Data constantly being written to disk

[SoundWagon]

Hi, newer Mac User here, have had this latest model 21" iMac for about 1 month. The issue I'm having is with data constantly being written to disc.

I have noticed this for the past 2 weeks, as I can hear the drive working. Activity Monitor shows data constantly being written. I only have chrome, itunes, and activity monitor running. What could be causing this? As it is quite annoying.

 

[GGJstudios]

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any apps, check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon:

(not indexing)

(indexing)

If that's not the case, start closing apps until the activity stops, to identify which app is doing it.

 

[Intell]

Mac OS X is a UNIX based operating system. Most, if not all, UNIX derived systems always write/read from the disk without much pausing. This is normal.

 

[SoundWagon]

Mac OS X is a UNIX based operating system. Most, if not all, UNIX derived systems always write/read from the disk without much pausing. This is normal.

Actually, when I said it was constant is not correct. I am seeing huge spikes in data written in activity monitor at like 2 sec. intervals.
My macbook pro on SL does not do this.

 

[Intell]

That sounds like a run away program or swap usage.

 

[SoundWagon]

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any apps, check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon: Image (not indexing) Image (indexing)

If that's not the case, start closing apps until the activity stops, to identify which app is doing it.

Chrome appears to be the culprit.

 

[GGJstudios]

Chrome appears to be the culprit.

That's not surprising at all.