Micky wrote:
I'm using Vista but googling has shown the exact same problem is found
in win7. The relevant file exists in XP, but I don't know if the
problem does or not.
AFAIC, I've solved the problem, so this is just to share with you. The
solution was simply to turn off automatic Windows Update.
Vista is getting few or no updates these days. Not sure about 7, but
there is manual update.
Now that I'm using Windows Resource Monitor to watch my disk usage,
I've noticed that I was creating Previous Versions. I stopped that
and things seem faster now. So that's good.
This morning, I needed to write and send one short email and then
leave within an hour. Sounds like plenty of time, except the
harddrive light was on constantly for at least an hour, and I could
barely type a single character in the email program. (I think this
has happened other mornings, but this time I was in a hurry.)
It was reading (and maybe writing)
C:\windows\SoftwareDistribution\datastore\datastor e.edb It ranged
from 20 to 45MB/minute. I forgot to note CPU usage.
When I got back 3 hours later, at least by then, that stage was over.
I used, for the first time in Vista, the built-in WinVista search to
search for the file, and searched everythwere, and I'd heard that the
search was slow, but it did NOT even find the file!!!! (I tried
again giving the fully qualified name, and it still didnt' find it,
even though it's there and it's not a hidden or system file. How can
that be?)
So I used Search Everywhere and it quickly found it. 528K, updated 2
hours ago.
(I also dl'd RAMmap, from Sysinternals, because one webpage mentioned
it. It didn't really help me but it's free and interesting.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...ls/rammap.aspx )
(I also used esentutl.exe /g
c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\DataStor e.edb
in administrative mode to check the files integrity. I don't know why
that was recommended but it passed. )
So what's the solution. Suggestions from other people:
http://superuser.com/questions/53941...-computer-down
PC Boots then writes giant datastore.edb file slowing the computer
down. " If you stop the Windows Update service, within a minute the
system will stop reading and writing from the file and everything runs
smoothly. " But if you read further, apparently that's not enough
for him. I hope it's enough for me. The service is called wuauserv
but I didn't stop it directly.
Another one says:
"So I had to completely disable Windows Update Service autorun. This
greatly lowered waste of RAM, CPU and disk IO. The system is much more
responsive now."
AFAICT windows update for Vista has stopped updating. In the last two
weeks I've only gotten one new "Check for selected Malware file". I
don't know if that means there is no point to disabling it, or if it's
still wasting cycles and there is no reason not to disable it."
********************
However, I turned off Windows Updates and I havent' had the problem
this post is about since then. I can always check for updates
manually when it won't interfere with my compute use.
**********************
Another guy said "On my computer, during start up, the anti virus
program (windows essentials) seemed to be taking a lot of time on the
datastore.edb file. .....The solution basically involves telling the
virus scanner (windows essentials) to exclude checking this file. I
did the other exclusions on the windows files as well. (but i'm fine
with the scanners checking my photos, even though they should be
safe)" I didn't think AVG scanned files on startup, and it listed
under "Image" svchost (netsvcs), not AVG , but I'll wait until this
happens again and see if AVG is using appreciable CPU. (I think I've
fixed it so it won't happen again.)
Another guy said "Microsoft released a new WindowsUpdate Client Update
to fix the slow Update searching/Installation." but it's only for 7
and Server 2008.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrac...storeedb_help/
"Every day it ramps up my disk usage to 100% which pretty much kills
anything I want to do. It lasts from 5 min to an hour or two depending
on how long my machine has been off for previously (The longer its
been off, the longer the disk disruption and usage lasts) although it
will happen every day even if the machine is never shut down.
Finally the original poster said there was something wrong with the
original implementation: "This applies to Zeiss OCT machines" but the
problem is more widespread." I don't even know what Zeiss OCT is!
Another guy complains more about it using RAM and the webpage guy
says:
Can you please zip/attach your c:\windows\windowsupdate.log file? If
it's too big to attach, please upload to SendSpace and just provide me
the link. Finally told him to do a repair install! (I don't think
so!)
https://www.sysnative.com/forums/win...gging-ram.html
I enable the BITS and WU services only after I have prepared to do
Windows updating: gotten some time reserved, made a full backup image,
poll for the available update and wait ... and wait ... and wait, review
*EACH* update before allowing it (hiding the unwanted or nonapplicable
ones), reboot even if not told to do so, and disable the BITS and WU
services. When those services are disabled, there is no Windows
updating going on, not even to poll for new ones.
I use the following batch files:
___( WU-disable.bat )___
echo off
cls
echo Stop BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) ...
sc.exe stop BITS
echo Disable BITS ...
sc.exe config BITS start= disabled
echo.
echo Stop Windows Update service ...
sc.exe stop wuauserv
echo Disable Windows Update service ...
sc.exe config wuauserv start= disabled
echo.
exit
___( EOF )___
___( WU-enable.bat )___
@echo off
cls
echo Enable BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) to Manual
startup mode ...
sc.exe config BITS start= demand
echo.
echo Enable Windows Update service to Manual startup mode ...
sc.exe config wuauserv start= demand
echo Start Windows Update service ...
sc.exe start wuauserv
echo.
exit
___( EOF )___
I have a folder containing shortcuts to WU-enable, Windows Updates, and
WU-disable. When I am prepared to do some Windows updating, I just
click on WU-enable, Windows Updates (review each one and allow some),
and end with WU-disable. Then when I am not in update mode, there is no
background checking going on.
I'm also assuming that you configured Automatic Update to "notify only".
During my Windows Updates step, I still only want to get notified of new
updates, not have them crammed down my throat.