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Constant Hard Drive Activity
Users may soon become aware that Vista tends to utilize the hard drive more often - both immediately after bootup, and at other times during general usage when there might appear to be no real reason for any drive activity to occur. Once again this is by design, as there are several good reasons why the drive is being regularly utilized. The key causes can be broken down into the following Vista features:
SuperFetch - This feature ensures that your RAM is always being used as a cache to speed up your system, however if ever any program actually requires RAM, SuperFetch instantly releases the required amount (See the 'Vista Is a Memory Hog' annoyance further below). SuperFetch kicks in shortly after Vista bootup, and subsequently at any time when it detects unutilized memory. The act of loading a range of information into RAM from the hard drive can make the drive churn, often noticeably, depending on your drive's speed, though usually it doesn't last very long.
Search Indexer - The Instant Search feature in Vista is not about "finding lost files", rather it allows near-instantaneous access to your frequently used files and programs when using the Instant Search box found in the Start Menu among other places. The Search Indexer makes sure that it holds an up-to-date index of the relevant details of these files, however obviously the process of keeping the index updated can result in background drive activity whenever the indexed files or folders see any change in content or details.
Windows Disk Defragmenter - If set to do regular scheduled defragmentation, which it is by default, the Windows Disk Defragmenter will swing into action at a set time and begin defragmenting the drive in the background. This can be a lengthy and drive-intensive process depending on how fragmented your drive is, and also whether you're also doing other things at the same time.
Malware Scanners - Various malware scanners such as adware, trojan and virus scanners can and will automatically enable scheduled tasks which will commence various forms of system-wide malware scans at regular periods. Furthermore any malware scanner which is running in the background will typically scan every read and write to your hard drive, slowing down the process and increasing the length of any drive activity.
It's important to understand that Vista has an improved I/O system which basically means it handles competing requests for hard drive resources much better than XP. Watching a movie or listening to music while defragmentation is in progress for example usually results in no glitches or stuttering during playback - see the Reasons to Use Vista section for a video demonstration of this as proof. For applications where even minor background drive activity can impact on performance - for example in gaming - Vista suspends all background tasks completely, so for example the Search Indexer or Windows Defragmenter or SuperFetch won't run at all while you're playing a game. The Memory Optimization, Hard Drive Optimization, PC Security and Windows Search chapters of the TGTC cover all of these features, their multitude of functions, customization potential, tweaking information and recommendations in full detail.
