HDD led flashes every second

[rickcolee]

Just installed Window 7 on a computer build i did in April. Running Windows XP, the HDD led would flash every second. Kimsland helped me figure out what was causing and advised how to fix. After installing Windows 7, the HDD led is flashing again. Tried the Windows XP fix but doesnt work. The fix was change a Registry Key from a "1" to a "0". Changed it in Windows 7 but led still flashing. Disabled the (4) dvd burners in Device Manager, and the led quit flashing. This is not a critical problem... just aggervating.

 

[XOR]

Well i can't tell you how to fix this but i might be able to show you whats causing this.

Start->right click on Computer->manage(the computer management should come up)->reliability and performance

You should now see 4 graphs (cpu, disk, network, etc. Click on the Disk graph and a list of all the things reading and writing to the HD should be shown.

Now this is in Vista so I'm not sure if this applies to Windows 7. So those with windows 7 will need to confirm or correct this post.

 

[koorosh]

Well Vista back ups your important system files almost every day so it's normal to flash quite a while when computer starts. It's true with 7 too.

Another factor is that your memory is 1 GB. That's the bare minimum for Vista/7. Windows have to write some data in pagefile, that is located in your hard drive, in order to have free memory to do others tasks.
You should free up memory by closing less usable programs or buy more ram.

 

[XOR]

Another factor is that your memory is 1 GB. ram.

His specs say Kingston 1Gb DDR2 X4

rickcolee have you thought about unplugging the HD light from the motherboard? Or you could try (this) or course that applies to vista as well, but many of the services should be the same.

 

[rickcolee]

HDD led flashing every second.

Thanks for the information. I believe I know what is causing the LED to flash. The OS pings the CD/DVD drives every second to se if a cd/dvd has been put into the drive. I disabled the drives in Device Manager and the LED stopped flashing. As soon as I enabled the first drive, the LED starts flashing again. In Windows XP, with the help of Kimsland, I changed a Registery Key and that stopped the LED flashing. The Key is also in Windows 7, and I changed it to a "0" but the LED continued to flash. I believe that there is another Key in the Registery that probably needs to be adjusted. I just don't know which one, if any.

I could just disconnect the LED, but its more fun to try to figure out why its flashing and how to stop it.

Rick

 

[XOR]

Alright, I'll do some more research and try the help as much as I can.
For now try disabling all the services mentioned on the link in my above post if you haven't done it already, and see if that helps.

 

[XOR]

Try this

It shows you how to disable autorun on everything, as always remember to back up the registry before trying this