[G4] Activity Monitor...update question!

[Philip J Robar]

Thomas J. Fobia wrote:
> Something is happening with my disk drive (every 35-40 seconds). The 
> Activity Monitor shows the process name as "update" and the user as 
> root. The Monitor indicates "writes" to the disk drive if that info 
> helps. Does anyone know what this is (I've gone away for an hour and 
> its still doing it and the only thing active is the activity monitor. 
> What is root updating? Can I stop it? It seems to interrupt any 
> Quicktime (MP4 files) videos I want to play.
> man update

NAME
    update -- flush internal filesystem caches to disk frequently

SYNOPSIS
    update [normal_interval [save_energy_interval]]

DESCRIPTION
    The update command helps protect the integrity of disk volumes by
    flushing volatile cached filesystem data to disk at thirty second
    intervals. Update uses the sync(2) function call to do the task.
    The normal_interval and save_energy_interval can be used to set
    the sync(2) interval in seconds of the normal case and the case
    where the computer is trying to save energy.

    Update is invoked at startup time by launchd(8) when the system
    goes multi-user.


So, no you shouldn't turn it off. I assume that these are HD videos,
otherwise I would think that your machine has enough memory and is fast
enough that you wouldn't notice the updates.

Phil