Disk performance

When I first fire up my laptop it takes quite awhile to start. I have the
usual virus stuff that starts and what not. My startup group fires up one
browser session, a notepad session and the Sametime Connect client. After
logging in to windows I go get my cup of coffee, stop and read a coworkers
calendar of the day on his desk, exchange the usual pleasantries and head
back to my desk. A few minutes later (with time to check voice mail, etc)
it's done. During this time the disk drive light is on constant. I fire
up task manager and CPU percentage and memory percentage is insignificant.
Soon as that disk drive light slows down they shoot up.

How can I tell what is thrashing the disk? If I could tell it was this or
that I might remove it from startup. Be really bizarre to find out there
was something like "let's fire off the network backup when you first
connect" or "virus pattern file on the server is newer than what you have
on your PC, we're going to update you and scan your whole disk before we
let you connect". (There was talk of initiating something like the
second.)

Rob Berendt