Harddrive 'ticking' in Vista only Vista Bugs and Problems Discuss Harddrive 'ticking' in Vista only in the Windows Vista forums; heehee Hey guys First post here and a tricky problem... I think Ok I recently partitioned my 4 month old 250GB internal SATA harddrive and created a dual boot with ...

[andyguk]

heehee

Hey guys

First post here and a tricky problem... I think

Ok I recently partitioned my 4 month old 250GB internal SATA harddrive and created a dual boot with Vista Home Premium 32bit and Win XP (which I already had installed). I thought I'd use the 30 day trial to see if most of my software and games were compatible, along with any drivers etc.

Anyway everything runs great.... apart from every time I shut down Vista, my harddrive will tick 3 times softly, right before the power on the PC goes off. (seems to be the same sound as the 1 tick you get when you first boot up a PC)

However every time I shut Windows XP down, there is silence.

Does anyone know if Vista has some sort of harddrive diagnostic going on during shut down?

Thanks in advance

Andy

[Snuffy]

It could be you have "Write Behind Disk Cache" This update introduces a two second delay in the shutdown process, which allows the hard drive's cache to write any data to the hard drive. ...
seems normal on many different systems and hardrives. since you did not mention either (hardrive or system) by name...

[felix8406]

I wouldn't worry about it, unless it starts doing it during normal use.

[andyguk]

ok thanks for the help guys. I've just installed another spare HD and that one is ticking on vista shutdown too lol

must be vista

[Vistanoob]

I noticed the same thing but never had an explaination till now. Nice to know why.

[Snuffy]

Originally Posted by Snuffy

It could be you have "Write Behind Disk Cache" This update introduces a two second delay in the shutdown process, which allows the hard drive's cache to write any data to the hard drive. ...
seems normal on many different systems and hardrives. since you did not mention either (hardrive or system) by name...

Write-behind caching.
Versions of Windows published since about 2000 have a feature called 'write behind caching'. Depending on your version (and Service Pack) of Windows, it may be enabled by default.

Since for most people the increase in performance is actually negligible, the risk of data loss far outweighs any benefit. We therefore recommend that you disable write-behind caching on all your disk drives.

"Most Windows systems, by default, have write-behind caching enabled. This speeds up disk-write operations by holding data in memory until the computer thinks it is the right time to write it to disk.

This same system can also cause conflicts with shared files and networked software .... Because the data is not being written directly to the hard drive on the spot, delays imposed by caching can cause a server or workstation to become confused and to cause data corruption.

If this happens, the computer’s 'disk write caching' functions should be disabled.

The process to disable write caching is different for various versions of Windows.

[Vistanoob]

That's also good to know. In Vista that can be done through Device Manager if the computer has a SATA drive right? If there are no issues is it allright to leave it, or is that just asking for future problems?

[Snuffy]

I use Control Panel --> Admin Tools --> Computer Management --> Device Management --> HDD
then check Properties and Policies...
there you can check to see if enabled or disabled.
the setting is to your option. on or off.

[Vistanoob]

Thank you for the info. At least it is easy to get into.