Vista - Question About "Hard Disk Activity" Inidicator Light

Hello. I have a question concerning the hard disk
activity indicator light, and I can only hope that this
would be the correct forum to ask this question.

My computer has two SATA hard disks. When the
computer accesses the older SATA hard disk, the hard
disk activity indicator light on the front of the computer
shines rather steadily and brightly. When the computer
accesses the newer SATA hard disk, the hard disk
activity indicator light on the front of the computer shines
very briefly and rather dimly.

I have checked the firmness of all the connections of the
front-panel control wires at the front panel and on the
motherboard. I have carefully checked to make sure
that all tiny labels on the wires from the front-panel
control are connected to the matching pins on the
motherboard. Because they are all clearly marked and
they were easy to match up, I can only guess that they
are correctly matched up. There are only four things on
the front-panel control center: a sleep/power-off button,
a 'reset' button, a green power-indicator light, and a
red hard disk activity indicator light.

Since the green light and the two buttons both work
correctly, I can only figure that the red light is correctly
connected to the motherboard.

My computer has:
An MSI K9MM-V motherboard with the
'VIA K8M800+8237R Plus' Chipset
An AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU
1GB of system RAM (which oddly registers as 1022MB)

The operating system that I am using is Windows Vista
Home Premium (64-bit) edition.

So, my question is: Does the variation in the brightness
and 'shine-duration' of the hard disk activity indicator light
(depending upon which hard disk is being accessed)
necessarily mean anything other than the newer drive
finishes its read/writes faster than the older one? Or
should I be listening for the death-knell of the older drive?

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment anyone may happen
to be able to give me on this subject.

Hi,

Since you didn't leave the make & model's of these drives, or which drive
your Windows Vista is on, I'll try to answer your question as best I can.

A newer HDD would have faster read/writes. If your older SATA HDD is a
1.5Gbps
and the new one is a 3.0Gbps, that would make a large difference, in
technology &
therefore the seek times would be lower, on the new one making the LED light
flash less.

If your OS is on the older SATA, then you have to take into account, that
the page-file read/writes as well as normal OS functions occur, keeping that
drive more active.


If you are worried about the older HDD, run a
CHKDSK /R on it from a MS-DOS Window.
You can right -click on the drive in Explorer>properties>Tools>Error
Checking>Check Now>
Make sure both boxes are checked for a "Full Check" or CHKDSK
of the HDD to occur.

JC



"Methylchloroisothiazolinone" wrote:

> Hello. I have a question concerning the hard disk
> activity indicator light, and I can only hope that this
> would be the correct forum to ask this question.
>
> My computer has two SATA hard disks. When the
> computer accesses the older SATA hard disk, the hard
> disk activity indicator light on the front of the computer
> shines rather steadily and brightly. When the computer
> accesses the newer SATA hard disk, the hard disk
> activity indicator light on the front of the computer shines
> very briefly and rather dimly.
>
> I have checked the firmness of all the connections of the
> front-panel control wires at the front panel and on the
> motherboard. I have carefully checked to make sure
> that all tiny labels on the wires from the front-panel
> control are connected to the matching pins on the
> motherboard. Because they are all clearly marked and
> they were easy to match up, I can only guess that they
> are correctly matched up. There are only four things on
> the front-panel control center: a sleep/power-off button,
> a 'reset' button, a green power-indicator light, and a
> red hard disk activity indicator light.
>
> Since the green light and the two buttons both work
> correctly, I can only figure that the red light is correctly
> connected to the motherboard.
>
> My computer has:
> An MSI K9MM-V motherboard with the
> 'VIA K8M800+8237R Plus' Chipset
> An AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU
> 1GB of system RAM (which oddly registers as 1022MB)
>
> The operating system that I am using is Windows Vista
> Home Premium (64-bit) edition.
>
> So, my question is: Does the variation in the brightness
> and 'shine-duration' of the hard disk activity indicator light
> (depending upon which hard disk is being accessed)
> necessarily mean anything other than the newer drive
> finishes its read/writes faster than the older one? Or
> should I be listening for the death-knell of the older drive?
>
> Thanks in advance for any enlightenment anyone may happen
> to be able to give me on this subject.
>

Also, you might want to go to the older SATA HDD's manufacturer site &
download their diagnostic application to see if that HDD has anything show up
for a pending failure.

JC

"Methylchloroisothiazolinone" wrote:

> Hello. I have a question concerning the hard disk
> activity indicator light, and I can only hope that this
> would be the correct forum to ask this question.
>
> My computer has two SATA hard disks. When the
> computer accesses the older SATA hard disk, the hard
> disk activity indicator light on the front of the computer
> shines rather steadily and brightly. When the computer
> accesses the newer SATA hard disk, the hard disk
> activity indicator light on the front of the computer shines
> very briefly and rather dimly.
>
> I have checked the firmness of all the connections of the
> front-panel control wires at the front panel and on the
> motherboard. I have carefully checked to make sure
> that all tiny labels on the wires from the front-panel
> control are connected to the matching pins on the
> motherboard. Because they are all clearly marked and
> they were easy to match up, I can only guess that they
> are correctly matched up. There are only four things on
> the front-panel control center: a sleep/power-off button,
> a 'reset' button, a green power-indicator light, and a
> red hard disk activity indicator light.
>
> Since the green light and the two buttons both work
> correctly, I can only figure that the red light is correctly
> connected to the motherboard.
>
> My computer has:
> An MSI K9MM-V motherboard with the
> 'VIA K8M800+8237R Plus' Chipset
> An AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU
> 1GB of system RAM (which oddly registers as 1022MB)
>
> The operating system that I am using is Windows Vista
> Home Premium (64-bit) edition.
>
> So, my question is: Does the variation in the brightness
> and 'shine-duration' of the hard disk activity indicator light
> (depending upon which hard disk is being accessed)
> necessarily mean anything other than the newer drive
> finishes its read/writes faster than the older one? Or
> should I be listening for the death-knell of the older drive?
>
> Thanks in advance for any enlightenment anyone may happen
> to be able to give me on this subject.
>