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My Read/Write HDD activity light stays on constantly everytime I boot up Windows

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For the past few weeks I've been noticing something a bit strange that I haven't noticed before. Whenever I turn on my computer and boot up Windows. Even after I login, I notice that the HDD/SSD activity light remains on constantly for a really long time. Even though I'm not doing anything. It'll stop after maybe 10 or more minutes. I'm kinda paranoid. Is there a way to figure out what application or exactly what is being written/read from my HDD?

ASUS ROG Maximus Hero XII ▪︎ Intel i9-10900K ▪︎ NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE ▪︎ 64GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro ▪︎ Windows 10 Pro (21H1) ▪︎ Samsung 970 EVO Pro 1TB NVME SSD (OS Drive) ▪︎ Samsung 860 EVO 2TB SATA SSD ▪︎ Seagate 4TB SATA HDD ▪︎ Corsair RMx 850W PSU

The easiest thing is to simply open up Task Manager and sort the list of applications by disk usage. 

The most common culprits in my experience are antivirus software (including and especially Windows Defender) running scans in the background and the Windows Compatibility Telemetry.

Simon Kelsey

sig_FSLBetaTester.jpg

 

Edit: obviously typing whilst skelsey was!

With earlier versions of Windows, the OS wasn't really usable until all of the required bits had been loaded during the start. In an attempt to speed things up, Windows 10 is usable as soon as just the essential bits are loaded but it does mean that data is still being read from the drives for a while after everything seems to be working normally, hence the drive lights keep flashing for a while.

For it to go on for 10 minutes, it could be something like your antivirus updating or scanning. If you open Task Manager (Ctrl/Shift/Esc) and go to the Processes tab, in the CPU column you can see which apps are running and using processor time during the start sequence. If you click on the letters "CPU" at the top of the column, it will put the most active processes at the top. You can also look under the Startup tab to see what runs during startup.

i7-14700k | Asus ROG STRIX Z790-F Gaming WIFI | 32GB DDR5 RAM | MSI RTX 4080 Super | WD Black SN850X 1TB & 2TB | Corsair HX1000i ATX3.0 | MSI MAG401QR 40" monitor | Win 11 Pro 64-bit | Meta Quest 3

Here's a good writeup on Technet on how to use Task Manager and Resource Monitor (it's written for Windows 7 and 8 but works the same way in 10):

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_8/how-to-use-task-manager-and-resource-monitor-to/79d0e537-6c62-4fcc-866a-ab16c713727c

Philip Manhart  :American Flag:
 

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- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." ~ Plato

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