs and did some testing.

Since my new m1330 with SSD is silent, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to tell if some malware was accessing silent new SSD (Solid State Drive) so I looked around for a program that would let me know.

I found a tiny program called Diskmon. It can be minimized to sit in your taskbar and show green when the SSD is accessed to read or red when it is accessed to write

Diskmon v2.01 243kb freeware app
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...s/diskmon.mspx

Problem is that it is flashing red approximately every two seconds. I used the excellent Vista Perfmon to check out what exactly was hitting the drive so often and it looked like mostly system stuff. Minimal amounts like 2-30k every couple of seconds.

Does anyone have any advice about this?


My System

*** DELL XPS M1330 ***
Intel Santa Rosa Centrino Core 2 Duo
Processor T7300 (2.0GHz/800MhzFSB, 4M L2 Cache)
Memory 4GB DDR2, 667MHz
Graphics Card 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
13.3 Inch Wide Screen WXGA TL WLED Backlit LCD with Camera
SanDisk SSD 32GB Solid State Drive, SSDR, Serial ATA, 2.5, 9.5MM, SANDI
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive

Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition (Premium)
Property Value
Windows System Assessment
CPU Score 4.90 (Calculations per second)
Memory Score 4.80 (Memory operations per second)
Graphics Score 4.00 (Desktop performance for Windows Aero)
D3D Score 4.60 (3D business and gaming graphics performance)
Disk Score 5.80 (Disk data transfer rate)
Windows Experience Index 4.00 (Base score)

HD Tune: SanDisk SSD SATA 500 Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 49.4 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 59.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 56.1 MB/sec
Access Time : 0.2 ms
Burst Rate : 49.5 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 6.9%

 

You're worrying about your comp WAY TOO MUCH. Antispyware software are more effective at detecting malware than HD noise. Besides, Vista constantly caches files, so you can't tell the difference anyways.

 

Flashing lights won't stop malware. You're just feeding your own paranoia.

 

I would recommend a few steps.

1. Stop using computers.
2. Check into your nearest mental intitute.
3. Find a safe room - (the ones you see in the movies with the soft walls; aka where they put people with straitjackets).
4. Now " they" can't get you.

 

I'm pretty sure if there's malware on your machine, you'll be able to feel that it's there without having to see whether or not your drive's being constantly accessed. If you cant' see any difference in the day to day performance of your machine, you're probably worrying too much.

 

I'm not sure how to do it in Vista, but in XP you could open the task manager then go to the Processes tab and enable the Page Faults column. Every page fault is a time that the system tried to access ram for data but found it was not there and had to pull it out of the pagefile on the HDD.

Anything that is supposed to be in the system ram is also written to the pagefile, so you are going to have constant read/write from the HDD nearly all the time you are using the PC.

 

I expect in the near future people can sue Microsoft for psychological distress as their operating system, with its constant threat of virus attacks, causes severe paranoia in users.

 

LOL... Thanks guys

 

That is definitely a problem as it would wear out your drive very fast.

If you're looking for freedom from spyware, use Gentoo.

 

The harddrive, while it may surprise some, is actually used for more than saving spyware.
If that was all it was used for, don't you think manufacturers would just leave it out?

The harddrive is accessed every time a piece of software has anything to read or write to the harddrive. Which is often.
Even a clean windows installation accesses the harddrive regularly. One common reason is the pagefile, which may have to be accessed pretty often depending on system memory load.

 

How ironic is THIS?

I just did my first scan using McAfee Total Protection BETA and found a nasty PUP which McAfee has said requires HiJack This and the help of an expert to remove. So I am currently on another forum getting that help.

Paranoid my A**

PS I found a (hard to see) tiny blue light on the front of the laptop that shows when the drive is being accessed. sheesh

 

The constant drive accesing(every few seconds, even when the system is idle) is completely normal. Both my past 2 desktops and my current laptop did that.

So you have no reason to worry.

 

Ya my HDDs do this too.

Edit: the fact that you found something was just a coincidence.

 

You know if you stop surfing for pr0n and warez you would have much less to worry about.

 

Honestly, then what's the point of even having a computer?

 

Lol. I don't understand how you picked up a virus that quickly. My 3 computers are always virus/malware free, and I just use Adaware, Spybot, and AvastFree. I don't know what your doing, maybe don't download zwinkys and you should be good. Dude, your really paranoid though, I don't understand why. You shoudn't be getting stuff that quickly, maybe you should go to a computer safety class or something.

I'm not trying to be a ass or anything, but as I said before, all of my computers have been fine with minimal protection.

Even though I hate Mac's, if your THAT paranoid, you should just buy one and have very little to worry about when it comes to virus'.

 

being smart enough to use a VM to do those things.