High disk writes

[m_b]

Hi, I am concerned about the I/O Write bytes I can see in my task scheduler.
Trying to save the writes to SSD to make them reasonable.
For example, today HDSentinel have written 12GB to some disk. I have it running in the tray to monitor temperatures but have not done any tests or anything.

What is hdsentinel writing all the time??

[hdsentinel]

I can confirm that Hard Disk Sentinel designed exactly to minimise writes. It does not write such high amount of course: the real time disk monitoring function (which monitors the writes performed by other apps and Windows) may affect the value you see in Windows Task Manager.

Exactly to keep writes at lowest level, Hard Disk Sentinel performs as few writes as possible, it updates its data files rarely.
You can easily verify how often the files in its folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Hard Disk Sentinel) updated.

[m_b]

thank you! can this "real time monitoring" function be turned off?

[m_b]

please see the attached image.
scenario.
hd sentinel runs in a tray app
the computer is on and off and usually put to sleep in the night. last reboot was on monday ish, total uptime 1day 22 hrs.
I have an amd array raid 0 of 2 2tb SSD so it makes one 4TB together. using built in motherboard raid.
I also have an external usb hard drive plus an internal 6tb hard drive.

Total writes on the physical ssd disk 75BG. which is fine as i been running a VM a few times.

I am not sure which disk the hd sentinel writes to tbh.

The edge high writes is probably teams client that is essentially a web app inside edge. but that is on the teams not on you guys.
However, why are you writing 21GB of data and where to??

[hdsentinel]

thank you! can this "real time monitoring" function be turned off?

(sorry, somehow I missed this answer)

Yes, you can disable by the following registry trick:

1) completely close Hard Disk Sentinel by File -> Exit

2) open REGEDIT and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\HD Sentinel
(or if you use 64 bit Windows, then HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\HD Sentinel ) where you see lots of entries

3) Please create a new string value (REG_SZ) under this key, called
DetectPerf
and please specify its value to 0

After restart of the software, it should not access the performance counters, so the "Performance" tab should show no performance information at all.

Let's see if there is any difference.

[hdsentinel]

However, why are you writing 21GB of data and where to??

Probably nowhere.
As I wrote, Hard Disk Sentinel normally writes only minimal amount of data: updates its statistics, logs periodically - but generally this is only few KBytes after the periodic detections (eg. 5-10 minutes by default).
Of course if you have many drives and/or bigger statistics files (eg. running for long time), the amount of data can be more.


In addition, there can be some settings, functions (of course) which can cause additional written data, for example
- if you may configure to monitor NAS drives, then Hard Disk Sentinel reads and records the reports from NAS drives (and updates a log)
- if you may configure to automatically create/update XML reports (Configuration -> Advanced options page)
and so - then these may cause more writes.
Also if you may configure to perform detections frequently - then (as expected) the writes are more frequent.

But generally the previously mentioned performance monitoring can cause higher numbers (but it does not mean that the software writes that amount). You may try to disable (please see previous post).

If you still see higher values, I'd recommend to

- use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, may give some ideas/thoughts

- try a clean (re)install by uninstall, delete the original folder and re-install the software, to ensure that all previous status, statistics, settings, etc.. should be reset and check how things work this way

and/or

- (as suggested) check the folder of Hard Disk Sentinel ( C:\Program Files (x86)\Hard Disk Sentinel by default) for the most recent files and watch how/when they updated (when their date/time changes), so you can check/confirm which file(s) may have bigger size and/or updated too frequently or so - and we can investigate that specifically.

[m_b]

thank you!
I have disabled the performance stat and I will see how it goes.

I don't monitor nas drives.
Th advanced options has the settings as per screenshot.

I do run a sidebar gadget though that interacts with hd sentinel to display data .
I wonder if something to do with it.

The other day i accidentally left computer on for a couple of day and ended up with 23gb writes from the hdsentinel process.

[hdsentinel]

Some time ago (just to verify) I made a test: installed a fresh Hard Disk Sentinel with 7 drives (1 NVMe SSD + 3 SATA SSDs + 3 HDDs) and left it running with default settings for many days. After 72 hours, the total amount of written data was 32 MBytes only.

Not sure how much was the "couple of days" you mentioned.
23 GBytes is possible under many days of course if you have many drives and/or if you have the software installed for longer time, as then the data/statistics files for each drives can be larger (these updated periodically).
It is still nothing compared to the amount of writes related to the OS, browser, antivirus tool, etc...

Anyway, if you prefer to minimise the amount, you can

1) try to uninstall the software and delete its entire folder where previously installed (C:\Program Files (x86)\Hard Disk Sentinel) and perform a clean reinstall. This way all previously collected status / statistics / logs etc.. will be removed, so then the amount of writes related to updating the data files will be minimal

2) as mentioned many times here, check which file(s) updated and how often in the folder of the software. Probably you will see some DISKDATA... files (as these related to the statistics of the appropriate disk drives). You can try to delete them specifically to clear / reset the statistics of the corresponding drive(s) only, so then later periodic database updates will also cause smaller amount of written data

3) configure Hard Disk Sentinel to store the statistics / settings on a different drive (eg. a hard disk drive): at Configuration -> Advanced Options page, you can use the big "Change folder to store statistics and settings" button to configure a folder (eg. on a different drive) to store the details there, instead of the folder of the software.

Also if you use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, it can give some ideas, thoughts specifically for the actual configuration.

[m_b]

Thank you for all the advices.
I have looked into the
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Hard Disk Sentinel" folder, but I don't see any massive or recent writes there.
However, I have an idea what might be happening.

I am using the sidebar gadgets from
https://gadgetpack.net/
and a drives monitor
https://windows10gadgets.pro/pcandsystem/drivesmonitor/drivesmonitor.html#gsc.tab=0

I think there are high disk writes when the sidebar is enabled, I wonder if there is a bug or something that would cause high disk writes when a gadget is used?

[hdsentinel]

No, there is absolutely no bug here, everything works as should. The amount of disk writes is as low as possible, but yes, as you can see, some options may affect it - which is completely normal and expected.