Let me try and add my findings on the issue
I had also, apparently, acquired the xboxstat.exe process along with some controller drivers. While I was once again fooled by my own thinking of "oh comon, it's [blank] (in this case xbox) .. can't be THAT horrible, right?"
I tend to edit a lot of HD video (for fun), and while I haven't spent a fortune, I do have a machine that's optimized for it with plenty of processing/mem/gpu power, and 4 HDDs for spreading I/Os around.
As it turned out, this tiny little **** process (xboxstat.exe) was actually responsible for not only slowing my entire pc down - by choking one of my HDDs - but could've even harmed the said HDD. For no reason yet apparent to me, this process was accessing files from Batman Arkham City. Now this could of course be due to some awkward behavior from the game's side, but let me give you my take anyway.
What I do know, is that the game files were accessed continuously without reason (the game had not been played or even touched in weeks, multiple system restarts since). While normal for a stat gatherer, the amount of data read was simply ridiculous. I was working on my latest edit in After Effects CS5, and Xboxstat.exe was still managing to top the list in terms of data read.
I got most of this from windows' resource monitor. The game files were accessed through the windows hosts, which also made the initial tracking of the problem a little harder. Luckily, it was the only thing that made sense (no other games), otherwise I might've had a lot of trouble narrowing it down. Surely enough, once I ended the process, all the host processes stopped accessing the Batman files, my HDD doesnt sound like it's about to die anymore, and all is well.
For anyone reading, aside of fixing my problem, I have not tested this enough to be sure of anything, and I clearly can't be certain. But if you're having similar issues, do check this out for yourself. Hope it may help someone in the future.
Grr xbox.. grr.