Click, buzz, click, buzz

Try SysInternal's free FileMon; it will let you observe in real time all activity on your machine. You should be able to figure out exactly what is causing your drive activity. Naturally, read and understand the documentation before using.

Thanks again Timber!

Well, it looks like two things are causing all of the noise - Norton Internet Security and PestPatrol Memcheck.

Pretty much figured it would turn out to be something like that. A purely subjective opinion here - I don't have a real high opinion of Pest Patrol. While it has among the best databases in the business (incidentally, a version of which is available at Pest Patrol's website for online search, whether or not you're a Pest Patrol subscriber - I find the online list a handy resource), its real-time-blocking doesn't work very well, its user interface is sorta clumsy, its scan function is a resource hog, and I wish it offered the user more "What to do about it" options for stuff it "Finds". It does do a thorough job of finding stuff, and reports the full path and name of tagged items, I'll give it that, but overall, I think there are better choices.

As far as Norton/Symantec, well, what can I say? As the features and functions pile up - they're always adding new stuff - and the integration of those bells and whistles with one another increases, the resource load gets heavier and heavier. Still, Norton Antivirus is among the highest rated, most reliable antivirus apps out there, whatever else may be said of the rest of Security Suite or its sibling, System Suite. It is possible to minimize the resource load by judiciously tweaking Norton Security Suite's settings - some experimentation is required, of course, to find what works best for you in your environment. Consult your Norton Security Suite documentation for details on settings and options.


Oh, and no real deal here, just a gut feeling - it would be unsurprising to discover some unintended interaction of or interference between Pest Patrol and Security Suite's active, real-time components might be a real big factor. Switch things off one at a time and see if things improve. Another approach, and the one I think I'd try, would be to switch it all off, except the antivirus, then add back one component from one app, try stuff, add back a component from the other app, try stuff with the 2 components, add another component, etc - you might narrow down the location of the key bottleneck that way.


Anyhow, looks to me as though you've pinpointed your problem, what you decide to do about is up to you.