Drive busy busy, performance poor

OtisM

OtisM

Bit poster
I am very frustrated with the Performance of Parallels Desktop for Mac OS running Win XP. It seems that the disk drive is very busy busy after starting WinXP. The drive light in Parallels is flashing constantly. Are there any things you recommend I check to see what is going on? Is this a WinXP thing? Or a Parallels thing? Thanks for any help!
 
Hi OtisM,
what version of Parallels Desktop are you using?
As first troubleshooting steps, you can try the following:
1. Disable antivirus checking on Windows side
2. check if any indexing services are running, for instance Google Toolbar: http://kb.parallels.com/6783
 
I am running V5.0.9308 of Parallels Desktop. Windows XP SP3. I do not have any indexing services running including Google, Yahoo, or other tool bars. I have stopped Virus Scan (McAfee) and there is some improvement. (Though this practice concerns me as this could leave the VM vulnerable to unintended infections, no?) The poor performance and busy disk drive is most noticeable on a cold boot, or reboot. On return from suspend, only for a couple of minutes. Thank you for your assistance.
 
Hi OtisM,
from your description, it looks like many services are starting at Windows startup. Please try to disable some of them using Msconfig: Start > type msconfig in Run... > press OK > on Startup tab, disable custom applications you don't need at startup.
 
I removed ctfmon.exe from Startup. There were no other items that were not related to either Parallels or to Virus Protection. So if performance continues to be an issue, then the only alternative to stop virus protection? On a PC! Is that wise? Thank you for your help.
 
Hello OtisM,
disabling antivirus on Windows for testing purposes is a normal action (you can enable it any time). You can also try using Parallels Internet Security shipped with Parallels and check if performance changes. If performance issue continues to bother you, it is better to create a support ticket at Parallels: link here
Please include link to this forum thread in the message.
 
OK. I will look at that option. Thank you for your help. Let's consider this resolved at this point. Your assistance has been very much appreciated!
 
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