Why would ExpressCache.exe appear to be constantly using an external HDD?

Question

I bought ASUS VivoBook S550CM with hybrid drive SSD/HDD. There are many pre-installed Asus utilities, ExpressCache included.

Here is the problem: every time I connect any external USB HDD, the LED indicator on external HDD starts to blink. When I open Resource Monitor I see that ExpressCache.exe is constantly writing/reading something from external drive. See screenshot. So all external drives are being constantly accessed. This is slowing them down when I want to use them and they are very noisy. I tried to reinstall the Asus ExpressCache utility and nothing changed... Hard reset didn't work too...

Any idea on how to fix this...???

Screenshot:

Solution 1

A possible reason for the activity is that there is a feature within ExpressCache that will defragment the disks connected to the system. This is typically done as a background task and will not effect the performance of the system although you may see the activity a bit high at the beginning but as the disk drives become defragmented the activity will be reduced to almost zero.

Solution 2

The correct solution is simply to remove ExpressCache. Windows already has two different file cacheing mechanisms in it (one reactive, one proactive). There isn't really a need for a third. Your hybrid drive similarly already has cacheing algorithms built in.

Comments

[Lizz]

Do you have any links showing this feature of ExpressCache defragmenting disks? It would help improve the reliability and quality of your answer.

[Simon F]

@Lizz (only taken 7 years to get your answer :-) ) the ExpressCache readme on my old laptop says: Titan Defrag Engine™ Defragmentation ExpressCache uses the Diskeeper® technology Titan Defrag Engine to eliminate fragmentation on your hard disk drive. The Titan defragmentation engine was specially developed for the most massive data volumes ever created. Starting at volumes containing 4 to 5 TB of data, the Titan Defrag Engine will complete the job even faster and more thoroughly than previous engines