HD activity indicator blinks constantly

[Nathan G.]

MrED- Yes i closed everthing in the systray -still blinking
I do Not have Office installed on this system (yet)
MadMax-It DOES NOT blink in safe mode!!
should i try and hunt out offender line by line?
I installed a CD-RW over the weekend, wondering if something there did it.
Thanks for replys
Nathan G.

[MadMax]

Well, if it doesn't do it in Safe Mode, it's a prob associated with W9X for sure. Might be on to something with the cdr/w. Disconnect/disable and check? Run msconfig and use selective start to isolate the prob.

[Bear]

Your hard drive light will blink like that because Windows is checking your CD-ROM for a CD. If you leave a CD in the drive then the light should no longer blink. This is normal for Windows to poll the CD-ROM every second or so.

[Nathan G.]

tried installing cd in both my cd-rom drives. No change. on to selective startups.....

[Susan]

All of a sudden I heard my hard drive spin up and act like it was doing a **** load of stuff. Kinda freaked me out at first. Still don't know what it's doing, but I figure it's just trying to get my attention

My system is in my bedroom and it has woken me up too many times doing that nonsense.
Seems like it's checking the whole system e.i. floppy drive, CD ROM, HD.

Virus Scanner?

[Nathan G.]

It is doing it ALL the time. the disk monitor utility shows actuals data tranfer.. size range from 4K up to a couple 100K. seem s random in size,
I Have: updated & ran antivirus,defrag HD, removed everthing from startup using msconfig,ran all the system/registry checker applications in norton system works,let windows handle virtual memory,put cd in both the cdrom/cd-rw, and cussed alot...(not in that order)
ALL TO NO AVAIL. bummer
I am getting worried now that i see it is actually writing small packets to HD!!!!

[MadMax]

Do you have a fixed or dynamic swap file? If it's dynamic, try blowing it away and set a fixed swap file at reboot. Hmmm...I wonder..

[Nathan G.]

Now removed cr-rw..cyclops is still winking.
i guess swap file would be dynamic since windows is handling it.I noticed that ,under control panel,if i select disk detector HD indicator stay on FOREVER or reboot????
Bear may be onto something about it looking for a cd.but on my hd? The disc detector was put in the control panel by the sound card install (SB Live -value)...hmmmmm
darn it!!
might as well try removing/re-installing it....
stay tuned...
Update.... seems that bear was correct, i finally got the Disc Detector(in control panel) to open and disabled CD detect. Cyclops has died or has just gone to to sleep for eve.system works still detect HD activity but i have some doubts about Norton system works anyway. Indicator is not flashing so much now!!! will do more testing, thanks all.

[This message has been edited by Nathan G. (edited 06-21-99).]

[Nathan G.]

My HD activity indicator is flashin even when system is doing nothing!!! flashes about once every 1.5 seconds??? tried closing all apps, still blinking! The only thing that stops it is going into standby..duhh or shutting it down. I noticed this yesterday and dont believe it was doing this before. any suggestions?
Thanks
Nathan G.

[MrEd]

When you say you close all programs, are you also closing everything in the system tray? How 'bout any active virus scanning programs that may be running in the background?

My Win98 every now and then, will kick on the hard drive. I noticed it one day laying on the couch. All of a sudden I heard my hard drive spin up and act like it was doing a **** load of stuff. Kinda freaked me out at first. Still don't know what it's doing, but I figure it's just trying to get my attention. They get jealous when they see you staring at the t.v. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

-MrEd

[MadMax]

Find Fast in Office will do that sometimes. Win9X will do that on its own when it's redefining the swap file sometimes. Some S.M.A.R.T. drives will do that too while they run internal diags. Might be a virus, bad swap file params, some kind of database proggie(find fast,etc.). Does it do it in Safe Mode?

[Eli]

Just a thought, you should be able to just turn off the auto-insert notification for your CD drives. I personally hate keeping a CD in my drive at all times.

[Nathan G.]

MrEd,MadMax,Susan and Bear,
looks like cyclops (flashing HD) is DEAD!!!! yahoo, whoopie and all that good stuff! Thank you all for your responses. Bear, your excellent tip led me to the culprit!!!Thanks again to all.. End of problem....
Nathan G.