Why the hard disk light needs to die

News Reader · Post by **News Reader** » February 24th, 2009, 12:00

Why the hard disk light needs to die
When I first got my Mac laptop, it annoyed me, to an obscene level, that it didn't have a hard disk activity light. Unused to the new machine's noises, I would listen obsessively to it, trying to figure out what the hard disk sounded like when it was working hard, when it was copying files, when it was doing nothing at all.

Gradually, I got used to the fact the machine didn't have a HDD light. It stopped bothering me. I realised it had little bearing on how I used the computer. It's not like I didn't load up a program just because a light was flashing.

In fact, now I find myself annoyed, angry even, at the HDD light on my Shuttle at work. It's bright orange, and just in view, and as the hard disk thrashes away when the PC starts up in the morning, it annoys the hell out of me. This is, I realise, because it's a sign the PC has broken its promise to me.

Category: Blog
Publish Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:16:39 +0000
Read more...

Source: bit-tech.net Feed
Description: Computer hardware, games and technology reviews and news

Post by **FatherJack** » February 24th, 2009, 12:51

What simpering, fawning tosh. You use the fact that your Mac laptop has a deficiency as an excuse to worship at Apple's Altar Of Obvious Genius and summarily decree that all computers have their HDD lights removed.

Chickenz · Post by **Chickenz** » February 24th, 2009, 12:55

Cupcake!! If you hate it that much cover it with bodge tape and put some ear defenders on.

Post by **Grimmie** » February 24th, 2009, 13:12

Dup durf kittens da derf.

The comments are quite funny.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » February 24th, 2009, 13:14

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 24th, 2009, 13:19

Meh, there's a million things you can do to dim/kill the the lights, I personally favour a resistor before the LED where possible, otherwise, it's dollar bills, they seem to diffuse the light well.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 24th, 2009, 13:22

Also, it's probably worth mentioning a great deal of the crap coming out of BT recently is actually content made for/by Custom PC magazine. who are owned by the same company, and are evidently fucking retarded.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » February 24th, 2009, 13:29

The HDD indicator light is of lesser importance these days but this article is completely worthless.

I have to put tape over all the lights in my eye-line as well. The stupidly bright blue light on my monitor threatened to burn a hole through my retina.

Post by **HereComesPete** » February 24th, 2009, 13:40

Any light can be stopped from lighting, whether it be blu-tack, colouring it in a bit or unplugging/cutting wires. Ban the bit-tech too!

I see the feed still has that annoying broken image link as well.

Post by **FatherJack** » February 24th, 2009, 14:28

I never connected my case lights, I don't even know what colour they are, since I built my PC, I had that option. It'd be ideal if it was an option in every case, present, but with a software option to disable them at will.

Post by **deject** » February 24th, 2009, 16:03

The HDD light is still crucial in determining if my computer has locked up or is actually doing something. Being able to glance down at my case (which is out of sight as all cases should be) and being able to tell if it's all fucked or I should just give it a minute is rather nice.

In conclusion, that guy can fuck off.

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » February 24th, 2009, 16:43

Jeez, you could just like y'know disconnect it from the motherboard?

Post by **deject** » February 24th, 2009, 17:16

Baliame wrote:Jeez, you could just like y'know disconnect it from the motherboard?

Not if your computer is sealed!

like a mac

Post by **Dog Pants** » February 24th, 2009, 17:50

spoodie wrote:I have to put tape over all the lights in my eye-line as well. The stupidly bright blue light on my monitor threatened to burn a hole through my retina.

You've one of those DGM things a few of us got haven't you? You're right, that LED is monstrously bright.

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » February 24th, 2009, 17:51

deject wrote:
Not if your computer is sealed!

like a mac

From what I understand from this article, it's a PC.

And what's there to keep you from ripping open a Mac anyway, it's just another shitty Apple product.

Post by **HereComesPete** » February 24th, 2009, 19:50

If you buy mac then it's a precious sealed wipe clean surface for you to spill your seed on. Plus they'll probably know if you take it apart with a remote sensor thingy then turn it off so you need to buy a new one. The shits.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » February 24th, 2009, 20:47

Dog Pants wrote:You've one of those DGM things a few of us got haven't you? You're right, that LED is monstrously bright.

Yes indeed. One layer of duct tape reduces it quite nicely though.

HereComesPete wrote:If you buy mac then it's a precious sealed wipe clean surface for you to spill your seed on.

I have some branded Apple wipes, impregnated with essence of smug, for my iPhone.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 24th, 2009, 22:08

spoodie wrote: I have some branded Apple wipes, impregnated with essence of smeg, for my iPhone.

Fix'd

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » February 25th, 2009, 13:55

With the introduction of Windows XP and large-scale, constant multi-threading, the promise of ‘disk activity = your orders are being followed’ was broken. A modern multi-threaded OS is always running tens, if not hundreds of processes. Many of these are supposed to be invisible to the user, such as drivers which keep hardware running.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah *deep breath* hahahahahahahahahahahahah.....

Someone doesn't know the very basics about computer architecture.

HDD lights are indicative of files being written/read to the HDD, most of the processes are RAM based anyway once they've been created (and in most cases, loaded first).

HDD activity has always for *years* been just an indication of the HDD not computer activity.

Multi-threading has nothing to do with the HDD, as it's simply to do with how a CPU handles it's processing jobs per cycle. There's only a loose correlation between CPU activity and HDD activity pending on the program currently being run anyway.

And this people are meant to be knowledgable