I’m using Windows XP Home ed. on a HP 8595C computer; HP doesn’t support use of this operating system on this computer.
Frequently, my hard drive (20 GB) light is on and the rattling noise that my computer makes when the hard drive is being accessed occurs when nothing I am doing should cause such an operation. The duration of these events is sometimes 3 (three) minutes during which time the computer doesn’t respond to any keyboard actions. As an example, when I am writing a letter, and the HD rattling starts, the characters I am typing aren’t visable to me. When the HD stops its action, then the characters (words) appear on the screen.
The computer is equiped with a PIII at 750 MHz, and has 384 MB RAM. It’s almost like the operating system is attempting to relocate everything from one end of the partition to the other end, and then when it’s finished, it instructs itself to move everything back. In three minutes, it can accomplish a great deal of activity.
I haven’tmentioned, but sometimes when I’m not using the computer but have left it on while I take a short break for ten minutes or so, and when I come back the hard drive is active and continues to be until I start some activity of my own.
My questing is probably obvious, What is happening? And, more importantly, how do I prevent it from occurring?