I posted this in the original thread but since it's old, I thought I'd start a new one since the issue was never resolved. Perhaps there's some new experience with this... I have a similar, though less severe issue that hopefully someone can help me with. The System process (pid 4) on my dual core Vaio laptop is writing to disk appx. once every 500ms (at least that's how often the activity light blinks). This is not performance impacting and I considered it just a minor annoyance until I recently installed a SSD. Since SSD lifetimes are limited by write/erase cycles, I'm concerned these writes are deteriorating my SSD; not good since they're expensive and I LOVE the performance; boots in appx. 15s, instant IE, etc. As with the original poster here, the same activity persists in safe mode. Per SSD optimization guidelines I've read elsewhere, I've disabled all fetching (super, pre, etc.), indexing and all logging except Application, Security & System but the writes persist. Im using the latest (very recent) driver from Intel (Intel 5 Series 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller 10.8.0.1003 10/17/2011). I've tried other drivers and while the write pattern seems to change (drive activity light no longer blinks), Resource Monitor shows they're still there. They also cause an additional issue of consuming CPU (?) which doesn't occur with the "recommended" driver I just mentioned. Anyone know what these writes may be and if/how I can/should stop them? Thanks.

A. For detailed analysis I would recommend Process Explorer from Sysinternals. B. When Windows 7 detects that you have a properly configured, fast SSD drive, it disables several unnecessary features, including Superfetch, Prefetch, and ReadyBoot. It also disables scheduled defragmentation operations for the SSD, which isnt necessary, and can reduce the usable life of the drive. C. For sure, in BIOS is set AHCI, SSD has newest firmware installed, SSD is erased in secure way before installation and operating system installation was clean one. I have used CrystalDiskInfo4_6_2-en to visualize SSd data. Regards Milos

Mucho thanks Milos. I downloaded SysInternals and tried out Process Explorer. Looks like a rather useful tool. I also tried booting my machine in diagnostic mode (very minimal sertvices). In normal mode, after idling a bit, Process Explorer showed no consistant disk accesses; just sporadic ones (not surprising). Resource Monitor's disk graph however seemed to show fairly consistent access. ??? In diagnostic mode, again after idling a while, both tools showed NO disk activity. However the disk activity light continued to blink with the same period of ~500ms. Again ??? Regarding the installation questions you raised, I didn't do a Windows install. I cloned my old disk with a free tool (EaseUS Todo Backup 4.0), as I was too lazy to reinstall everything, and all seems to have gone well. I also used another tool (SSD Tweaker 2.0.1.0) to disable all fetching. I turned off scheduled defragging and indexing through Windows. I was a bit concerned at first about AHCI since my BIOS doesn't have this option. Everything indicates it's working however (including TRIM), so I believe it's hardwired in. It's a fairly new laptop (~18 mos.) and uses SATA 3Gbs. (I wish it was 6 :-). I've also got the latest SandForce controller firmware for the Mushkin Chronos 120GB SSD. I'm ecstatic with the performance; blows the doors off my 5400rpm HD which I'm now using externally for backups, etc. via eSATA. That requires 2 cables, unfortunately, since USB is also required for power, but it works. My only concern is excessive writing to the SSD killing it prematurely. I'm beginning to believe again that the blinkling light is an Intel driver issue since the light doesn't blink with other drivers. I can't use them however since they have other (worse) issues. I've already got a thread going at Intel support, hopefully something good will come of it. I'm not sure what exactly controls the light; seems a little wierd that the driver would affect it. -Doug-

Thanks for the CrystalDiskInfo pointer also. Right up my alley; lots of good geek info :-) Not sure what to make of it all yet but the 100% health status sounds like a good thing :-) -Doug-

FYI I found found a post that had a handle on the blinking light problem. It was Windows polling the DVD drive to see if a disk is inserted. Disabling the drive stopped it. It would be nice to find another way but at least I found some way to avoid risking an epileptic seizure :-) -Doug-

Hi, System Process is the one of two kernel processes. All the drivers are held in this process. If your computer is not under heavy job, normally, you will see the process are reading or writing metadata on the disk. You have no need to worry about it, it seems normal according to your description. Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

Thanks Juke. I'm no Windows expert but I was slowly coming to that conclusion. I do want to minimize writes however for SSD longevity. What I ended up doing is using msconfig to select the services and startup items I need. I selected all Microsoft stuff and a few key items from Intel and Sony. This gave me all the functionality I need (at least as far as I can tell so far). This reduced the number of writes considerably vs. a normal startup. Diskmon gives me a very detailed look at writes. If I find I need to enable other things later I can always go back and modify my selective startup. So, I'd have to say I'm a happy camper. Thanks again. -Doug-

If you have flash memory drive (for SD memory and similar), you can decrease the number of access by redirecting paging to flask disk. There are fast models of flash memories (SanDisc Extreme, class 10) Regards Milos

Hi, System Process is the one of two kernel processes. All the drivers are held in this process. If your computer is not under heavy job, normally, you will see the process are reading or writing metadata on the disk. You have no need to worry about it, it seems normal according to your description. Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

Thanks Milos I do have a SanDisc Class 10 32G SD (MUCH slower than SSD) I'm using for audio & stuff but since I have tons more memory than I'm using (typically 20%ish of 8G) I've already trashed my page file. Screw the debugging info, Windows never crashes, right? :-) Juke has me wondering however (again I'm pretty far from a Windows guru but I wouldn't mind edging closer :-) what kind of metadata Windows might be writing when the world ain't spinnin'. -Doug-

Hi, Actually, metadata will always be readed or written during system running. When Windows is not under heavy work, you may see this activities are at the top of list. You cannot prevent this. About metadata of NTFS file system, see the article below. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938949.aspxJuke Chou TechNet Community Support

Juke, I have to admit I haven't branched through the entire tree rooted at the page you pointed to but none of what I've read so far indicates ongoing updating of the MFT, or anythiing else, on an "idle" system. Maybe it's network handshaking that causes it??? Dunno. I believe you that there's not much to be done about it, at least at the user level where I live, but it's unfortunate given the relatively new SSD technology's sensitivity to writes. I'd also just like to try to understand what value there is in these writes. What has Windows got to write about on an "idle" system? -Doug-

Hi, NO. MFT is an index to all data contained on an NTFS volume. This index includes the locations of user files, directory data, and NTFS metadata. The MFT is one file that contains a relational database whose records describe the location of every file on the volume so that system will maintan this database all the time. Just leave it alone, meantime, System Process will also read other locations on the disk since lots of services are running on the computer.Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

Hi, NO. MFT is an index to all data contained on an NTFS volume. This index includes the locations of user files, directory data, and NTFS metadata. The MFT is one file that contains a relational database whose records describe the location of every file on the volume so that system will maintan this database all the time. Just leave it alone, meantime, System Process will also read other locations on the disk since lots of services are running on the computer.Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

Thanks again Juke. Yeah, I have no desire to mess with the MFT; way too scary for me. It's not the reading that System does that's got me curious. Traffic cops like to look around. It's the writing. Traffic cops don't like to make arrests; too much paper work :-) -Doug- +