Hard Drive LED

Thursday, January 19, 2012 by kona0197 | Discussion: Personal Computing

Just curious if it's normal for a computer running Windows 7 Home Premium to keep accessing the hard drive every other second. My HDD LED light lights up every other second, the hard drive never seems to rest. No unusual background programs running, I have my auto-defrag programs and A/V scans turned off. Just wondering if I should be worried. Thanks!

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Wizard1956
Reply #1 Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:17 AM

Well, now that you made me stare at my computer for 60 seconds, I can say it looks normal to me.  The light on my rig blinks with varying intensity and speed. Very pretty blue. ("MS-We never sleep")

Should you be worried? YES. You're supposed to be looking at the monitor, not the tower!

Erk.
Reply #2 Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:04 AM

Is search indexing set to 'active' in windows, Kona?

That's just one thing that would keep yer led blinkin'...

MadDeez
Reply #3 Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:14 AM

EEEEEERRRRRRKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erk.
Reply #4 Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:21 AM

MadDeez
EEEEEERRRRRRKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol ...'sup buddy?

Yeah, I'm still around

 

....I lurk a lot these days, but I'm never far away

RedneckDude
Reply #5 Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:42 AM

Erk lurks...lol! Hi Erk!

Erk.
Reply #6 Thursday, January 19, 2012 12:06 PM

G'day RND Hope all's good with you & yours..

Sorry to hijack your thread a little, Kona - so hi to everybuddy who'd thunk I was m.i.a. ~I'm here but just don't post a lot anymore.

I work crazy hours in my real job, but I still love this place ...and the people who make it nice to stay around.

kona0197
Reply #7 Thursday, January 19, 2012 3:17 PM

I don't know where to find out if search indexing is on or off. Is there a benefit to keeping it on?

WebGizmos
Reply #8 Thursday, January 19, 2012 3:58 PM

MadDeez
EEEEEERRRRRRKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gesundheit!

bk13GarbageMan
Reply #9 Thursday, January 19, 2012 5:44 PM

Kona, if you search "search" from the start menu and then select change how windows searches, it should take you to a place where you can find out what you need to know. I really didn't look much further into it, I just searched "search" because Erk mentioned search indexing........

BTW..........

 

Hello Erk!

 

....okay, now back to lurking........

kona0197
Reply #10 Thursday, January 19, 2012 5:56 PM

Thank you!

bk13GarbageMan
Reply #11 Thursday, January 19, 2012 6:07 PM

kona0197
Thank you!

No prob!

 

.....and now I keep looking at the blinking light too.........

kona0197
Reply #12 Thursday, January 19, 2012 7:04 PM

Turns out that indexing is turned off on my drive, or it says indexing is complete. Yet that LED still blinks on and off every other second. I looked into task manager, no services are using the system to that extend to explain it.

yrag
Reply #13 Thursday, January 19, 2012 9:47 PM

kona0197
Turns out that indexing is turned off on my drive, or it says indexing is complete.

What??

 

Services/ Windows Search: Disable it.

kona0197
Reply #14 Friday, January 20, 2012 2:12 AM

I disabled the service. The LED is still going nuts. Any other ideas?

LightStar
Reply #15 Friday, January 20, 2012 7:23 AM

It is perfectly normal for the LED light to blink occasionally, at random intervals. There are things in an OS that you just cannot see or control that are important to the operations of that OS. If it is always a constant light, going on and of almost continuously all the time, then other factors may be involved, but as to what those may be could vary, like a defrag program running, or unfortunately even a system Trojan or virus.

kona0197
Reply #16 Friday, January 20, 2012 6:11 PM

Lightstar - it is a continuous on and off light every other second. I have no scanners running and all virus and malware scans I have run say I am clean.

Snowman
Reply #17 Friday, January 20, 2012 9:13 PM

Nothing to worry about. It's just a RPM gauge for the hamster wheel.

Jafo
Reply #18 Saturday, January 21, 2012 3:04 AM

Snowman
Nothing to worry about. It's just a RPM gauge for the hamster wheel.

Jafo wants one too ...

LightStar
Reply #19 Saturday, January 21, 2012 8:32 AM

kona0197
Lightstar - it is a continuous on and off light every other second. I have no scanners running and all virus and malware scans I have run say I am clean.

 

Mine blinks almost every second too Kona, sometimes quicker and brighter occasionally too even when I am not doing anything, but I do not worry about it. Probably just a service the OS needs to run that you cannot control.

Wizard1956
Reply #20 Saturday, January 21, 2012 8:42 AM

Is this keeping you up at night?  

Tip: The light will go out if you turn the computer off.

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