General PC hardware question RE: HDD's

[Pob]

I like my PC's quiet, and something I have never found an answer to is why hard drives will spin-up for no apparent reason.
For example, I have one drive with the OS and programs including GBPVR, and another with just recordings on.
If I go to look at the TV guide, the recordings drive will always spin-up! Thus a delay waiting for it before the PC becomes responsive, and 30 minutes of the extra noise before it turns off again.
Same thing happens in windows if IE is launched, or the recycle bin is emptied (even though the recording drive has no recycle space allocated).
Just a minor annoyance, but something googling has not helped with...

[johnsonx42]

Windows generally likes to take a peak at all the devices under various conditions. It's not at all a hardware thing, strictly Windows OS and/or Application. I'm surprised GB-PVR does it when you bring up the TV guide though... I really don't think mine acts that way. Do you have swap or temp on the recordings drive?

[martint123]

Grab a copy of filemon to see what the system is reading/writing. Things can be quite busy when "nothing" is happening.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysin...96642.aspx

[Pob]

Grab a copy of filemon to see what the system is reading/writing. Things can be quite busy when "nothing" is happening.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysin...96642.aspx

Thanks I will give it a try. Hope it's easier to use than Process Explorer - can't make head nor tail of it!

[Pob]

Windows generally likes to take a peak at all the devices under various conditions. It's not at all a hardware thing, strictly Windows OS and/or Application. I'm surprised GB-PVR does it when you bring up the TV guide though... I really don't think mine acts that way. Do you have swap or temp on the recordings drive?

No swap or temp on the recordings drive, that's what puzzles me. The guide will spin up the drive everytime - and you can hear reading or writing going on once it does...will try the filemon utility as suggested.