For some time, I heard odd noises occasionally; I eventually found

1. they are happening at exactly midnight (summer time in summer)
2. it is accessing the optical drive; the odd noises are the spindle
twitching or whatever. (There is no disc in the drive.) It sounds as if
it twitches about twice - taking between a half and a second.

No problem, but I do wonder what's causing it! I can't think of anything
_I_ have set up that would do this - I don't think I've ever set
anything up that either operates at midnight, or accesses the optical
drive. (I don't use the Windows 7 scheduler at all; for the things I
have set up, I use a third party scheduler I brought over from XP.)

The PC (Toshiba Portégé R700-1F5 laptop) doesn't try to restart or
anything; other than the drive mechanics twitching, there's no
detectable effect.

Any ideas? (Windows 7 HP 32-bit.) It's probably been doing it for some
years.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The desire to remain private and/or anonymous used to be a core British value,
but in recent times it has been treated with suspicion - an unfortunate by-
product of the widespread desire for fame. - Chris Middleton,
Computing 6 September 2011

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 01:09:24 +0100, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> For some time, I heard odd noises occasionally; I eventually found
>
> 1. they are happening at exactly midnight (summer time in summer)
> 2. it is accessing the optical drive; the odd noises are the spindle
> twitching or whatever. (There is no disc in the drive.) It sounds as if
> it twitches about twice - taking between a half and a second.
>
> No problem, but I do wonder what's causing it! I can't think of anything
> _I_ have set up that would do this - I don't think I've ever set
> anything up that either operates at midnight, or accesses the optical
> drive. (I don't use the Windows 7 scheduler at all; for the things I
> have set up, I use a third party scheduler I brought over from XP.)

Thanks for being specific. That this happens at midnight, reliably,
is a good clue.

I wrote several paragraphs about checking for updates, but then I
reread your article and I see you said this is the optical drive, so
I deleted them. I can't imagine a reason to check for updates on the
optical drive. Indeed, I can't imagine any reason to do anything on
the optical drive -- unless this is a backup program that expects to
write to a DVD?

I'm far from an expert with Process Explorer, but if I recall
correctly it will tell you what process accesses a given disk drive.
You could fire it up before you go to bed and set a filter so you're
not drowned in information the next morning. If this suggestion has
merit but you can't figure out how to do it, there are others here
who _are_ Process Explorer experts and can guide you.

You can download Process Explorer here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-
explorer
There's no install, just unzip the archive and run the executable.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
https://OakRoadSystems.com/
Shikata ga nai...

On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 at 18:48:04, Stan Brown <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
>On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 01:09:24 +0100, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
>> For some time, I heard odd noises occasionally; I eventually found
>>
>> 1. they are happening at exactly midnight (summer time in summer)
>> 2. it is accessing the optical drive; the odd noises are the spindle
>> twitching or whatever. (There is no disc in the drive.) It sounds as if
>> it twitches about twice - taking between a half and a second.
>>
>> No problem, but I do wonder what's causing it! I can't think of anything
>> _I_ have set up that would do this - I don't think I've ever set
>> anything up that either operates at midnight, or accesses the optical
>> drive. (I don't use the Windows 7 scheduler at all; for the things I
>> have set up, I use a third party scheduler I brought over from XP.)
>
>Thanks for being specific. That this happens at midnight, reliably,
>is a good clue.

Bang on the stroke of the day change.
[]
>the optical drive -- unless this is a backup program that expects to
>write to a DVD?

Interesting guess I hadn't thought of! I've certainly never set up any
such, and I don't think the refurbisher who sold me the laptop would
have.
>
>I'm far from an expert with Process Explorer, but if I recall
>correctly it will tell you what process accesses a given disk drive.
>You could fire it up before you go to bed and set a filter so you're
>not drowned in information the next morning. If this suggestion has

I'm usually awake (and at the computer) at midnight. (That's how I
happened to hear it, and eventually pin it down.)

>merit but you can't figure out how to do it, there are others here
>who _are_ Process Explorer experts and can guide you.

I'm not a Process Explorer expert either ...
>
>You can download Process Explorer here:
>https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-
>explorer
>There's no install, just unzip the archive and run the executable.
>
.... though I do already have it (version 16.21). I've never used it in
any logging mode though, only to look at what's going on, as a sort of
Task Manager on steroids.
>
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

What's awful about weird views is not the views. It's the intolerance. If
someone wants to worship the Duke of Edinburgh or a pineapple, fine. But don't
kill me if I don't agree. - Tim Rice, Radio Times 15-21 October 2011.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

> For some time, I heard odd noises occasionally; I eventually found
>
> 1. they are happening at exactly midnight (summer time in summer)
> 2. it is accessing the optical drive; the odd noises are the spindle
> twitching or whatever. (There is no disc in the drive.) It sounds as if
> it twitches about twice - taking between a half and a second.
>
> No problem, but I do wonder what's causing it! I can't think of anything
> _I_ have set up that would do this - I don't think I've ever set
> anything up that either operates at midnight, or accesses the optical
> drive. (I don't use the Windows 7 scheduler at all; for the things I
> have set up, I use a third party scheduler I brought over from XP.)
>
> The PC (Toshiba Portégé R700-1F5 laptop) doesn't try to restart or
> anything; other than the drive mechanics twitching, there's no
> detectable effect.
>
> Any ideas? (Windows 7 HP 32-bit.) It's probably been doing it for some
> years.

Backups scheduled at midnight (using Task Scheduler or their own
scheduling process) where removable media is included (i.e., too many
drive [types] selected).

A scheduled scan by the anti-virus software.

That's a couple possibilities.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 00:15:15 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

>A scheduled scan by the anti-virus software.

I'm flashing back 20-25 years to when people asked why their floppy drives
did a random seek at scheduled times. In that case, it was usually the AV
scan. It should be pretty easy to check and rule out.

--

Char Jackson

Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 00:15:15 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>>A scheduled scan by the anti-virus software.
>
> I'm flashing back 20-25 years to when people asked why their floppy drives
> did a random seek at scheduled times. In that case, it was usually the AV
> scan. It should be pretty easy to check and rule out.

The problem that I encountered was a SMART scan which included removable
media would fire Avast Free into polling all the removable media a 1
minute intervals. Didn't happen until I used any SMART tool to get data
from any drive, but Avast would then start checking all removable media
every minute. The optical drive that I had back then didn't make any
noise when simply accessed (to poll for a response), but the floppy
drive would make grinding noises as its head got repositioned try to
check for media.

The OP's problem isn't 1-minute queries by the AV software, but
happening only once per day at exactly the same time. Some AVs use Task
Scheduler, so you can look there for an event scheduled at midnight.
Some AVs have their own scheduler process to handle the scheduled tasks.
For those, you couldn't find anything in Task Scheduler, but had to look
in the AV's config tool(s) to see when scans might get scheduled. If a
backup job included removable media, or just the OP's optical drive,
yep, I can see the drive checking if it has storage medium (a disc).

I'd look in Task Scheduler for an event scheduled at midnight. Not just
under the user-define category, but there can be groups based on
software, and even under the Windows category (which is where you find
events for Microsoft -> Windows Defender). I just checked under there,
and there are multiple events that last ran at 12:06 PM today for
Windows Defender. Checking the Triggers tab for the event definition
shows nothing (well, a gray page instead of white) meaning it's an
internal definition that users don't get to see nor get to edit. I use
SyncBack which also has scheduled tasks, but they aren't grouped
together with the general user-defined events and instead are in their
own 2BrightSparks -> SyncBack category in the left-pane tree. Task
Scheduler has no advanced search feature to find tasks that match on
criteria, like a range for start time, so it can be an onerous task to
hunt through Task Scheduler.

I've used AVs that load their own scheduler process to run scheduled
events. They aren't listed in Task Scheduler. You have to load the
config UI for the AV to check for scheduled scans, or any that are
defined for various triggers.

I've used backup programs that use Task Scheduler, and others that have
bugs when creating or mainting events in Task Scheduler, so they go with
their own scheduler process which requires you load their config UI to
see when any backup jobs are scheduled, and perhaps revisit the backup
job definitions to see if you really need to include all drives,
including the optical ones, and perhaps even the USB flash drives. Some
users don't know how to define backup jobs, and include everything in a
backup job potentially resulting in backups that are far larger than
needed, or try to include drives that are not currently usable (i.e., no
disc in an optical drive, no flash drives in USB ports, etc).

Oh, to check if it's an event in Task Scheduler, and since the OP knows
it always starts at midnight, and since Task Scheduler logs are shown in
the Event Viewer under:

Applications and Services -> Microsoft -> Windows -> TaskScheduler

the OP could sort that logs list to see which events showed "Task
Scheduler started ...". First sort the list, pick those with an event
ID of 100 (Task Started), and see if you recognize any that might be
performing drive operations. You can use the View menu to do some
sorting by event ID or time, but by the time you figure out how to
define the search criteria you probably can just hunt around for those
listed for 12 midnight and having a "Task Started" event ID.

On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 18:48:04 -0700, Stan Brown wrote:
>
> I'm far from an expert with Process Explorer, but if I recall
> correctly it will tell you what process accesses a given disk drive.
> You could fire it up before you go to bed and set a filter so you're
> not drowned in information the next morning. If this suggestion has
> merit but you can't figure out how to do it, there are others here
> who _are_ Process Explorer experts and can guide you.
>
> You can download Process Explorer here:
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-
> explorer
> There's no install, just unzip the archive and run the executable.

That should be the Process Monitor (aka. Procmon).

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> For some time, I heard odd noises occasionally; I eventually found
>
> 1. they are happening at exactly midnight (summer time in summer)
> 2. it is accessing the optical drive; the odd noises are the spindle
> twitching or whatever. (There is no disc in the drive.) It sounds as if
> it twitches about twice - taking between a half and a second.
>
> No problem, but I do wonder what's causing it! I can't think of anything
> _I_ have set up that would do this - I don't think I've ever set
> anything up that either operates at midnight, or accesses the optical
> drive. (I don't use the Windows 7 scheduler at all; for the things I
> have set up, I use a third party scheduler I brought over from XP.)
>
> The PC (Toshiba Portégé R700-1F5 laptop) doesn't try to restart or
> anything; other than the drive mechanics twitching, there's no
> detectable effect.
>
> Any ideas? (Windows 7 HP 32-bit.) It's probably been doing it for some
> years.

Why not have a look at Scheduled Tasks ?

If a Scheduled Task is set to go off at a late
hour in the day, Scheduled Tasks can set the
one timer in the RTC, to wake at the specified hour.
Usually it's a good idea for a computer to "wake early",
if hitting the hour mark precisely is important (your
TV tuner software has left a wakeup call).

The RTC has a register with the time in it.

The RTC can also have a comparator, loaded with
the time to wake up. And if that asserts, the
machine can be awakened (PME or Power Management Event).

If you want to set a Scheduled Task for 30 days from
now, I think the machine may have to awake, check the
date, then go back to sleep, 30 times. That's because
they were so cheap (how cheap were they), that they
did not make the alarm register the same width as the
time register. The RTC runs at 32768Hz, but a ripple
divider provides a pulse per second to run the register
scheme.

MC146818A CMOS RTC (47 year old design, inside your PC!)

HHMMSS <=== alarm register

YYmmHHMMSS <=== time register

Paul

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 at 00:15:15, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
>"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
[]
>> Any ideas? (Windows 7 HP 32-bit.) It's probably been doing it for some
>> years.
>
>Backups scheduled at midnight (using Task Scheduler or their own
>scheduling process) where removable media is included (i.e., too many
>drive [types] selected).

I don't _think_ so; I've certainly never set an automatic regular
backup.
>
>A scheduled scan by the anti-virus software.

Now that's a possible one.
>
>That's a couple possibilities.

Thanks.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"I'm a paranoid agnostic. I doubt the existence of God, but I'm sure there is
some force, somewhere, working against me." - Marc Maron

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> For some time, I heard odd noises occasionally; I eventually found
>
> 1. they are happening at exactly midnight (summer time in summer)
> 2. it is accessing the optical drive; the odd noises are the spindle
> twitching or whatever. (There is no disc in the drive.) It sounds as if
> it twitches about twice - taking between a half and a second.
>
> No problem, but I do wonder what's causing it! I can't think of anything
> _I_ have set up that would do this - I don't think I've ever set
> anything up that either operates at midnight, or accesses the optical
> drive. (I don't use the Windows 7 scheduler at all; for the things I
> have set up, I use a third party scheduler I brought over from XP.)
>
> The PC (Toshiba Portégé R700-1F5 laptop) doesn't try to restart or
> anything; other than the drive mechanics twitching, there's no
> detectable effect.
>
> Any ideas? (Windows 7 HP 32-bit.) It's probably been doing it for some
> years.

As others have mentioned, look at Task Scheduler.

When it's started, it will show three 'panes' in the middle. Look at
the bottom pane, called 'Active Tasks'. That will list the Active tasks
by 'Next Run Time'. Just check if any task has a next run time of
(around) 00:00:00.

If that does *not* show a culprit, you will have to do more digging by
opening the tree(s) in the left pane. Especially the 'Task Scheduler
Library\Microsoft\Windows tree will have tons of (lists of) tasks. But I
suggest to start with the *other* - much smaller - trees first, because
it's unlikely that the Microsoft\Windows tree contains the culprit,
because otherwise 'everybody' would have the same problem.

Happy hunting.

FWIW, I've nothing at 00:00:00, only at 23:00:00 (and I'm 1 hour east
of you, so that would be 22:00:00 your time). But that task, (Microsoft)
'Consolidator' - part of the <barf> 'Windows Customer Experience
Improvement Program' </barf> -, had a *first* run time of 00:00.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 at 02:33:51, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
[]
>The OP's problem isn't 1-minute queries by the AV software, but
>happening only once per day at exactly the same time. Some AVs use Task
>Scheduler, so you can look there for an event scheduled at midnight.

I've opened it (I'm not very familiar with it as I don't use it). [On
opening, it dinged and popped up "Task GoogleUpdateTaskMachineUA: The
task image is corrupt or has been tampered with.", but I don't think
that's relevant.]

I'm reminded why I don't use TS!
In the centre pane, there's a section "Task Status", which has a box
that says it's "Status of tasks that have started in the following time
period:", and a drop-down that's currently set to "Last 24 hours". Below
that is a line that says "Summary: 0 total - 0 running, 0 succeeded, 0
stopped, 0 failed".
Below that is a section headed "Active Tasks", which says it lists 31
(despite the above 0s)! There's a list: the bottom 17 are blank under
"Next Run Time", the rest all have some time today or tomorrow. Three -
"Scheduled", "SynchroniseTime", and "WinSAT", have times of 1:0:0, and
under "Triggers" say "At 01:00 every Sunday of...", so it isn't them;
one (only) has a time of 0:0:0. It is called "SR", and says "Multiple
triggers defined". Under "Location" it says
"\Microsoft\Wiindows\SystemRestore".

>Some AVs have their own scheduler process to handle the scheduled tasks.
>For those, you couldn't find anything in Task Scheduler, but had to look
>in the AV's config tool(s) to see when scans might get scheduled. If a
>backup job included removable media, or just the OP's optical drive,
>yep, I can see the drive checking if it has storage medium (a disc).

AVG has one entry in Task Scheduler (not midnight).
>
>I'd look in Task Scheduler for an event scheduled at midnight. Not just
>under the user-define category, but there can be groups based on
>software, and even under the Windows category (which is where you find
>events for Microsoft -> Windows Defender). I just checked under there,
>and there are multiple events that last ran at 12:06 PM today for
>Windows Defender. Checking the Triggers tab for the event definition
>shows nothing (well, a gray page instead of white) meaning it's an
>internal definition that users don't get to see nor get to edit. I use
>SyncBack which also has scheduled tasks, but they aren't grouped
>together with the general user-defined events and instead are in their
>own 2BrightSparks -> SyncBack category in the left-pane tree. Task
>Scheduler has no advanced search feature to find tasks that match on
>criteria, like a range for start time, so it can be an onerous task to
>hunt through Task Scheduler.

I _think_ I've looked at every task in Task Scheduler (there are
certainly lots of "folders" under ...\Microsoft\Windows!), and didn't
see any where the "Last Run Time" showed as midnight. (Most showed
either a date and time, or "Never"; a small number showed as "(0x0)".)
>
>I've used AVs that load their own scheduler process to run scheduled
>events. They aren't listed in Task Scheduler. You have to load the
>config UI for the AV to check for scheduled scans, or any that are
>defined for various triggers.
>
>I've used backup programs that use Task Scheduler, and others that have
>bugs when creating or mainting events in Task Scheduler, so they go with
>their own scheduler process which requires you load their config UI to
>see when any backup jobs are scheduled, and perhaps revisit the backup
>job definitions to see if you really need to include all drives,
>including the optical ones, and perhaps even the USB flash drives. Some
>users don't know how to define backup jobs, and include everything in a
>backup job potentially resulting in backups that are far larger than
>needed, or try to include drives that are not currently usable (i.e., no
>disc in an optical drive, no flash drives in USB ports, etc).

I don't think I have any scheduled backup.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"I'm a paranoid agnostic. I doubt the existence of God, but I'm sure there is
some force, somewhere, working against me." - Marc Maron

Note: Attribution lines have been trimmed for readability.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>> Backups scheduled at midnight (using Task Scheduler or their own
>> scheduling process) where removable media is included (i.e., too
>> many drive [types] selected).
>
> I don't _think_ so; I've certainly never set an automatic regular
> backup.

<sermon>
You only perform manually instigated backups? That pretty much
guarantees when you need to restore a backup image that it will be too
old. After the restore, you'll be re-installing software, re-doing
tweaks, or losing docs after the date of your really old backup.
Relying on users to create backups at regular intervals or before major
changes ensures they don't do backups when appropriate. When they do
restores, they realize how much they lost and have to redo.
</sermon>

See my other reply (to Char) on how to look in the Event Viewer to view
logs for Task Scheduler? That might help track down events using that
scheduler. AVs and some software use their own scheduling process.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 at 07:57:13, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
[]
>Why not have a look at Scheduled Tasks ?

Is that the same as Task Scheduler? If so, see my replies to VLH.
>
>If a Scheduled Task is set to go off at a late
>hour in the day, Scheduled Tasks can set the
>one timer in the RTC, to wake at the specified hour.
>Usually it's a good idea for a computer to "wake early",
>if hitting the hour mark precisely is important (your
>TV tuner software has left a wakeup call).
[]
I'm pretty sure the optical-drive twitch only happens if I have the PC
on and running (which is how I tend to leave it permanently).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

As for cooking, what a bore that is. It's such a faff, thinking of what to
have, buying it and cooking it and clearing up, then all you do is eat it -
and have to start all over again next day. Hunter Davies, RT 2017/2/4-10

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
[...]

[About Task Scheduler's 'Active Tasks' list:]

> one (only) has a time of 0:0:0. It is called "SR", and says "Multiple
> triggers defined". Under "Location" it says
> "\Microsoft\Wiindows\SystemRestore".

Could it be that System Restore - actually the System Protection part,
i.e. making a System Restore point - is misconfigured and thinks that it
can make a SR point of the optical drive?

To check (8.1 instructions, 7 should be similar): Control Panel ->
System and Security -> System -> System Protection -> opens 'System
Properties' applet on the 'System Protection' tab.

Which 'Available Drives' are listed in the 'Protection Settings' part
and what do they have listed in the 'Protection' column, i.e. 'On' or
'Off'?

FWIW, on my system the 'SR' Scheduled Task is *not* time scheduled,
i.e. the 'Triggers' field/tab is empty and there's no 'Next Run Time',
only a 'Last Run time'. Apparently the task is started by some other -
than time - event.

[...]

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 at 15:44:03, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
>"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>[...]
>
>[About Task Scheduler's 'Active Tasks' list:]
>
>> one (only) has a time of 0:0:0. It is called "SR", and says "Multiple
>> triggers defined". Under "Location" it says
>> "\Microsoft\Wiindows\SystemRestore".
>
> Could it be that System Restore - actually the System Protection part,
>i.e. making a System Restore point - is misconfigured and thinks that it
>can make a SR point of the optical drive?

Ah, interesting thought!
>
> To check (8.1 instructions, 7 should be similar): Control Panel ->
>System and Security -> System -> System Protection -> opens 'System
>Properties' applet on the 'System Protection' tab.

Well, I got there via Control Panel -> System -> System protection, but
I've got the System Properties window.
>
> Which 'Available Drives' are listed in the 'Protection Settings' part
>and what do they have listed in the 'Protection' column, i.e. 'On' or
>'Off'?

Available Drives Protection
(E:)backup Off
(C:)system (System) On
(D:)data Off

Those are all partitions on my (single - it's a laptop) HD. My optical
drive is W:. (I've always made an optical drive that can only read R:,
and one that can write W:.) So that's not it - but it was a good
thought!
>
> FWIW, on my system the 'SR' Scheduled Task is *not* time scheduled,
>i.e. the 'Triggers' field/tab is empty and there's no 'Next Run Time',
>only a 'Last Run time'. Apparently the task is started by some other -
>than time - event.

Maybe when any user logs in?
>
>[...]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The early worm gets the bird.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 at 15:44:03, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid>
> wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
> >"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> >[...]
> >
> >[About Task Scheduler's 'Active Tasks' list:]
> >
> >> one (only) has a time of 0:0:0. It is called "SR", and says "Multiple
> >> triggers defined". Under "Location" it says
> >> "\Microsoft\Wiindows\SystemRestore".
> >
> > Could it be that System Restore - actually the System Protection part,
> >i.e. making a System Restore point - is misconfigured and thinks that it
> >can make a SR point of the optical drive?
>
> Ah, interesting thought!

Well, chasing ghosts - actually remotely troubleshooting customer
systems - was my job, so ... :-)

> > To check (8.1 instructions, 7 should be similar): Control Panel ->
> >System and Security -> System -> System Protection -> opens 'System
> >Properties' applet on the 'System Protection' tab.
>
> Well, I got there via Control Panel -> System -> System protection, but
> I've got the System Properties window.
> >
> > Which 'Available Drives' are listed in the 'Protection Settings' part
> >and what do they have listed in the 'Protection' column, i.e. 'On' or
> >'Off'?
>
> Available Drives Protection
> (E:)backup Off
> (C:)system (System) On
> (D:)data Off
>
> Those are all partitions on my (single - it's a laptop) HD. My optical
> drive is W:. (I've always made an optical drive that can only read R:,
> and one that can write W:.) So that's not it - but it was a good
> thought!

Well, we tried. Can't win them all.

> > FWIW, on my system the 'SR' Scheduled Task is *not* time scheduled,
> >i.e. the 'Triggers' field/tab is empty and there's no 'Next Run Time',
> >only a 'Last Run time'. Apparently the task is started by some other -
> >than time - event.
>
> Maybe when any user logs in?

No, that should also be listed in the Triggers column / on the
Triggers tab. Maybe it gets started by a Service, but I couldn't find
one.

Well, back to GhostBusters [1]!

[1] We just had a rerun on TV of the film with the all-female
GhostBusters. (Didn't watch it.)

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 at 18:03:47, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
[]
> Well, we tried. Can't win them all.

Indeed. I was going to say one twitch of the optical drive motor once a
day won't do any harm - though it occurs to me that it might have: that
internal optical drive struggles to spin a full-sized CD or DVD, though
is fine with the mini-CD that I have my Macrium 5 on. I suppose the
twitch _might_ have weakened the motor over the years! I do have an
external optical drive anyway - but other than my periodic imaging with
Macrium (which I always do having booted from the [mini-]CD anyway), I
can't remember when I last used an optical disc.
[]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

… too popular actually to be any good. - Alison Graham in Radio Times 2-8
February 2013

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 at 18:03:47, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid>
> wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
> []
> > Well, we tried. Can't win them all.
>
> Indeed. I was going to say one twitch of the optical drive motor once a
> day won't do any harm - though it occurs to me that it might have: that
> internal optical drive struggles to spin a full-sized CD or DVD, though
> is fine with the mini-CD that I have my Macrium 5 on. I suppose the
> twitch _might_ have weakened the motor over the years! I do have an
> external optical drive anyway - but other than my periodic imaging with
> Macrium (which I always do having booted from the [mini-]CD anyway), I
> can't remember when I last used an optical disc.

If you use it that little, perhaps you can remove the drive letter(s)
(in Disk Management) and (re-)add it/them when you need to use the
optical drive [1]. Perhaps/hopefully that will make the midnight optical
drive access problem go away.

[1] Paul probably know a way to do this from the command-line, if that's
more convenient for you.

On 28 Jun 2021 15:44:03 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>
> Could it be that System Restore - actually the System Protection part,
> i.e. making a System Restore point - is misconfigured and thinks that it
> can make a SR point of the optical drive?
>
> To check (8.1 instructions, 7 should be similar): Control Panel ->
> System and Security -> System -> System Protection -> opens 'System
> Properties' applet on the 'System Protection' tab.
>

Windows Key + Break is a shortcut in 7 and 8.1, if you have those
keys on your keyboard.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
https://OakRoadSystems.com/
Shikata ga nai...

Stan Brown <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> On 28 Jun 2021 15:44:03 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> >
> > Could it be that System Restore - actually the System Protection part,
> > i.e. making a System Restore point - is misconfigured and thinks that it
> > can make a SR point of the optical drive?
> >
> > To check (8.1 instructions, 7 should be similar): Control Panel ->
> > System and Security -> System -> System Protection -> opens 'System
> > Properties' applet on the 'System Protection' tab.
>
> Windows Key + Break is a shortcut in 7 and 8.1, if you have those
> keys on your keyboard.

I do have a Windows Key, but no Break key. OTOH, my keyboard is
*broken*, but I doubt that will help.

Anyway, I have Clasic Start Menu, so I just take the long way and
enjoy the scenery.

On 6/29/2021 10:10 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> but no Break key

Same as the pause key - next to scroll lock on IBM keyboards.

Michael Trew <mt999999@ymail.com> wrote:
> On 6/29/2021 10:10 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> > but no Break key
>
> Same as the pause key - next to scroll lock on IBM keyboards.

I have a laptop. 'pause' is on the upper part of the right 'shift'
key.

So what do I do? Shift (with left-shift) the right-shift key?

A little experimenting (with the SharpKeys utility) showed that I
probably need to use windows-key+fn-key+right-shift to get 'pause'.

However, contrary to what Stan seems to say, that brings me to Control
Panel > System and Security > System, but does not open the 'System
protection' 'link' (on the left side) and hence does not open the
'System Properties' applet on the 'System Protection' tab, so there's
still one more step to go.

I'm sure Paul will have some *.msc which we can put in the 'Run' box
to do the same/similar! :-)

Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
> Michael Trew <mt999999@ymail.com> wrote:
> > On 6/29/2021 10:10 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> > > but no Break key
> >
> > Same as the pause key - next to scroll lock on IBM keyboards.
>
> I have a laptop. 'pause' is on the upper part of the right 'shift'
> key.
>
> So what do I do? Shift (with left-shift) the right-shift key?
>
> A little experimenting (with the SharpKeys utility) showed that I
> probably need to use windows-key+fn-key+right-shift to get 'pause'.

Oops! That should be fn-key+right-shift to get 'pause'. The additional
windows-key is to get to the 'System' section of the Control Panel.

> However, contrary to what Stan seems to say, that brings me to Control
> Panel > System and Security > System, but does not open the 'System
> protection' 'link' (on the left side) and hence does not open the
> 'System Properties' applet on the 'System Protection' tab, so there's
> still one more step to go.
>
> I'm sure Paul will have some *.msc which we can put in the 'Run' box
> to do the same/similar! :-)

Il giorno Mon 28 Jun 2021 02:09:24a, *J. P. Gilliver (John)* ha inviato su
alt.windows7.general il messaggio news:j1SY2mV0MR2gFwdw@255soft.uk. Vediamo
cosa ha scritto:

> Any ideas?

a search/indexer software that runs at midnight

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