Windows 7 background tasks

[TractorMan]

i recently began using win 7 64 ultimate sp1 from win xp sp3 and one of the first things i noticed is that if i don't move the mouse for about 1-2 minutes the red led on my computer flashes all the time! and there's sound like the harddisks are being used.. even now as i write it's doing this annoying thing. i ran the task manager but all processes showed 0% cpu usage. however there are much more many services in win7 compared to xp. and i can't see how much cpu they use. all i can see is if they're currently running or not but since the list is so long i can't google each one and see what they do. so can you help me please? is windows trying to index all my files or something? for quick searches? because it's been doing that for 2 weeks now

 

[Trouble]

Yes it could be indexing.
It could be automated defrag happening
It could be your security suite updating and or running scans in the background.
Or it could be simple paging (items being paged out to the hard drive). How much physical memory do you have installed?
Maybe when you have some time use the native Check Disk utility and see if it shows any problems with the drive or drives.
Administrative Command Prompt and type
chkdsk C: /R
hit enter
answer Y when prompted
type exit
reboot your system
wait patiently as it takes a pretty good while.
You may want to do the same on all physical disks and or partitions, substituting the appropriate Drive letter for C:

 

[TractorMan]

my security consists only of malwarebytes and i removed the task to make a background scan every day. it only updates once per hour that's all but the problems are much more often than that so it can't be.

my memory is 8 gb.

i used check disk on my drives before i installed win 7 - i mean like 2 weeks ago. and there was no problem. so can you tell me then how to turn indexing off? or paging or whatever it might be?

 

[whs]

If you look into Resource Monitor > CPU tab, you can see the processes that use CPU time. The ones with zero CPU time are dormant. Example



:

 

[TractorMan]

i found the cause of the problem - it's mbamservice.exe from malware bytes. right now it's taking 194 mb of memory and sometimes even 10% cpu. i looked at other posts from people who have the same problem but i never found a solution. i understand that mbamservice is responsible for "real time protection" so i don't want to disable that.

HOW DO I FIX THIS!

 

[whs]

But 194MB of memory is nothing - my snipping tool takes more RAM when not used. I would not worry about it.

 

[TractorMan]

But 194MB of memory is nothing - my snipping tool takes more RAM when not used. I would not worry about it.

my firefox uses 234 mb right now but no cpu. so? what i'm worried about is that mbamservice.exe uses my HARD DISKS! i already lost a 500 gb hard disk right before i switched to win7! i lost everything on it. i was afraid my important files for which i worked for years might have been lost too! luckily they were on another hard disk and now i copied them on both of my disks in case a nuclear war starts in my computer or something. some people come and say viruses can't damage hard disks but i heard a guy he said a virus can move the read/write head in a hard disk outside its normal bounds in order to damage it. and another guy said that when his disk malfunctioned he went to service to get another one for free because of waranty but shop say he no get another because damage was done by software - by virus - and that's not included in the waranty.

 

[whs]

Importent files should always be backed up to an external disk which is disconnected when not in use. But I have never heard of a virus that can manipulate disk heads.

If you are worried about malware, don't use Windows to go on the internet - use Linux in virtual. That reduces the risk of catching malware by 99%.

 

[TractorMan]

Importent files should always be backed up to an external disk which is disconnected when not in use. But I have never heard of a virus that can manipulate disk heads.

If you are worried about malware, don't use Windows to go on the internet - use Linux in virtual. That reduces the risk of catching malware by 99%.

you mean linux like that ubuntu which i used in university? first thing i remember about it was the x button - it was in the upper LEFT portion of the window compared to upper right like in windows. i always had to remember that when i was closing windows.. how stupid! or when i installed red hat many years ago and the installer asks for my monitor's horizontal frequency - i had to look in my monitor manual for that! or again in ubuntu when there were those windows bigger than screen size and i couldn't even press ok i had to press enter by keyboard. no way i'll ever use linux again it's a total failure in my opinion.

 

[whs]

Nah, not Ubuntu. There is better today. I use Mint Mate and it works great. Have a look at the link I posted above. And here is how Mint Mate looks in real when setup (takes me less than 1 hour). This recording was done from my flash drive version, but a virtual or native installation would look exactly the same.

 

[TractorMan]

ok but i have this question about linux in general - if every software for linux comes with its source code then how can you sell it? why won't people modify the code and claim it's theirs? at university i only did the most basic things in ubuntu like controlling user privileges i didn't have to install anything. but i remember about red hat - there were these packages with .tar or .gz extension or something and i had to compile them with a make file.. with gcc or whatever.. i don't remember more that was more than 10 years ago.

 

[whs]

You cannot sell Linux distros, it's free. Some people try to sell it and they seem to find some dummies who buy.

Forget red hat. That is a nightmare. They only give you bare bone stuff. You have to be a real expert to survive.