Dual boot install of Mint xfce 18.3 with Win 8.1

[oliverjames]

I've installed Mint alongside Windows on a friend's laptop. Everything works perfectly but I notice that when Mint boots there's a lot of audible hard disk activity that is not present when Windows 8.1 boots. Does anyone have an idea why that might be so, and suggest a fix?

The laptop is a Lenovo with Intel i3 4010U 1.6 Ghz CPU, & 4 Gbyte RAM, swappiness set to 10.

For information, the boot/shutdown time comparison is as follows:
Win 8.1 - 51s/11s
Mint xfce 18.3 - 50s/4s

Battery lifetimes are comparable between the two OSs.

[kukamuumuka]

Did you give enough room for Mint?

Code: Select all

inxi -po

[oliverjames]

Did you give enough room for Mint?

Code: Select all

inxi -po

I'm not logged on on that machine but yes, about 120 Gbytes.

[pbear]

... when Mint boots there's a lot of audible hard disk activity ...

Frankly, I'd be more worried about that. Suggests a drive about to fail. Have you checked the SMART data? Key stuff available in Disks, more with smartmontools.

Also, does the machine eventually settle down and stop spinning the drive once fully booted? Mine does (though that's Mate, not XFCE).

[oliverjames]

... when Mint boots there's a lot of audible hard disk activity ...

Frankly, I'd be more worried about that. Suggests a drive about to fail. Have you checked the SMART data? Key stuff available in Disks, more with smartmontools.

Also, does the machine eventually settle down and stop spinning the drive once fully booted? Mine does (though that's Mate, not XFCE).

Yes, I have checked the SMART settings. The disk is fine and the laptop is new. The machine does settle down. It's simply curious that it makes more disk noise booting under Linux. In addition loading Firefox under Linux also creates more disk activity than when loading Firefox with the same add-ons under Windows.

[pbear]

You're missing the point. That you can hear the drive is a red flag, regardless of age. Also, rather odd for an 8.1 laptop to be new, as 10 has been standard for almost three years. Anyhoo, sorry to have wasted your time. Won't happen again.

[oliverjames]

You're missing the point. That you can hear the drive is a red flag, regardless of age. Also, rather odd for an 8.1 laptop to be new, as 10 has been standard for almost three years. Anyhoo, sorry to have wasted your time. Won't happen again.

You could be right about the disk. I attach the SMART test data.

SMART-data_2.png

SMART-data_1.png

The disk appears to have undergone 5 significant shocks with a lot of read and seek errors. If the owner likes Mint I'll suggest she allows me to upgrade her machine with an SSD.

The laptop was bought by an elderly lady who then lost her Windows password and was unable to use it. I solved that problem for her but then thought to let her try Linux, which doesn't constantly pester the user with notifications and demands to buy anti-virus upgrades and the like.

I'm still curious as to why I hear a lot of disk activity with Mint but not with Win 8.1.