New laptops not having a hard drive light?

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scuwp

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#1946372 25-Jan-2018 07:44

Our laptops probably have a light but I can't recall the last time I cared or bothered to look. I know it is working because there is a big square light glowing in-front of me...that's enough.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

Coil

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#1946377 25-Jan-2018 07:57

My new laptop has no HDD activity light.. Doesnt even have a caps lock light (Which is a pain)..
My main drive is a M.2 SSD if that makes any difference?

Cheers

Coil

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#1946379 25-Jan-2018 08:01

sbiddle:

I can't recall the last time I looked at or cared about a HDD light. It would have been 10+ years ago at a bare minimum.

Back in my day you could tell if the HDD was active because you heard the creaking noise of the arms.

robjg63

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#1946403 25-Jan-2018 09:06

Often use that light on my desktop to see if the hard drive is busy - installing updates or something.

Not essential to have - but when everything seems to have ground to a stop and you see the disk light is busy - at least you know the system is still doing something!

Perhaps there is a software equivalent....

Ah - there is - https://www.cnet.com/how-to/add-a-hard-drive-activity-indicator-to-the-windows-system-tray/

I also find that network activity light handy from time to time.....

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

MurrayM

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#1946431 25-Jan-2018 09:42

I have an old Eee PC netbook that I use and it will often pause for a while when it's doing things. I use the HDD light in these cases to see what's going on. Without the light I'd just think it's frozen and maybe try to reboot it, but with the light I know to wait for 20 seconds or so and then it all comes right. (Yes I know I really need to replace this machine with something modern but money is tight at the moment)

My father bought a new desktop PC a couple of years ago that didn't have a HDD activity light and it so annoyed him that he installed a freeware program that added an icon to the system tray to show him when the HDD was being accessed.

Besides, blinkenlights are fun!

geekiegeek

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#1946487 25-Jan-2018 11:03

You could just open performance monitor in Windows if you want to see disk activity.

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yitz

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#1946498 25-Jan-2018 11:30

geekiegeek:
You could just open performance monitor in Windows if you want to see disk activity.

That is kind of the point as on a system where you would want a light it would make things even slower to load...

tripper1000

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#1946540 25-Jan-2018 12:56

It is another thing that has been dropped in the quest for lower prices - along with ESATA ports, Optical drive bays, PC card ports etc.

On my desk top the HDD light going nuts when the machine is idle has been the first clue that something is amiss, be it a dodgy application, memory leak, unsolicited updates or a virus.

I guess they are like oil pressure gauges in a car, more important yester-year and something most people couldn't interpret now days.

Coil

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#1946546 25-Jan-2018 13:10

tripper1000:

It is another thing that has been dropped in the quest for lower prices - along with ESATA ports, Optical drive bays, PC card ports etc.

On my desk top the HDD light going nuts when the machine is idle has been the first clue that something is amiss, be it a dodgy application, memory leak, unsolicited updates or a virus.

I guess they are like oil pressure gauges in a car, more important yester-year and something most people couldn't interpret now days.

All cars have an oil pressure indicator or gauge! If the oil light is red it means there is no pressure, if it is orange it means it is low.
If I do an oil change on my car the oil light stays red for about 4-5 seconds then goes out and the next start goes out on the first crank..

But I get what you're saying. Also its clutter on the laptop. Apart from a handful of us, No one ever uses those card readers and all the other proprietary connectors.

Rickles

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#1946813 25-Jan-2018 18:03

My desktop is an all-in-one, with no hard drive activity light .... something that is quite handy at times.

I've used TrayStatus 3.1 (free) and it does a great job for a visual indicator.

Hammerer

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#1947739 28-Jan-2018 09:45

My Lenovo laptop has an ON light that flashes more brightly with disk activity.

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lxsw20

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#1947830 28-Jan-2018 12:45

tripper1000:

It is another thing that has been dropped in the quest for lower prices - along with ESATA ports, Optical drive bays, PC card ports etc.

Plus those are all super-seeded technologies.

gzt

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#1947948 28-Jan-2018 21:12

It's surprising how much information a led provides about the machine state. I miss them sometimes. With ssd and win 10 maybe tri-colour is needed.

1101

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#1948558 30-Jan-2018 11:11

stu28:

Are they?, as all the laptops I have looked at in the shops, don't have SSDs.

Then run a mile from those shops, or stop looking at cheap $500 laptops :-)
EVERY brand sells models with SSD's as standard. SSD's cost more so wont be in the el cheapies

I wouldn't sell or recommend a Win10 laptop that didnt have an SSD . Its often the single best speed upgrade .

quickymart

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#1948584 30-Jan-2018 12:27

Hmmm will hopefully be upgrading from my HP DV3 shortly. Hopefully HP still has the light on their machines (and yes I would get one with an SSD).

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