Hard disk always active and computer is very slow - wasn't used to be like this

Hi all.
I'm running Win7 Ultimate 64bit.
This is my rig:
CPU: Intel E8500 @ 3.45GHz (OC)
RAM: OCZ Titanium 2x2GB @ 1152MHz FSB432x8.0
MB: Gigabyte EX38-DS4 (BIOS F3)
GPU: ATI Palit 4870 1GB Dual Edition

I have WD HDD 500GB Sata2 and WD HDD 160GB Sata1 for my videos and music only.
The main HDD has two partitions C (100GB) and E (400GB).

I believe my computer is quite good and fast. At least it used to be. From some reason in the past month the HDD is grinding like a maniac and it makes everything slow. After each restart I have to wait at least 5 minutes for it to relax so I can launch applications.

I haven't installed anything dubious and I regularly check for viruses with NOD32 and spywares with SpyBot and also use windows defender and firewall. I also use Ccleaner for registry and cache files cleanup.

At system startup I'm running these applications:
1. Windows Sidebar
2. RocketDock
3. Stikynotes
4. Realtek ravcpl64.exe (sound thingy)
5. ESET NOD32

Disabling these apps didn't solve nor improve anything. My computer is powerful enough to handle these apps quickly.

These are the non-windows services that are running on startup:


And this is a screenshot of my HDD activity after startup:



Not long ago I could launch several apps simultaneously and they'd show up very quickly (firefox, office outlook, MSN messenger, Skype, Photoshop CS4).
I used to wait 10 seconds for Photoshop CS4 64bit to fully open with all the additional plugins, now I have to wait about 30 seconds!

Please don't tell me to reinstall Windows. But I'm open for other suggestions

Anymore info that can shed some light?

Thanks

Gil

According to your screenshots, several network (svchost.exe) services and Eset kernel (ekrn.exe) are using your disk.

You're having quite a number of services active, of course if you need them leave them on, but I would consider disabling some of those services, especially if this is your home pc without a network.

You know, Control Panel > Administrative > Services, do your own search on each.



If you set a service to MANUAL, this service won't run on startup, but whenever Windows needs to start this service it can easily start and use it.


Automatic starts the services at system logon

Manual starts a service as required or when called from an application (according to definition, but only some of the time in practice, depending on the service),

Disabled completely disables the service and prevents it and its dependencies from running.

Automatic (Delayed) starts the service a short while after the system has finished booting and initial busy operations, so that the system boots up faster





Windows 7 Service Configurations by Black Viper

Windows 7 Services that can be Safely Set to MANUAL - Tweaking with Vishal

Originally Posted by cybercore

According to your screenshots, several network (svchost.exe) services and Eset kernel (ekrn.exe) are using your disk.

You're having quite a number of services active, of course if you need them leave them on, but I would consider disabling some of those services, especially if this is your home pc without a network.

You know, Control Panel > Administrative > Services, do your own search on each.



If you set a service to MANUAL, this service won't run on startup, but whenever Windows needs to start this service it can easily start and use it.


Automatic starts the services at system logon

Manual starts a service as required or when called from an application (according to definition, but only some of the time in practice, depending on the service),

Disabled completely disables the service and prevents it and its dependencies from running.

Automatic (Delayed) starts the service a short while after the system has finished booting and initial busy operations, so that the system boots up faster





Windows 7 Service Configurations by Black Viper

Windows 7 Services that can be Safely Set to MANUAL - Tweaking with Vishal

Thanks.
I actually did disable many services or set them to manual according to black vipers website when I first installed Win7. For example I've disabled indexing and scheduled defrag. Anyway I set some services to manual according to Vishal but I don't think it will stop the HDD from grinding.

Do you have some other suggestions?

That is remarkable. Here is a picture of mine.
But. Dont heed too much of Black Viper's suggestions. He has not kept up to date. Windows 7 operates services on an entirely different principal. Service (Microsoft's) are not using any resources now, until called for use, unless they are essentially required from startup.
You do have a lot of svchost items running, ut I presume you have quite a bit of local network activity, which could account for it. I am netwroked to three other computers, and have never exceeded about 8 svc's.
The services, which I can see you stopped for the test, I would normally have disabled . (Flexnet and Google update), so no problem there.
In my own personal tatse, I would see little purpose in running Windows Defender. You have good security from third party programs.
Fwiw, I only have my anti virus program as starting normally, under the startup Tab.

My own observation leads me to Adobe Photoshop?
Could you totally disable it, or, if it is in the startup Tab, uncheck it for the test?

Attachment 6085

Originally Posted by RAK

That is remarkable. Here is a picture of mine.
But. Dont heed too much of Black Viper's suggestions. He has not kept up to date. Windows 7 operates services on an entirely different principal. Service (Microsoft's) are not using any resources now, until called for use, unless they are essentially required from startup.
You do have a lot of svchost items running, ut I presume you have quite a bit of local network activity, which could account for it. I am netwroked to three other computers, and have never exceeded about 8 svc's.
The services, which I can see you stopped for the test, I would normally have disabled . (Flexnet and Google update), so no problem there.
In my own personal tatse, I would see little purpose in running Windows Defender. You have good security from third party programs.
Fwiw, I only have my anti virus program as starting normally, under the startup Tab.

My own observation leads me to Adobe Photoshop?
Could you totally disable it, or, if it is in the startup Tab, uncheck it for the test?

Attachment 6085

I only have one computer in WLAN and i believe it was off when I took the screenshot.

So what do you suggest I should do? What items do I need to disable and from where?

I know a bit in windows but not like specialists.

Start by posting a picture of your Msconfig - startup tab. Let's see what you have running.
As I said, before going further, disable windows defender( Services) and photoshop. That alone might solve the problem.

Originally Posted by Gil80

Hi all.
I'm running Win7 Ultimate 64bit.
This is my rig:
CPU: Intel E8500 @ 3.45GHz (OC)
RAM: OCZ Titanium 2x2GB @ 1152MHz FSB432x8.0
MB: Gigabyte EX38-DS4 (BIOS F3)
GPU: ATI Palit 4870 1GB Dual Edition

I have WD HDD 500GB Sata2 and WD HDD 160GB Sata1 for my videos and music only.
The main HDD has two partitions C (100GB) and E (400GB).

I believe my computer is quite good and fast. At least it used to be. From some reason in the past month the HDD is grinding like a maniac and it makes everything slow. After each restart I have to wait at least 5 minutes for it to relax so I can launch applications.

I haven't installed anything dubious and I regularly check for viruses with NOD32 and spywares with SpyBot and also use windows defender and firewall. I also use Ccleaner for registry and cache files cleanup.

Anymore info that can shed some light?

Thanks

Gil

what shows as running in device manager ?

personally I don't change the services settings in windows 7 as they won't affect performance

Originally Posted by RAK

Start by posting a picture of your Msconfig - startup tab. Let's see what you have running.
As I said, before going further, disable windows defender( Services) and photoshop. That alone might solve the problem.

The two microsoft lines are sidebar and sticky notes.

Untick rocket dock and the sidebar. If, after a reboot, there is no improvement, you can tick them again.
But in your process list, you were running many instances of photoshop features??

Originally Posted by RAK

Untick rocket dock and the sidebar. If, after a reboot, there is no improvement, you can tick them again.
But in your process list, you were running many instances of photoshop features??

The rocketdock and sidebar didn't help.
I guess all the photoshop instances remain after I've closed photoshop