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I was sitting next to my Windows 10 PC using my phone when my computers disk started to go wild. I proceded to move the mouse and the buzzing stopped. Naturally I decided to investigate and opened my task manager, there I monitored the disk usage and made sure to not touch the keyboard or mouse. after approx. 4 minutes of waiting the disk went from 0% usage to 100% usage and stayed there until I moved the mouse again.

What I then noticed was that two processes specifically stood out from the rest. Namely the "System" and the "Service Host: Disk Defragmenter" processes.

My Questions are:

What is happening in this specific situation, is Windows just defragmenting my computer in the background or is this something else?

The first question is really all I need answered for this situation, but just in case the answer isn't what I expect it to be: Is there need to be concerned if this kind of thing happens? As in: Could a virus potentially infiltrate the System process?

Gaius Baltar
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    Just a bit more information:About 10 minutes after you stop using your computer the background utilities (they can be viewed within Task Scheduler) will begin. I like to set my computer to stay awake for two hours before having it go into Sleep. This allows a 2 hour time window for those tasks to complete. This will prevent your machine from competing for processor time when you are using the computer and it did not have time to run that schedule. – the original mike western Sep 13 '15 at 02:17
  • Possibly related: [Windows 10, 'System' process taking massive amounts of RAM](http://superuser.com/q/952141/150988). – Scott - Слава Україні Sep 13 '15 at 09:25

1 Answers1

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Windows does a lot of tasks while the computer is idle, as not to slow down the computer when it is being used. It will automatically defragment the disks, download updates, index the files, as well as other possible tasks. Other programs and services like virus scanners might also activate when they think the computer is idle.

Generally speaking, disk activity when the computer is idle is nothing to worry about.

Keltari
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    I didn't know that windows would wait for me to leave before it did stuff, I thought it was just a constant thing. Thanks for taking the time to answer. – Gaius Baltar Sep 12 '15 at 23:35
  • I saw the disk fragmenter running on my windows 10 also (service host disk defragmenter). I thought defragmenting was not needed, or even bad, when running on SSD? – Michel Mar 11 '20 at 10:20