Noisy Hard Drive: A Long Journey of Work /14393.0 + 15063.0 + Linux

[mikemecanic]

For more than two months we have made a lot of progress under Redstone 2. In order to eliminate noise, all scheduled tasks are disabled in CCleaner Pro/Startup/Scheduled Tasks/Avanced Mode*. We are working on the reduction of a too noisy HDD and fans in the Home edition since Kernel 4.10.

In parallel, the Pro edition gets the same treatment in our test lab: second HP desktop (Intel Sandybrige, Jan.2011). Since we have purchased this desktop (Nov. '16) we have run UEFI mode not more than a day or so. BIOS mode gives better results.

To start with, our battle to eliminate noise, the 55 links of telemetry (well known), more than 70 services (Charles Sparks update), all tiles in Cortana, 95% of switches, all MS apps + Donotspy 10.2, scheduled tasks mention above are all disabled/removed except Defender's.

In order to cut noise, we are also turning off some Windows features/Control Panel/ Programs and Features/Turn Windows features on or off:
IE + WMP + API + File sharing + PowerShell 2.0 + MS print to PDF + Work folder client + XPS services.
We clean HDD with Ccleaner Pro and Revo Uninstaller Pro several times a day. All MS apps get removed in Ccleaner/tools/uninstall/ except Calculator and Photo.

We have succeeded in the reduction of noise without affecting stability, but we lost some speed on our way down. We frequently do a clean install. In order to disturb/refresh the HDD, we proceed periodically with a fresh install of OpenSuse Tumbleweed <<live CD>>.

We also alternate with a fresh install of any Linux (LVM partitioning scheme no Internet). Entire disk in both cases.
Achieving our goals without affecting stability was a long journey of work (intensive in Redstone One and deeper in RS2 = 15025.0 to 15063.0 local accounts). We have learned because of noise tons of tricks and tips that enable machine privacy.

We discover that tasks and components running in the background were acting like a global switch to intrusion and intruders (internally or from the Web**) up to a point where HDD and fans noise(s) required some robust actions. Is it possible to put on the market such desktops?

Still, after disabling some 700 components of the Win Ten architecture, more than 1000 in Kylin LTS, replacing the HDD by an SSD remains in our mind. It remains an issue under Kernel 4.10 and above and we have to go deeper in killing some processes: Apport , Zeitgeist, remmina, Vino, SSH, Certificate and Keyring Storage, Sercret Storage Service , Guess session, rfkill list, update manager & al...

The highest pitch of noise occurs in the non-sudoer session under Custom Kernel alone: When the Network path (Sw) is deleted (Cloned MAC Address) in the sudo account, the sudo session becomes in an open loop or unreachable.

At this point, HDD contents is impossible to reach/read and privacy is set to be very high:

sudo apt purge gnome-disk-utility (Windows 10 is previously set to invisible when dual-boot); sudo apt purge gnome-terminal-data; sudo apt purge xterm; sudo apt purge apport; sudo apt purge gnome-software; sudo apt install synaptic; sudo apt autoremove; history -c -w ~/.bash_history; exit

ARE THEY KIDDING? What is the use of testing custom Kernel under these conditions?

We have succeeded with the elimination of noise because Canonical partners and MS engineers never stop adding switches and/or collecting data. Under Redstone 2, our actions were inversely proportional to the addition of switches.

We succeed because we are not tenants of Windows 10 nor of your/my company nor ubuntu.com. We define our self as dynamic shareholders of both companies and Canonical's major contributor, not a puppet.

We are not mad nor frustrated, alongside our daily goals, our curiosity and the learning process was guiding us:

Don't try to beat the machine, beat  the machine.

*In Ccleaner Pro (startup x3). Are enabled and not the same for Pro and Home: Bitlocker MDM PR, CCleanerSkipUAC, EDP x4, StorageCardET, StorageCardET, Tpm-HASCertR, WIN-Hash-M, WIM-Has-V, Defender x 4. Plus, all Context Menu. Plus, all Windows = MD+Ccleaner+SecurityHealthDefender+AudioEQ only. Disabling all others affects speed, but not stability.

**Some Firefox task(s) gets disabled. Our default browser is Tor Browser Beta (mainly for unecessary reading and because it takes some cognitive tasks to do so). Our daily browser is FF (64-bit/ublock origin/Disconnect/Ghostery). For data collection purposes and stability issues, all Chromium Browsers were eliminated a year or so.

PS: We run Defender only

Regards,