Very active Hard Drive

[Ripsnort]

Yooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've an HP Pavilion a1430n with a whopping one GIG of RAM aboard. This puppy, even after a reformat, has the Hard Drive very active. I'm up to date with the latest OS, Windows XP with Service Pak 3.

Would it be advisable to put another 3 GIGs of RAM in this unit - would this stop the machine having the Hard Drive being so active. Not much running in the background either, apart from everyone's favourite - Norton 360 V 5.

Advice will be appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

[TrainableMan]

It is possible that your HD is accessing so much because of "paging" due to limited memory - if that is your issue then YES RAM will help.

1GB is the minimum recommended for 32-bit & 2GB is the minimum recommended for 64-bit; 3GB is near the max for 32-bit (32-bit can address up to about 3.25GB) but 4GB is a nice number for 64bit

On brand new installations of W7 you may also notice a lot of HD access because it is creating search indexes; this will quiet down in a few hours or a couple days.

 

[Ripsnort]

Thank you TrainableMan for your reply. We don't use this computer because we have two laptops. It's going 6 years old and I can't believe I've never installed the maximum amount of sheep, pardon, I mean RAM in this thing. It shall be done.
Appreciate your advice. Thanks!!!