Windows 10: MsMpEng.exe writes large amounts of data to vmem file

I have a VMware Workstation virtual machine stored on an external removable SSD. Every time I start it, VMware Workstation creates a vmem file for it to store the virtual machine's memory data. At this point, MsMpEng.exe keeps writing a lot of data to this vmem file, causing the SSD to reach 100% active time and my virtual machine to stop responding for a while. I have tried to exclude paths, processes, and files related to VMware Workstation and vmem file using the following powershell commands, but it still does not change the behavior of MsMpEng.exe * Set-MpPreference -ExclusionPath “F:\Vir

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MsMpEng.exe use large amount of I/O write bytes

I'm running Windows 10 Home (version 1909)

I notice that MsMpEng.exe (a.k.a. Windows Defender Antivirus Service) is doing large amount of I/O write bytes on my hard disk.

It's one of the top offender in I/O write bytes usage. (I could see this from Task Manager).

e.g. On my machine, it's writing close to 4GB of data on disk. And I can see it continually does that on the background.

I'm just wondering.

I can certainly understand that Antivirus would do a lot of Disk Reading, as it's doing a lot of scanning and real-time monitoring.

However, I cannot understand what it's doing with such huge amount of "I/O write bytes".

What kind of data it's trying to write, of such huge amount?

Log files or even definition updates would not be that large.

I certainly understand and appreciate the important job Windows Defender Antivirus is doing.

I rely on it, and I would give it a high rating. And I think it deserve good amount of computing resource for doing such important job.

However, I'm just perplexed at this behavior, and wonder if anyone might know.

 

Backing up moderate/large amounts of data?

There was never any suggestion to use 500GB drives rather, keep data to backup limited to 500GB chunks. It's all about organization. Organize your data directory so that folders for example do not contain more than 500GB or so. The OP's question was about backup of data and the time involved to do so. Obviously smaller amounts of data will backup faster.

You can have large capacity drives, nothing wrong with that. Just organize them so that you can back them up efficiently.

 

Backing up moderate/large amounts of data?

I own 37TB external storage. If I'm going to start using 500GB drives, then I might need to hire someone and probably would be eating top ramen for the next four years so nope... at least for me, what you are suggesting is the exact opposite of manageability and cost effectiveness. I did buy a 500GB drive once...

Spoiler

...back in the day when Windows Vista wasn't out yet. *ROFLMAO2