I don’t use Windows Vista that often but when I do it would thrash at the hard drive constantly for hours. Not knowing what the problem is I looked it up and it is aparently the “SuperFetch” service. Using the following steps to disabled it stops the thrashing on the hard drive almost immediately.

• Go to control panel > administrative tools > services.
• Right click on the “SuperFetch” service and click Properties.
• Set the service to disabled and hit Ok.
• Right click on the service again and click “Stop” to stop it.