I just noticed something very weird on my computer. I turned it on, just left it on, while I was doing something else. I didnt load any programs or started doing anything, it was just on... Then, suddenly, I start hearing hard drive activity (that little noise you hear when the hard drive is doing something, and the hard drive light was blinking). This went out for about 4 to 5 minutes. I turned it off, then back on again, and same thing, and after the 4-5 minutes, it was normal. This is very weird for me, anyone know why this might be happening ?? Or any way to find out ?? P.S. The only things on my system tray were the little speaker, and task scheduler. I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del, and I saw this: Explorer Ctfmon Mdm Systray Thanx for any help, you guys are great. :)

Do you have scandisk or defrag set in task sheduler to go at that time . If not , probably your swap file , read these to understand . http://www.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/11.htm http://www.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/12.htm http://www.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/13.htm http://www.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/14.htm

In a similar situation it was recommended to use Filemon. It does show what the activity is but of course it does not show why. It is a freebie. I placed a shortcut on the desktop so I could get it going fast. http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml

I wonder if this could also be the Find File utility that runs itself every so often to index the hard drive. If you look in the Windows > Start Menu > Programs > StartUp, see if there is a file icon or shortcut reference for Filefind or Findfile (I forget exactly how it's named, I took it off so long ago) move it out to a temporary folder. See if that stops the hard drive activity. Ron

If we go along the line of stopping some services from startup, then I would suggest you unchecked the two shown up in your listing, namely ctfmon.exe and mdm.exe which should appear in your msconfig/startup list. The former, cftmon.exe, comes with XP Office and is well hated. For what I've heard, it comes back even if you unchecked it from msconfig. To remove it, one has to uninstall the "alternative input" component of XP Office. The latter, mdm.exe, can safely set aside by just unchecking it from msconfig.

Another thing that it could be is if you have a Virus scanner like McAfee. I was freaked once to see my HD have activity when the screensaver was on, but it was the integrated Screen Scan that scan for viruses when the screensaver is on. If you have a broadband connection to the net, and a firewall it could be the firewall doing something...

thanks guys for all the input, I was really looking for something like what Bryan suggested, monitor the activity on the computer. But also, many of the other possibilities listed sound reasonable, and I will really look into it, to see what it is. I will let you guys know what happened. Thank you, you guys are great. :)