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Monitor disk activity?

7up
Community Veteran
Posts: 15,824
Thanks: 1,579
Fixes: 17
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Monitor disk activity?

Hi all
XP Pro SP2
Just about 5 mins ago its started frantic disk activity every second or so - which is strange for this machine.
Checked Task manager, memory used is low and the page file size is low.
So... how can I find out which process is using the disk? - IE in a similar way to zonealarm telling you what programs wants internet access, how can I find out what program is accessing my HDD, how frequently and the amount of data being read/written?
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!
5 REPLIES 5
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Monitor disk activity?

Process Explorer (from Microsoft) - Google to find it.
"Everything you ever wanted Task Manager to be"
Xenstar
Newbie
Posts: 7
Registered: ‎13-07-2008

Re: Monitor disk activity?

Unfortunately this is one of the few areas where Windows Vista outshines XP. It can list the disk use per process in the performance/reliability monitor.
I don't know of any way to do this out of the box with XP, but you could use Filemon to do it
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896642.aspx
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Monitor disk activity?

Quote from: Xenstar
but you could use Filemon to do it

As it says on the page linked to:
"Note: Filemon and Regmon have been replaced by Process Monitor "
This is now Process Explorer
7up
Community Veteran
Posts: 15,824
Thanks: 1,579
Fixes: 17
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Monitor disk activity?

Ok I've downloaded process explorer...
I'm having trouble seeing how to determine which process is using the HDD most.
I'm looking for something like the CPU column - where you can just click and it sorts the list of process names by which one uses the disk the most.
So far I can only see that you can check the properties of each process indivdually to check ists disk access?
Help!?
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!
7up
Community Veteran
Posts: 15,824
Thanks: 1,579
Fixes: 17
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Monitor disk activity?

Nevermind I found it Wink
Just realised I could add a column - went for the 'I/O Total' Smiley
Many thanks guys!
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!