Disk High Usage

after computer being on for about 30 minutes , disk active time = 0 - 3 %
,

any idea what caused the 100 % active time for those 30 mins ,
?


Thanks

It could also be that your disk was indexing. If you have the Windows Search engine active during startup (And after a moment of idleness) the indexing service starts to index your HD for better and faster search results.

ran 'hard drive issues' diagnostic test from Dell site ,
all PASSED

Did you try to restart the Windows Search service? Maybe you see the exact same behaviour again.
Otherwise, if this keeps recurring. You could try and run ProcessMonitor to check and see what is causing the file access.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

then option 1

go to task manager check the high process and high memory usage apps and stop them then monitor ... step by step to each app..

Option 2

go to run msconfig  disable all startup services..

go to services
check the Hide all microsoft services and then disable all unnecessary service

option 3

Scan computer with updated antivirus..
all the best

looks like it might be : n360.exe
, c:\programdata\norton\{0C55C096-0F1D-4F28-AAA2-85EF591126E7}\N360_21.1.0.18\CmnClnt\ccSetMgr\settings_21.5.0.19.dat

C:\ProgramData\Norton\{0C55C096-0F1D-4F28-AAA2-85EF591126E7}\N360_21.1.0.18\diStRptr\diStRptr.dat

if it's related to norton 360 stop the noton Av services and check once...

check weather u have multiple antivirus soft wares on the machine..

After reading your post i think rindi is more accurate. What happens when you startup your machine is that your definition files are being updates. I know that McAfee actually takes a  copy of it's definition database and creates a new file. This could imply some quite heavy load on your HD. But it cannot be that this is over 30 minutes.

I guess you have a scheduled task for scanning your machine daily? If you have on access scanner activated there is no need to scan your machine that often.

if this is the first time you start this pc with norton, it's normal - probably does a scan of the disk
if not -  test if it happens again

Besides that, all Symantec products (like norton AV) are just total crap that use up your resources. To me they are practically malware, and it is always the first thing that I completely clean off any PC. The only good product they have is the uninstall tool for their products, which helps to completely remove them.

I recommend Panda Antivirus, if this is a private PC, the free version is perfect, if it is a PC used for business, you need to buy the professional version (but make sure you don't install the additional stuff like firewall, toolbars etc). Panda is probably the AV tool that uses the least resources. In the years I've used the free version I have never had a problem with it.

Thanks