Question: My Windows environment (main development machine) is running a bit slow with operations involving the hard disk. As an indication, the HD light is constantly flashing and e.g. saving and loading big files is really slow.
I’d like to know if there is a method for monitoring which programs/processes actually use disk I/O and to what extent and, if possible, with which disk.
Answer: I would recommend Process Explorer. It is replacement for Task Manager and among many features it has tracking of IO statistics. That should enable you to find which program is problem.
Once you know which program is to blame and if you need more detail, you can track which exact files are problem via Process Monitor (filtered to exact program since otherwise there will be too much data).