Disc churn

Soundhound · Post by **Soundhound** » Mon May 22, 2006 11:28 am

I have several hard discs connected (three lacie discs and one smaller one) and a couple of them churn constantly, using tons of cpu and slowing down the mac. Both discs I believe have large folders with samples in them, for use with DP and Machfive, etc. I actually haven't used DP or Machfive in months, though they are both loaded onto my Mac.

Has anyone experienced this problem and know how to make it stop perhaps?

thanks!

Doug

Spikey Horse · Post by **Spikey Horse** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:08 pm

How are they formatted?

(They're not FAT32 by any chance?)

billf · Post by **billf** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:49 pm

Have you run Disk Utility to verify the integrity of the disks? Something sounds very wrong with what you are describing.

Soundhound · Post by **Soundhound** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:52 pm

I have run disk utility and in fact erased the disk(s), reformatted, and then put the files back on. Same thing happens. I have other files on the disks, but the churning only happens when I put the sound files on.

I don't know how they are formatted though. Is there a prefered formatting I should choose?

billf · Post by **billf** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:56 pm

Soundhound wrote:I have run disk utility and in fact erased the disk(s), reformatted, and then put the files back on. Same thing happens. I don't know how they are formatted though. Is there a prefered formatting I should choose?

They should be formatted with the MacOS format. Did you run a disk check on your primary (boot drive) as well? You might have a corrupted directory or something similar. Are you running any apps in the background?

Soundhound · Post by **Soundhound** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:28 pm

They should be formatted with the MacOS format. Did you run a disk check on your primary (boot drive) as well? You might have a corrupted directory or something similar. Are you running any apps in the background?[/quote]

They are formatted with the MacOS format, and I have checked my primary (internal) drive as well. The question about the apps running in the background I think is the key. I don't know what's running in the background that might be searching the disks. I turned off Spotlight for those disks, but didn't know what else to check. I figured it had something to do with DP4 or Machfive, since those programs make use of the sound files, though I haven't used either program in months.

billf · Post by **billf** » Mon May 22, 2006 6:07 pm

Use Activity Monitor to find out what apps are running. You might have something running in the background that is spinning up those disks (i.e. a virus checker, etc.).

mikebeckmotu · Post by **mikebeckmotu** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:29 pm

maybe journaling could cause the excess disk activity?

Soundhound · Post by **Soundhound** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:03 pm

mikebeckmotu wrote:maybe journaling could cause the excess disk activity?

what's journaling?

Soundhound · Post by **Soundhound** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:02 am

billf wrote:Use Activity Monitor to find out what apps are running. You might have something running in the background that is spinning up those disks (i.e. a virus checker, etc.).

I have activity monitor running and checked it. When the disks aren't connected, all is calm. When I connect them the cpu goes through the roof and the disks churn. The things that seem to be causing this are two programs? or system things? In activity monitor uner Process Name: they are both called navx, and listed as User: Root.

Anybody know what that is by any chance? thanks!.

baanes · Post by **baanes** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:38 am

If you're on 10.4 spotlight will spend some time indexing your drives when it first gets access to them. If this might be the case try leaving them plugged in overnight and see if it goes away.

Soundhound · Post by **Soundhound** » Tue May 23, 2006 7:13 am

baanes wrote:If you're on 10.4 spotlight will spend some time indexing your drives when it first gets access to them. If this might be the case try leaving them plugged in overnight and see if it goes away.

I have spotlight ignoring those drives because I thought that might be the culprit too, but no dice.