Hard drive light/activity..... when nothing is running.

Question

Hello,   I've recently bought the XPS-410, E6600 and thus far it has been flawless, or else I just have begun to notice this 'issue'. I will reboot the machine at night, and leave it at the login screen and go to bed. When I get up, or look at the HD light, it will be blinking about once per second. It does not look like it is writing anything (or even reading anything), just a constant blink... blink...   blink.... blink.   I do not have the machine setup to hibernate, sleep or anything of that nature.   Task manager tells me that the system is 99% idle, so I have no idea what is causing this HD activity.   The only addition I have made to the original configuration is adding a second 300Gig hard drive. I am not using and RAID at all.   I have spoken with Dell and they blame it on several things like HD indexing, or some setting in the BIOS, etc. Personally I do noy buy any of that. I have had this machine for 3 weeks, and it does not index the HD for that long.   Has anyone else seen this? Is there some explanation for this that is not occuring to me?   Again, I do not think this has been happening since the first day I got the PC. - Event log does not seem to offer any information on this either. - As an aside, on three different occasions, I have run the full blown CHKDSK which I set to manually run when I reboot my PC. I have noticed that as it begins it's checking, it mentions that 'This volume is dirty'.   I have never seen that before either. I keep my drives clean/defragged with Diskeeper v.9.0, and run that fairly often so there should be no fragmentation problems.   Please advise any thoughts if you have seen this before, or what you MIGHT think is happening.   Thank You.

jc55 · Answer

MrTrey, I have the EXACT same condition. Yesterday, I set up my new 710 (Raid 1 with aux 3rd hard-drive). After re-booting, nothing actively running - hard-drive activity light looks a pulse-meter, blinks at about once every second. Aside from the blinking light, all appears well. I'm looking for an answer - either normal for the beast or suggestive of an abnormality. MrTrey, if you ever receive a satisfactory answer, please let me know. James Combs jc55@roadrunner.com

MrTrey · Answer

Will do. The Dell tech people I have talked to all said it was nothing to be worried about. I disagree..... if my HD light is flashing at all, at any time, then SOMETHING is hitting that drive for SOME reason. - I want to know what it is. - I will continue my research. If I find anything, I'll let you know.   Trey

jc55 · Answer

MrTrey, I hope this reply isn't redundant. I'm not familiar with the mechanics of this forum - and either my first reply is on a stage coach - or, it never got off the launching pad. So, I'll do a repeat. After my initial reply, I contacted 'XPS Chat' and spent considerable time with the technician. After giving me her 'answer' - she took more time to consult with her supervisor. Conclusions: 'The one blink per second of the hard-drive activity light is normal for these machines - under minimal activity.' I ended up believing there is really no problem. Still, please keep me informed, should you learn otherwise. James

Dandach · Answer

Its good to find someone who shares my problem. I have this issue with
light ever since I installed vista on my 410. However I think my
problem is worse. I hear the HD working all the time nonstop Its so annoying
like a mother. I never had this issue with XP. I contacted microsoft
and they gave me this nonsense about defrag, clean, reboot,bla bla bla.
but no straight answer. Like one of the guys said above something is
causing the HD to work al the time. By the way all scheduled tasks are
turned off.

Please help.

davejohn · Answer

Especially with Vista you're always going to have some type of drive activity.  Windows is constantly updating the search index so you can quickly find programs, files and with Vista, emails.  With Vista it automatically defrags your HD on the fly in the background.  All this is done in the background when the system is idle.  Over time the disk access will decrease but never cease completely.   You could always switch to Windows 98 or Linux if you want zero disk access.   Dave

MrTrey · Answer

Why then, do my other XP machines not do this? I have a Dimension 5100, and old Compaq EN, and an NT40 server. NONE of them have this issue. - I maintain that indexing a hard drive does not take three weeks. Something is running that is NOT listed under 'applications' in the task manager, and it is hitting my HD every second or so. - Again, task manager shows my system to be 99% idle, yet the HD blinks. - No one mentioned anythig about the other issue I have/had.... why does the full-blown chkdsk or scandisk done by Diskeeper v.9.0 indicate that my 'volume is dirty'? - I have never seen that one either. Fragmentation is at an almost non-existant level, yet my volume is dirty. Most of the research I have done says that that error message is an early warning of HD failure. - Add up the two problems, and I am dis-satisfied with this machine until someone at Dell/Microsoft gives me a REAL answer. - They don't know either. Their tech support is miserable, and they just throw out 'obvious' conditions that 'could' cause this. None of their suggestions have held water.   As for the defrag running all the time, I ran MSCONFIG and turned off EVERTHING that loads at boot-time, and still blink.... blink... blink.... blink..... Same pace, same rythym... SOS!   As for switching back to win98, that comment put you in the category of those with a warped sense of humor, or just ignorance.   T

MrTrey · Answer

Found this:   http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/fsutil_dirty.mspx?mfr=true   from a command prompt run:   c:> fsutil dirty query C:   This will tell you if the 'dirty' bit is set for the drive.   How/why it gets set remains a mystery.   Trey

drasstic · Answer

I have dell xps 600 and recently installed vista. Right after the install I noticed the hard drive running like crazy for what seemed like forever. I hit cnrt+alt+del and open the task manager, and clicked on processes , and hit that button to show all processes for all users. I notcied the computer was doing a hard disk defrag ( even after I turned off automatic shecduling for background defraging). So I eneded this process and reboot. The hard drive activity went way down. But It still seems very active long after the boot up.. and also when I exit programs :(

dgerard · Answer

My XPS 410 does the same thing. It is not 'dirty' when queried. There is no problem and many many others with XPS systems note the same blinking. Give it up. Nothing is wrong. Consider sending back your system since it appears you will never be happy.

geohop · Answer

I'm writing this on 03/28/07. I just got my XPS 410 with Vista. The same problem with hard drive activity with no programs running. Have you found anything about this problem?

dgerard · Answer

@geohop wrote:

I'm writing this on 03/28/07. I just got my XPS 410 with Vista. The same problem with hard drive activity with no programs running. Have you found anything about this problem?

It's not a problem. It's part of the way the system operates and is normal. Glad to see it does the same with Vista as well as XPMCE.

dgerard · Answer

@Uxbridge wrote: I have also bought a new Dell system running Vista Home Premium and I also have the hard drive actuator banging away as if it is sending the contents of War & Peace...in Morse code! It MAY be 'normal' but if I have just paid for a SILENT system, (which by and large it is), then the hard drive actutor rattling away constantly, defeats that particular selling point does it not? Another bummer is that when it does eventually stop, (and it does...for a while), then the system freezes for about a minute, I presume to allow the poor dear to get its breath back? I was seduced by a colleague's glowing endorsement of Windows Vista and its shiny new GUI but at this moment in time...I wish I had my clunky old XP system back. That does not sound normal. My HD light blinks with occasionally subtle HD activity heard in the background, certainly not 'banging away'. I have not had freezing either. Are you sure it isn't your antivirus program doing its stuff in the background?

Uxbridge · Answer

I have also bought a new Dell system running Vista Home Premium and I also have the hard drive actuator banging away as if it is sending the contents of War & Peace...in Morse code!   It MAY be 'normal' but if I have just paid for a SILENT system, (which by and large it is), then the hard drive actutor rattling away constantly, defeats that particular selling point does it not?   Another bummer is that when it does eventually stop, (and it does...for a while), then the system freezes for about a minute, I presume to allow the poor dear to get its breath back?   I was seduced by a colleague's glowing endorsement of Windows Vista and its shiny new GUI but at this moment in time...I wish I had my clunky old XP system back.

Uxbridge · Answer

Almost the first thing I did was uninstall the supplied 'nannyware', an application second only to Symantec for screwing with your system's resources. I have no doubt that its footprint is still all over the place, even after I have removed it.   I will probably re-install Windows and get rid of the junk that the PC came pre-installed with.   I'll wager that will stop it.   Also, if Vista is being touted as being super secure, why the need for third party nannyware?

geohop · Answer

I removed the Tren Micro PC cillian software and using Windows One Care. I saw a big difference in the hard drive activity.

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