Win XP

I am running Windows XP Pro and ever since I installed it, there is a continuous, flurry of hard disk access activity and it is driving me nuts!!!!! I have tried everything to turn it off but it continues. I would imagine that it has to do with Win XP optimizing the disk structure, or something, because I never had it before with previous verstions of windows. Any suggestions on how to eliminate this very troublesome activity will be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Sid Kraft s.w.kraft@netzero.net.