HDD red light always on.

[Frank Martin]

Recently the HDD light stays on and can only be turned off
with a reboot.

This happens even when all programs are shut down, and the
Task-manager "processes" tabs show a "system idle" greater
than 98%.

There is nothing happening in the TCPView (Sysinternals)
either.

This has happened only in the last two days.

Please help, Frank

 

[R. McCarty]

Download FileMon from SysInternals. Even with no active/open
apps there is I/O from background services like indexing.

 

[Frank Martin]

Thanks, I have just noticed that on reboot the "Detecting
IDE drives..." messages on the DOS screen pauses there for a
long time. Could this be relevant?

Frank

 

[R. McCarty]

Can't say for certain. I'd probably check your drive's SMART
table and examine the key values. You can use SpeedFan 4.40
to do this. Click on the Smart (TAB) and then select a drive.

 

[Frank Martin]

That would be your BIOS screen (not DOS)

anyway in addition to the good advice you already got...

I'd go to the website of your hard drive's manufacturer
and get the diagnostic utility and run it

The HDD is a Seagate SATA 500gb ST3500630SV and I cannot
find any diagnostic utility on their website. They seem to
have everything but.
Frank

 

[R. McCarty]

You want Seatools from Seagate. Also be aware there was a recent
issue with certain sized Seagate drives having defective firmware.

Seatools found here:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

 

[Frank Martin]

Thanks, I downloaded this and the scans are proceeding - so
far all is good.

Could it be a virus? Would it be a good idea to go to
System Restore of about 8 days ago to see if the problem
existed back then (it didn't) to eliminate the HDD problem
possibility?

I have already been thru the HDD failure experience (burned
out HDD control card) and I'm getting worried.

Frank

 

[Frank Martin]

Don't know what the problem is...but why take a chance?

back up your data if you have not done so already

Yes I agree. I'm buying a new HDD tonight.

 

[Frank Martin]

Don't know what the problem is...but why take a chance?

back up your data if you have not done so already

I did a system restore from 10 days ago, which was a very
slow process and at the end there was a message saying
"System Restore could not be completed".

Nevertheless when the computed restarted from this
restoration the problem was gone. Hence it must have been a
virus or some malfuntioning process.

Its all very mysterious.

 

[Frank Martin]

Glad it's working now. It looks to me more like a run-away
process than
a drive problem...and though it may now happen again...
still always a good idea to back up your data...
as eventually.
the drive is going to go.


I've seen drives die in four weeks...
I have ten year old drives that are still fine

I have learned my lesson after a faulty power supply
(undersized) cooked a HDD control card. Now I have 4
backup storages: one duplicate internal HDD, and three
external drives, a Maxtor & Smartdrive for C: & D
partitions, and a LaCie for the complete systems. All using
Ghost12.

 

[Martin C]

I did a system restore from 10 days ago, which was a very slow process and
at the end there was a message saying "System Restore could not be
completed".

Nevertheless when the computed restarted from this restoration the problem
was gone. Hence it must have been a virus or some malfuntioning process.

Its all very mysterious.

If you are running Norton, this can cause a system restore to fail as it
considers the restore an attack on itself. If you do have Norton running you
will have to turn it off temporarily before the restore.

Martin