T61P hard drive runs constant for 20 mins on bootup

Even with 1 meg of turbo memory, my T61P takes forever to finish bootup. The hard drive is constantly accessed for about 20 mins after bootup. When checking processes, I see this three items with the most I/O reads & writes:

1.) Symantec Service framwork (ccSvcHst.exe)
2.) NT Kernal & System (System)
3.) Local Security Authority Process (lsass.exe)

I run vista ultimate with 2 gigs of ram, 1 meg turbo memory, 7200 hard drive.
I have stopped windows indexing and most auto update programs. I've turned off every "auto this and that" that I can find. Still can't stop all the constant hard drive access.

Can someone please help me take control of my computer! I really don't want to do a clean install - I know...I'm stubborn.

 

Look up 'clean install guide'.

Factory installs appear to have gobs of junk that even Microsoft found too meaningless to include in Windows.

Your mileage may vary.

 

Norton is the biggest resource hog for an AV. There are better ones out there and if you want free there's AVG or Avira.

 

Try going through this Vista tweaking guide to speed up your system: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

 

Grench - thanks but no thanks. As I mentioned in my post, I'm not interested in doing a clean install.

Arkit3kt - Thanks for the link. I have made some of the changes it recommends but it hasn't helped much.

Doe anyone know what may be causing the excessive hard drive accesses based on the information I provided? I would really like to identify what the little demon is that is causing this problem. Is this something that is common with the T61P?

I want control of my laptop!

 

well I've already posted one possibility why based on the logs. And no its not common, but I run vista ult x64 with a clean install.

 

Yes, it's true that in the past Norton was a great resource hog, but with the newer version that isn't the case so much. And if it is norton, what can I turn off to stop what ever it is doing?

What about the other two items that does a lot of I/O reads and writes (hundereds of thousands)? Does anyone have know why they continue to run?

So what I'm reading is that unless I do a complete clean install, I'm stuck with this problem? I've been reading these forums for sometime now and I know there are some pretty sharp people here. Any other helpful ideas on what specifically could be happening and what can be done, short of a reinstall?

 

You can always try a custom factory install, allowing you not install bloatware in the first place.

To do so, press the blue button upon startup at the ThinkPad splash screen and follow the screen prompts to perform a custom install.

Make sure you backup your data before so.

 

It could just be indexing.

 

Couldn't agree more, at least for the Home versions of their products (Corporate stuff isn't too bad).

Avast! Antivirus is also an excellent free solution.

I also agree with some others' guesses that it could be part of the Indexing service. If you're not constantly searching for files, I'd look into disabling this service.

Finally, download a copy of "HiJack This!". It will show you everything that loads at startup on your system, and may help you find the culprit (note: It helps to have a bit of techie understanding here).

 

He said in the OP that he disabled that.

 

Thanks, I may have to resort to that.

 

Pocket, I turned windows indexing off already

 

Guess I should also learn to use the multi-quote...sorry guys!
LoneWolf, I appreciate you advice on "HiJack This". Sounds like this is what I need to identify whats taking over my hard drive.

Thanks for the advice from anyone. You guys are the best!

 

I ran the factory install on my T61p (Ultimate) and 3000 (Business) for a really long time and never had that problem at all. I use Avast.

Turn your virus protection off and test.


Also know that Nortons is going to want to get updates at first.

A look at the task manger, adding items for viewing will tell you what it is that's doing the I/O. Use the taskmanager to establish is something is paging.

 

Remove Norton, use Kaspersky as an Anti-virus program and then do a scan to make sure you computer isn't infected by a virus or trojan. Also, go buy or d/l a program called Spyware Doctor, it is an excellent spyware etc... remover which can also speed up your system.

Might want to also do a complete Windows update just to get the newest files from MS and also check to see your drivers are all up-to-date. If you want to take a little risk, then also disable pagefiling (under control panel -> systems -> advance -> settings "performance" -> advance -> "virtual memory")

Last but not least, DISABLE any real-time antivirus or spyware scanning program. Do not let the program constantly scan your computer, because this will really slow down your computer. Last few tips, run Windows disk cleaner to remove any temp/useless files and then run Disk Defragmenter. Also, you might want to check if your HDD is partitioned, if it's just a single drive w/ 100+ GB then it will tend to take a bit longer to load in the first place, compared to a 100+GB HDD that is partitioned into 3 or 4 sectors.


Good luck,
Travis

 

Thanks Travis, as I usually do with my computers, I have turned off / disabled all auto "anything" including auto updates and scanning of any kind. Once a week I manually update the OS and other programs. I will give the pagefile item a try and I think I'll uninstall Norton too. I don't trust just turning off Norton as this is one sneaky program.

In case anyone else is using Norton, if you think you've stopped Norton from auto updates by unchecking the auto update feature from the Norton control panel, you haven't. You must also click on the Symantec LiveUpdate Icon in windows control panel and disable it there too.

 

Unless the OP is an expert or very careful, I'd advise against this.

Admittedly, realtime scanners do take some performance off the top of a system. However, without realtime scanning, the risk for infection is far higher, and, IMO, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The best thing to do, IMO, is to find a realtime scanner that is known to have low resource usage. I've had few issues with Avast! Antivirus and consider it to be a good free antivirus program. For those that would like to pay for a product (which might get more features), eSet's NOD32 antivirus program gets high marks from many for being excellent at detection/prevention, as well as having low resource usage.

As for spyware scanners, I don't use realtime ones mainly because I'm experienced enough to practice safe surfing. However, there are several great free programs out there worth having installed (better to use all of them; some programs are better at catching one type of malware than others, and vice versa).

SpyBot Search & Destroy, AdAware SE, and Super AntiSpyware all have their fans. Using HiJack This! is a good way of looking at things manually if you're techie enough, and Mark Russinovich's excellent program Process Explorer can be helpful too. Microsoft also makes Windows Defender available for free. I'm 50/50 on this one --new machines run it fine, but it seems to occasionally have a problem with some older ones (i.e., Pentium-M processor systems), in those cases pegging CPU usage at 99% for long periods of time. But, Windows Defender is the only free realtime spyware scanner I know of, and if your system is newer, it can be worth having around.

 

LoneWolf15,
Like you I'm also very careful on my surfing habits, but I still think it's important to run an active virus program. Also you hit on my other two favorite programs that I use, Spybot and AdAware SE.

Update to my problem...turns out it's not Norton! I uninstalled it and even disconnected from the internet all together. Guess what, hard drive still sang for another 20 or so mins - didn't miss a beat. Here's another clue for you sleuths. I have two log in's, one for my business side and another sign in (hence different desktop, outlook email, etc,.) for home use. Just switching from one log in to another, starts the whole hard drive access all over again!

Let me ask another question. When looking at processes in task manager, do any of you have any processes that continually click away at the I/O read - writes?

 

There are only three things that spring immediately to mind as causing continuous disk access:

a) -Constant file swapping due to lack of RAM (or too many applications open for the amount of resources you have)

b) -A memory-resident program such as a realtime virus scanner, content indexer, etc. that frequently access the disk as part of its programming, or

c) -Malware.

I'd recommend using HiJack This! to create a logfile; if the logfile isn't too long, you could paste it here for everyone to take a crack at it, otherwise, feel free to PM me and paste it there, and I'll see if I can help you find a solution.

EDIT: One thing I almost completely forgot, but should have thought of after seeing your most recent post. Are you using Fast User Switching to switch between your two logins? This takes a lot of system resources, since you can have applications open for both users at the same time, and could cause a fair amount of swapping to disk. If you are, I recommend no longer using it unless you're maxed out on RAM; save and log off one user before switching to the other.

 

I noticed constant drive activity last night on my new T61p. It seems that the Diskeeper utility that came pre-installed has a very agreesive defrag schedule, every day! Once that was turned off, all is well again.