Hard Drive Lights up all the time

All the computers I've ever had, most of the time when I'm not useing it, the hard drive is not doing anything. I got a new HD about 6 monthe a go. This one when I'm not useing it, the light blinks every few seconds. This is going on all the time it's not in use.
I checked for spyware and didn't have any. Why is my drive working all the time? How can I find out what it's doing? How can I get it to stop when I'm not useing it? Thank you, Chris.

 

did you check if you have any start up programs, which are accessing your drive ?

 

Some antivirus can do a lot of checking, also MS Office Find Fast. (I have to wait till my drives "wake up" when I access them . I have disabled Find Fast and I tell the Antivirus when to run)

 

Hi Chris.

Most hard drive manufacturers, Western Digital for example, have a routine built into the hard drives that automtically move the heads on a regular basis, usually a few seconds apart, so as to spread out the wear so a particular cylinder doesn't get worn more than the others. This has been happening for years on most drives.

There is a command that you can write to the hard drive that turns this routine off but you have to go to the manufacturer's site to get it. The turn-off was developed because the older drives that had it made the drives noisy and there were complaints. The newer drives are much quiter (is that a word) so it isn't noticed as much.

The hard drive isn't actually reading or writing anything, just moving the head over but since the hard drive is being accessed the light blinks.

Note however that with Windows 2K and XP there is much more random accesses to the hard drive than earlier Windows versions. It is possible that that is what's happening. If it continues a long time then it think it's just the wear spread routine. I think it's an excellent answer to a potential problem.

Giles

 

Is QUITER a word ?

This post is to answer Giles question within his answer to the previous question of the answer. Anyhow, QUITER is not a word. You probably meant QUIETER (i.e. more quiet). You could have meant QUITTER (i.e. a person who quits), but I doubt it in this context. Hopes this helps.

 

Yes, Yes.

Thank you very much. I knew something was wrong there. I had a momentary streak of stupid. It has passed now and I am much better. Quieter. A great word. I shall endeavor to use it more ubiquitously.

Giles

 

I’m glad I read this "“ I thought the blink ever 4 or 5 seconds was my satellite Internet and computer checking with each other. I did have a problem with the light staying on constantly, causing resource usage and other problems. The problem started intermittently and increased. Rebooting wouldn’t turn it off, but most of the time to turn the computer off for a while and restart it worked for a while. I discovered my computer was trying to recognize/detect my Sony CD R/W that was failing and finally failed. Just a thought you might keep this in mind for down the road.

 

Sorry It took me so long to get back, it was the 40th JFK this weekend.

This blinking light wrecked my whole day. A Dallas Radio Station played a tape all day today of the assasanation. I recorded it on my hard drive.

I keeped hearing a noise every few seconds (recorder set to "what you hear "). After the first couple hours I noticed the light blinking was at the same time as the sound. I thought (before reading all the posts) the drive was being accessed on another place then the recording software, made it interfeare with the sound.

Aftwards, I closed most all the programs (msconfig, startup), rebooted thinking that would stop whatever program was running. It didn't work so you may be right. Thank you for telling me/othes about how the newer hard drives work.

I wonder if I turned off the feature how much sooner the HD would wear out?