This is something that just started to happen and I don't know what is causing it, but even when my system is idle, my h/d lite flashes very dimly about once every 2 secs. I checked my processes and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. When I have nothing else opened I have 19 processes running (WinXP Pro). I'm not 100% sure, but I think this h/d lite blinking started after I did the latest Windows Update. I don't see any loss of performance, but this seems to be more annoying than anything, but again, I'm not really sure.
Any thoughts on what may be causing this would be appreciated.
TIA

omg it happens to u too :huh:
i thought it happened only to me :o

this thing i noticed last year August when i first installed XP. i was soooo curious to know what was really happening. honestly still dunno what is exactly happening. but now i dont care about it either. i just satisfy myself thinking that it may be defragmenting the hdd while it is idle. lol - but dunno if it is the case - who knows.

can't believe it is a common issue :o

Could it possibly be the indexing service? Do you have the indexing service enabled on your hard drives? I think it is on by default. I really have no clue what it is, but this is one possible solution. You can enable/disable the service for the hard drive by going to the drive properties and unchecking a box.

I've got it too. Indexing is off and I have plenty of RAM (768Mb). Mine seems to be more frequent, about once a second. I've run out of ideas and am now just pretending it doesn't happen!

Just think the HDD is defragmenting when it is idle like i do, :P
...till we find the actual reason :)

Ok, what about something as simple as a clock? The clock has to be updated every second, and then displayed in windows, which is on the hard drive. Could it be something as simple as this? There are always things going on with your hard drive, and I dont think you can really narrow it down to one process or whatever.

lol. clocks are in Windows 95/NT/98/ME and 2000. but they don't let the HDD to act strangely like this :D

Any chance that in Outlook Express
under Tools/Options/Maintence you have the
Compact Messages in Background checked?

Thanks for the replies. Glad to see I'm not the only one this happens to.
I do have indexing service disabled and I don't use Outlook Express for e-mail, I use full Outlook and as far as I can see, there is no "Compact Messages in Background" option.

Try FileMon of http://www.sysinternals.com it will tell you witch program is accessing you harddisk.

@Le Cactus There are several files at that site which will ease the mind of people. We just have to be carefull and not get excited when we see files in use until we are sure what they do. It would be easy to delete the wrong thing trying to help and only make it worse.

When I first installes XP I also had the same problem. At that time I was not behind a router, had not been to hxxp://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm page and several others and read and read and read. It does not do that now and am not real sure why.

But, but,

Who said anything about deleting files. The FileMon (and RegMon) is just an handy tool to see witch programs access your harddisk (or registry) so you can further investigate what is really going on.

Never ever deleted files your absolutly sure of they can be erased. Rename files, so they can't be used until you make sure you may get rid of them If not, you can rename them back.

Anyways, Cheers!

OK, I tried FileMonitor and there is a lot of activity going on, but I don't really know what it all is.
Maybe someone can tell me if they know what this all means.

While my system is sitting idle, here is what I see..........

10:42:47 AM explorer.exe:1692 IRP_MJ_CREATE C:\ SUCCESS Attributes: Any Options: Open Directory
10:42:47 AM explorer.exe:1692 IRP_MJ_QUERY_VOLUME_INFORMATION C:\ SUCCESS FileFsQuotaSetInformation
10:42:47 AM explorer.exe:1692 IRP_MJ_CLEANUP C:\ SUCCESS
10:42:47 AM explorer.exe:1692 IRP_MJ_CLOSE C:\ SUCCESS
10:42:47 AM explorer.exe:1692 IRP_MJ_CREATE D:\ SUCCESS Attributes: Any Options: Open Directory
10:42:47 AM explorer.exe:1692 IRP_MJ_QUERY_VOLUME_INFORMATION D:\ SUCCESS FileFsQuotaSetInformation
10:42:47 AM explorer.exe:1692 IRP_MJ_CLEANUP D:\ SUCCESS
10:42:47 AM explorer.exe:1692 IRP_MJ_CLOSE D:\ SUCCESS
10:42:48 AM System:4 IRP_MJ_WRITE* C:\$LogFile SUCCESS Offset: 63574016 Length: 28672
10:42:53 AM System:4 IRP_MJ_WRITE* C:\$LogFile SUCCESS Offset: 63602688 Length: 24576
10:42:54 AM System:4 IRP_MJ_WRITE* C:\$Mft SUCCESS Offset: 26845184 Length: 8192
10:42:54 AM System:4 IRP_MJ_WRITE* C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\VirusDefs SUCCESS Offset: 0 Length: 4096
10:42:58 AM System:4 IRP_MJ_WRITE* C:\$LogFile SUCCESS Offset: 63627264 Length: 24576

and this goes on and on..any suggestions or ideas ?
TIA

Hmm,

That's weird, it must be a hardware thing; It's not software of any kind that is accessing your disks every two seconds. Your log proofs that.

To be certain of that: There is a gap 5 seconds, is your HD flashing or not in such a five second gap? If it is, then some hardware function (S.M.A.R.T.?) is lighting the light. If is stays dimmed at that time, it still must be software.

btw, do you have diskquota's actived?

The lite flashes very dimly constantly about every 1 or 2 secs.
Disk quota is disabled.
I don't have any S.M.A.R.T. software installed..I have 2 Western Digital h/d's and if there is any S.M.A.R.T. active, it would be in my BIOS I guess.
As far as hardware, I recently installed a new Liteon 48x12x48 LTR-48125W cd-rw.
I'm not really sure if the lite was flashing all the time before I put in the new cd-rw, but it is possible it wasn't.

That could very well be the cause, try disconnecting it . . .

That was it. I disconnected my secondary IDE with my cd-rw and cd-rom and the lite stopped flashing. Then tried it with only cd-rom and no lite. When I hooked cd-rw back up lite started flashing again.

Now...how to stop it when cd-rw is hooked up....lol

Thnx for all the suggestions and help :D

And the riddle goes on . . . :P

What writer software are U using? It seems some program keeps polling your drive, prolly to see if anything has been inserted.

I have Nero, CDRWin and CloneCD installed.

After a 'deep' searching, all I could come up with is the following:

Is "Auto-Insert Notification" turned OFF? If not,
Windows will try to "poll" the drive every 2 seconds. :/


It makes sence, just not that it doesn't appear with your normal CDRom. Still, it's worth a shot.

Sounds logical, but where is that option in WinXP ? I searched MS Knowledge database and all it came up with was how to do it in Win 95, 98 and ME.
I went in Device Manager..CD/DVD drives and checked the properties of both and no auto insertion option there. :huh:

OK,

I admit, I'm also out of anything quick answers.

If it was my box, I'd uninstall the Writer software, although I have used all tree programs in the past, but I don't remember if this problem occurred. If even that doesn't solve the weird led-flashing I'd install a clean copy of XP on another disk or partition, just to see if a clean install gives you the same problem.

But, this will cost you some time. But, I wouldn't rest till I knwe for sure what cause this.

Keep me posted, I'm a urious guy :P

I will bet it is the auto play for the cd.

I personally have had this happen on all my computers ever since I installed XP on them. I just gave up on thinking of it as a problem and just something that XP does. Infact I don't know anyone who does not have this happen on their computer with XP installed. Although all of those computers have a CDR installed so it could be that that may be causing it.

Sanjay

To turn off autorun on your CD drive in WinXP,
one way is to enter the registry, and find this one :

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi ces\Cdrom\AutoRun" change the value from 1 to 0 :)


btw : do you have any DirectCD software installed ?

Wooohooo, the mystery is solved. I changed the autorun value in the registry and no more blinking lite :D
BTW, I don't have DirectCD installed...or any Roxio crap for that matter.

Now that I know what was happening, I can sleep better at nite. hehehe j/k

But I went back and enabled the auto run, I think the little annoyance of that lite flashing isn't as bad as not having cd's auto run.

Thanks everyone for your replies and suggestions.

I think the little annoyance of that lite flashing isn't as bad as not having cd's auto run.
Well said cccapt :)

But the thing is Windows 98/ME/2000 also way CD Autorun feature. How come it is only for XP :o

I changed my autorun too - thanks for the tip Bearcat. No more blinking every second; now it blinks to no set pattern but it still blinks! I'm going to reset autorun and go back to pretending everyone's got it.
:D

I am 99.9% sure, this is one of the reasons why the hd light is flashing. I created a dual boot of two Windows XP installations today, and set the indexing service enabled in one and disabled in the other. As expected, the hd light started flashing after a while when the computer was idle in the XP system where indexing service was enabled.

cccept got his problem solved after turning off the CD autorun, but mine didn't; neither didn't for freezer121. To most of the others, it may be other disk maintenance utitiles running while idle, and you forgot. In my case it is 100% it is because of the indexing service.

I remember reading this somewhere:

Windows xp is the first OS that should be installed on a complete disk rather then a partitioned one because windows XP will move the most frequently accessed files to the side of the platter where then can be accessed quicker

Perhaps this low light you see is XP moving the files on your disk for faster access?

AFAIK, what you are talking about is Disk Defragmentation?
I haven't partitioned my 20GB HD as I feel it is a strain for the HD. But I get the HD Light flashing.
Disk Defragmentation when the computer is idle also is another reason for the HD light flashing.