I recently came across a flaw in Windows Vista that can be addressed by simply disabling one background service. Superfetch was designed to index the hard drive to make searching faster. Depending on how many files are on your computer, Superfetch can take 2 hours or more to make a map of your drive. It doesn't run when the computer is idle and can tie things up while you are trying to work. The solution is to disable Superfetch. The only drawback is that searching for files will take longer, but that's not as bad as having your hard drive overworked on a constant basis.

To disable Superfetch:

1) Click the 'Start' icon at the bottom left.
2) In the 'Start Search' field type this:
services.msc
and press 'Enter'.
This will open the service control list.
3) Find 'Superfetch' in the list (it's alphabetical).
4) Right click 'Superfetch' to expand a list of options. Select 'Disable' from the list.
5) Click 'OK'
6) Reboot.