Hard drive constantly accessing

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Level 1

79 points

Hard drive constantly accessing

I've seen a few similar posts to this but can't find a good answer. Two days ago the hard drive in my iMac at work started acting up. It is constantly making the buzzing sound of the read/write heads. It's the same sound you hear if you are running something to scan the drive, only it never stops. It doesn't appear to be Spotlight indexing, and TimeMachine is turned off. People's first reaction (including our IT guy who isn't a Mac "expert") is that the drive is going bad. I don't agree with that. To me it's more like some program is causing it as if, like I said, it's scanning the drive. It starts even before I login at the opening screen and if I shutdown it continues all the way until the power cuts off. When the computer is on after about 5 or 6 hours it stops doing it for a short time.

As it happens, I get a lot of beachballs and stalling. Music in iTunes randomly pauses for up to a second or 2. The computer has to catch up when I type. IT does have things like McAfee & Citrix installed but those were there before this started.

This is driving me absolutely insane. Does anyone have any ideas?

Posted on Jan 9, 2015 12:12 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 9, 2015 12:14 PM in response to Scott Kopp

Open Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder and see what processes are accessing the disk.

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

361,709 points

Jan 9, 2015 12:15 PM in response to Scott Kopp

About OS X Memory Management and Usage

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory & determine how much RAM is used

OS X Mavericks- About Activity Monitor

Understanding top output in the Terminal

The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.

Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently. It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster. What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent. It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.

Removing any software such as anti-malware that constantly scan the drive will also help.

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Answer 3

Scott Kopp Author

Level 1

79 points

Jan 9, 2015 12:37 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

Thanks for the quick reply! I did that and there doesn't seem to be anything running. Although I don't really know much about what ActivityMonitor is showing me.

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Answer 4

Scott Kopp Author

Level 1

79 points

Jan 9, 2015 12:40 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks for the quick reply. Activity Monitor doesn't show much happening - as far as I can tell. The "Memory Pressure" is green and it does show a lot of accessing in the "Disk" tab. I ran the "top" command and here is what it gave me:

Processes: 189 total, 2 running, 7 stuck, 180 sleeping, 842 threads 14:36:51

Load Avg: 1.84, 1.82, 1.77 CPU usage: 4.36% user, 2.42% sys, 93.20% idle

SharedLibs: 328K resident, 0B data, 0B linkedit.

MemRegions: 146326 total, 3672M resident, 0B private, 864M shared.

PhysMem: 7803M used (624M wired), 388M unused.

VM: 471G vsize, 1025M framework vsize, 0(0) swapins, 0(0) swapouts.

Networks: packets: 58763/29M in, 38707/6703K out.

Disks: 57579/2119M read, 33372/714M written.

PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #WQ #PORT MEM PURG CMPR PGRP PPID

1751 top 2.5 00:03.79 1/1 0 19 2928K 0B 0B 1751 1744

1744 bash 0.0 00:00.01 1 0 15 812K 0B 0B 1744 1743

1743 login 0.0 00:00.08 2 0 27 4904K 0B 0B 1743 1741

1741 Terminal 3.8 00:02.57 9 3 194 34M 12K 0B 1741 1

1706 com.apple.We 0.0 00:03.45 8 0 174 88M 64K 0B 1706 1

1701 CVMCompiler 0.0 00:00.02 2 1 28 3344K 0B 0B 1701 1

1698 DataDetector 0.0 00:00.10 2 0 49 20M 0B 0B 1698 1

1514 syspolicyd 0.0 00:00.01 2 1 31 1512K 0B 0B 1514 1

1100 com.apple.Sa 0.0 00:00.65 4 0 70 17M 0B 0B 1100 1

1098 com.apple.We 0.0 00:40.06 9 1 182 147M 252K 0B 1098 1

1001 amfid 0.0 00:00.06 2 1 26 5504K 0B 0B 1001 1

960 EscrowSecuri 0.0 00:00.17 4 1 134 29M 0B 0B 960 1

853 cfprefsd 0.0 00:00.02 2 1 25 1284K 0B 0B 853 1

850- CS6ServiceMa 0.0 00:00.18 5 0 107 10M 0B 0B 850 1

843 Activity Mon 0.0 01:07.05 6 3 209 37M 9184K 0B 843 1

826 AdobeCrashDa 0.1 00:05.78 1 0 15 17M 0B 0B 826 782

782 Adobe Illust 0.0 00:23.03 21 0 347 330M 936K 0B 782 1

777- SwitchBoard 0.0 00:00.09 7 0 66 6540K 0B 0B 777 1

775 AdobeCrashDa 0.1 00:05.75 1 0 15 17M 0B 0B 775 772

774 Image Captur 0.0 00:00.23 3 0 129 22M 0B 0B 774 1

772 Adobe Bridge 0.0 00:07.18 17 1 200 71M 0B 0B 772 1

745 com.apple.ge 0.0 00:00.64 5 0 101 24M 0B 0B 745 1

714 com.apple.au 0.0 00:00.04 2 1 38 5060K 0B 0B 714 1

713 com.apple.au 0.0 00:00.06 2 1 22 13M 0B 0B 713 1

709 com.apple.We 0.0 00:10.46 13 0 269 218M 280K 0B 709 1

693 spindump 0.0 00:09.98 2 1 51 30M 0B 0B 693 1

601 System Event 0.0 00:02.95 6 3 131 28M 0B 0B 601 1

597 mdflagwriter 0.0 00:00.02 2 1 20 748K 0B 0B 597 1

596 mdflagwriter 0.0 00:00.01 2 1 17 732K 0B 0B 596 1

595 mdworker 0.0 00:00.70 2 0 39 14M 0B 0B 595 1

594 distnoted 0.0 00:00.01 2 0 29 1240K 0B 0B 594 1

589 mdworker 0.0 00:00.21 4 0 55 19M 0B 0B 589 1

586 com.apple.In 0.0 00:00.08 2 0 43 15M 0B 0B 586 1

582 AppleSpell 0.0 00:01.17 2 0 64 9904K 0B 0B 582 1

581 storedownloa 0.0 00:00.10 2 0 41 18M 0B 0B 581 1

580 LaterAgent 0.0 00:00.15 3 0 126 20M 0B 0B 580 1

579 storeassetd 0.0 00:00.17 2 0 82 16M 0B 0B 579 1

578 com.apple.sp 0.0 00:00.38 4 2 48 21M 0B 0B 578 1

576 storelegacy 0.0 00:00.07 2 0 40 14M 0B 0B 576 1

573- Microsoft AU 0.0 00:00.29 4 2 98 8448K 0B 0B 573 1

Does that tell you anything?

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Answer 5

Jan 9, 2015 12:48 PM in response to Scott Kopp

The OS is constantly writing to the drive. CONSTANTLY.

If you really want to know what it's doing, open up a terminal window and type:

sudo fs_usage

Enter your password, and you'll see everything the file system is writing.

Now don't get worried about it, lots of it is totally normal. But just some perspective 🙂

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Answer 6

Scott Kopp Author

Level 1

79 points

Jan 9, 2015 1:03 PM in response to William Lloyd

Thanks. 🙂 Yes I know that. But this behavior suddenly increased to the point where I'm hearing the drive's constant buzz with no break or variation. Even when I let it sit idle. And it keeps stalling the computer so that I can't even do basic tasks without having to wait for it. It wasn't like that before a couple days ago.

I did try the sudo fs_usage command. Again, nothing stood out to me as odd - at least nothing I understood.

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Answer 7

Kappy

Level 10

361,709 points

Jan 9, 2015 1:05 PM in response to Scott Kopp

A screenshot would be better because it's easier to observe:

To post screen shot do this:

Press COMMAND-SHIFT-4 which will change the cursor to crosshairs.
Hold down the mouse button and use the crosshairs to select the part of the screen you wish to capture.
Release the button and the image will be saved to your Desktop.
Click on the Camera icon in the toolbar of the forum message editor.
Drag the image onto the Choose File button and click on the Insert button.

However, scanning through what you posted indicates your drive is not really doing anything. I'm wondering if sound you hear is actually coming from the HDD. But then you do have some crashed processes. But if despite this you think the sound is definitely from the drive, then i would take it in for service because it may be a signal of imminent drive failure.

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Answer 8

Scott Kopp Author

Level 1

79 points

Jan 9, 2015 1:35 PM in response to Kappy

Understood. A picture is worth a thousand words. I captured these as it is grinding profusely.

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Answer 9

Kappy

Level 10

361,709 points

Jan 9, 2015 1:48 PM in response to Scott Kopp

I reiterate that I see nothing to suggest disk usage. If you hear a grinding sound that often means a bearing is bad. I think you should take it in for repair. Please make a Genius Appointment and take it in for service.

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Answer 10

Scott Kopp Author

Level 1

79 points

Jan 9, 2015 2:02 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks. "Grinding" was a bad word to use. It is definitely the sound the read/write heads make when they're accessing.

I'm still convinced it's not a mechanical drive failure issue. But I'm at a loss to explain what it could be if there's no evidence of disk usage.

Since it is a company iMac I'm not able to bring it in to the Genius bar. It's I.T.'s responsibility, not mine, which is frustrating because they're not interested in figuring out what is wrong. They just want to do a rebuild. I'm not crazy about that because they did it once before and I lost some stuff and it took a week to get back to normal.

Thank you so much for your help!!

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Answer 11

Kappy

Level 10

361,709 points

Jan 9, 2015 2:11 PM in response to Scott Kopp

The disk is being used, but not excessively. OS X and existing software may be constantly moving data into or out of the HDD. I see constant disk activity on all my machines using OS X. Note that on your machine it's a mere few Kbs in and out.

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Answer 12

Scott Kopp Author

Level 1

79 points

Jan 9, 2015 2:17 PM in response to Kappy

Aarrgghh! It's so frustrating. The noise is obnoxious but I could tune it out if whatever it is didn't make me wait 2 seconds every other time I click the mouse or type.

It wasn't happening a few days ago.

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Answer 13

Kappy

Level 10

361,709 points

Jan 9, 2015 2:39 PM in response to Scott Kopp

Then I would suggest that you keep all the tools - Activity Monitor and Console - open then examine the data as soon as the problem re-occurs. See if you can identify a culprit.

You can also create a new admin user account then log out and log into the new account. See if the problem ceases. If it does not cease, then return to your regular account. Now boot into Safe Mode to see if the problem stops.

These two test where the problem comes from. The first tests if it's in your user account. The second tests for system files.

Neither identify a culprit, but the narrow down the scope of the search.

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Answer 14

Scott Kopp Author

Level 1

79 points

Jan 9, 2015 5:33 PM in response to Kappy

I've sorta been keeping an eye on it like that but haven't found anything yet.

I did boot in safe mode a few times, and it does do it. I thought about creating a new user account but didn't get around to it.

I can forget about it for the weekend, now. haha

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Answer 15

Scott Kopp Author

Level 1

79 points

Jan 12, 2015 8:53 AM in response to Kappy

This morning (Monday) the problem continues. I have booted in Safe mode and even now as I'm typing I keep getting a beachball. But I noticed something. I opened Console by mistake and it lists "watchdog daemon" doing something every 10 seconds. I'll attach a screen capture.

Does this indicate anything?

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