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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Osx Tiger Continuous Disk Activity

mmsfo - Nov 1, 2005 - 12:32 pm

I just updated Tiger on my system to 10.4.3 on a PB 1.67 Ghz with 1.5 GB ram. I now have a returned problem that I thought had gone away a few weeks ago : namely, the system is constantly writing to the hard disk even when sitting idle. Activity monitor shows the process mdimport belonging to the user "nobody" is constantly active. If I force quit this process, the continuous writing stops. I have repaired permissions and repaired the disk with DiskWarrior to no effect. I have also tried running via Terminal the S-register cache reset that apears in some forums as a way to stop the system from unnecessary disk writes, also to no avail. A related symptom might be this : when I click on a file icon (eg, a photoshop file) a box appears to the effect that this is the first time I am opening Photoshop and do I want to proceed. Naturally, this is not the first time I'm using Photoshop. Could the weird mdimport process belonging to "nobody" be related? I'm lead to believe that mdimport is a metadata importer, no? Anyway, the PB is wasting a lot of time writing who know what to the disk.

Thanks for whatever advice you can lend.

bobw - Nov 1, 2005 - 1:17 pm

Hi Michael

'mdimport' is Spotlight indexing your drive, it could have a corrupt index.

Do this in the Terminal application in your Utility folder;

1) Using the mdutil command-line utility in Terminal, turn off indexing for each of your drives. Example:

$ sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1
•
2) Then use mdutil to remove the indexes from each drive

$ sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1
•
3) Physically remove the .Spotlight directories from the root of the drive.

$ cd /
$ sudo rm -fr .Spotlight-V100

(do the same for your second or third drive)

Make sure to carefully type the "rm" command -- a typo could result in deletion of critical files.

4) Use mdutil again to turn indexing back on for each drive

$ sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1
•
5) Spotlight will now re-index all drives and should behave in a normal fashion. (No longer uses 60%-80% of your CPU)

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Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support

mmsfo - Nov 1, 2005 - 4:49 pm

Dear Bob ... Thanks for the instructions. I've followed them to the letter ... I guess I won't know if it worked until Spotlight rebuilds its indexes ... it seems very busy at work right now. I shall keep my fingers crossed that the disk write problem goes away.

Do you have any ideas as to why the system tells me I'm opening an application for the first time on a regular basis? Or is this a "non-problem" after all?

mmsfo - Nov 1, 2005 - 8:57 pm

Dear Bob ...

Well, the continuous disk writing by user "nobody" running process mdimport has not been fixed by the little procedure you outlined in your reply. The disk is constantly writing 500-600 k every two-three seconds ... Activity Monitor shows a regular series of data spikes and the disk makes a regular "click" sound as it writes. The overall CPU usage is not enormous--only a few percentage point, but the disk is constantly tied up. Any further ideas will be appreciated.

Thank you!

bobw - Nov 2, 2005 - 7:55 am

Michael

Turn Spotlight off for a bit;

In Terminal;

sudo mdutil -i off /

Then;

sudo rm -ri /Volumes/volume_name/.Spotlight-V100

here volume_name is the name of the volume in question.

Let me know if this stopst the writing to disk.
--------

Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support

mmsfo - Nov 2, 2005 - 3:53 pm

Hi Bob ... Thanks for your reply ... I followed the instructions you sent : yes, the writing to disk seems stopped now ... what next? Michael

bobw - Nov 3, 2005 - 11:23 am

Michael

Turn Spotligh on again, it should now index your drive once then stop;

sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1
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Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support

mmsfo - Nov 3, 2005 - 12:32 pm

Thanks again Bob ... so far so good. You've been terrific.