I know that these processes have to do with spotlight but the high activity you can see from the screen shot occurs quite a bit. Ever week, maybe? It'll be this way for hours, and if I am only using the computer intermittently, closing it when I'm not using it, the high activity can remain for a day or more. Is this normal? I didn't notice it under SL. I installed Lion on day one, and I don't notice this activity on my "beater" 2008 aluminum MB, only on my 2011 MBP.
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mds and mdworker
- Thread starter bozz2006
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Yes, it's Spotlight indexing the drives.
I had an issue where Spotlight was constantly trying to index external drives. I think it may have had to do with a large number of disk images being stored on one of my drives. I decided that Spotlight doesn't need to index the external drives and my solution was to exclude the external drives from being indexed. I don't us Spotlight to find anything on the externals, nor do I need it to find anything inside of a disk image that isn't already on my computer's hard drive.
I had an issue where Spotlight was constantly trying to index external drives. I think it may have had to do with a large number of disk images being stored on one of my drives. I decided that Spotlight doesn't need to index the external drives and my solution was to exclude the external drives from being indexed. I don't us Spotlight to find anything on the externals, nor do I need it to find anything inside of a disk image that isn't already on my computer's hard drive.
Normally it only takes place once, after clean install and/or using migration assistant. Spotlight can start indexing again if you've added (copied, extracted or downloaded) a large number of files to your HDD at once. Under Lion, I have noticed that spotlight indexes external drives, once connected, as well. Additionally, If you unplug an external drive without properly ejecting it, it may cause Spotlight to go haywire every time you plug that drive in afterwards. In that case, go to Disk Utility, select the drive in question, and click "Verify Disk" to make sure there aren't any volume errors. It may be a good idea to do it for your internal HDD, as well as any external drives you got.
I'm thinking the problem has to do with my Time Machine setup. I have been running the unauthorized setup of a Airport Extreme with an external HDD hooked to it, for wireless backups. Since installing Lion, I have gotten the message twice now that after a verification, Time Machine needs to do a new backup.
Edit: here's a screen shot.
Edit: here's a screen shot.
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