Why do we need an HDD activity light?

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Ronsoak

202 posts

Master Geek

#173289 18-May-2015 12:36

Ive built a lot of computers in the past year.

Several for myself, one for my partner, 3 for friends, and repaired a few and every time i put a PC back together and plug in the Power switch, Reset switch, Audio thing and every time I plug in the HDD light I just think why....?

If my HDD are not active I will know, especially if they are broken/unmounted then i will def know.

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#1307130 18-May-2015 12:39

I dont have one, dont miss it, however, if the PC is slow, and you are doing little, and the HDD light is going to town, thats useful to know

n4

959 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1307131 18-May-2015 12:40

I find it a good indicator that any performance issues are HDD access related.

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scuwp

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#1307133 18-May-2015 12:45

I frequently note the light as an indicator of HDD activity, particularly when things aren't quite working as it should.

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

roobarb

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#1307134 18-May-2015 12:45

If my HDD are not active I will know, especially if they are broken/unmounted then i will def know.

It is a good idea to not remove the power while disks are being accessed, especially written to.

It was also considered good practice to not physically move drives when spinning, however that idea seems to have gone out the window amongst modern users.

gzt

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#1307144 18-May-2015 13:03

HDD light provides a valuable indication of the machine state. Yes it amazes me it is still useful, but it is. Now mainly for understanding pathological conditions but still a good indicator to have.

khull

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#1307177 18-May-2015 13:30

Useful when troubleshooting machines remotely for others (aunts/grandparents etc). Personally I've not used them since Mac's stopped doing that for as long as I could remember

wellygary

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#1307186 18-May-2015 13:44

Probably the same reason there is are "Print screen/Sys Request" "Scroll lock" and "pause|break" keys on your keyboard,

:)

Also likely related to why Q is followed by W,E,R,T, and Y in that order.....

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roobarb

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#1307191 18-May-2015 13:52

khull: Personally I've not used them since Mac's stopped doing that for as long as I could remember

The original Mac 128k did not have a disk light because the floppy had no eject button. The main purpose of the light being to say don't eject while accessing.

The Mac SE did have a light for the hard disk, but also it had a manual power button.

The Mac II did not have a light for the hard disk because the machine was powered down by software. ( Menu -> Special -> Shutdown )

frankv

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#1307197 18-May-2015 14:04

It (and the power LED) are the sole survivors of the rows of LEDs (or incandescents or whatever) that displayed the address bus and accumulators and flag register (think 1950s movies). But, as above, its useful to know if your computer has stopped because its thrashing or because its CPU-bound.

tdgeek

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#1307200 18-May-2015 14:08

True. my rMBP has no HDD light, I can do the Mac version of the Task manager if needed to check HDD hits, CPU, etc

richms

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#1307239 18-May-2015 14:55

They are of limited use with SSDs not being the bottleneck that HDDs were. I dont have it or the power LED plugged in on my case. I know its on because its doing stuff, and the disk access is prettymuch flashing all the time so annoying. Now I just have to deal with the light on the ethernet interface.

Richard rich.ms

Athlonite

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#1307256 18-May-2015 15:13

richms: They are of limited use with SSDs not being the bottleneck that HDDs were. I dont have it or the power LED plugged in on my case. I know its on because its doing stuff, and the disk access is prettymuch flashing all the time so annoying. Now I just have to deal with the light on the ethernet interface.

Try a black marker pen for the NIC LED's

Gilco2

1556 posts

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#1307258 18-May-2015 15:18

On 3 I have been able to dim them down. The 4th one I have the leds unplugged as just too bright. Dont know why they have to make cases with super bright leds

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scuwp

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#1307268 18-May-2015 15:33

Gilco2: Dont know why they have to make cases with super bright leds

Cause it looks cool, and if it looks cool that means it has to be better and faster.

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

Sideface

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#1307269 18-May-2015 15:34

I love HDD activity lights.
Very useful for troubleshooting.
My main PC uses an OCZ RevoDrive SSD as its boot drive.
The RevoDrive has 8 green LEDs, 6 Blue LEDs, and 2 white LEDs - so you can really see it "thinking" if you have a windowed case

(... plus one indicator LED on the case front.

Sideface

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