Why does my Hard Drive light insist on blinking?

I have noticed that the hard drive light is flashing and no programs are running.

I have checked the running process and the only one using the cpu is system idle process.

I have run ad-aware and a full virus scan. Is there any away to stop this or is this normal in Win XP?

Thanks

Albert Welbel

This question was answered on January 15, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Drives ya nuts, doesn't it?

And while we're at it, what about that flashing modem light?

You might want to check for driver conflicts Look under Control Panel > System for event icons or red "X's"

If you're on a network, that can cause the manifestation to occur Some communication protocols just never seem to want to let up.

Certain software programs (especially communication programs) can cause it.

Yes, virus activity can cause it, too Y'know, a virus scan is not a virus scan in the strictest sense of the word If you want to be really compulsive, try two or three different antivirus vendors I recommend the online scans, rather than installing more than one antivirus program.

Additional memory may not solve the condition, but makes you feel better, like ice cream after a tough day at work.

Some have affirmed the system is polling the CD-ROM every two seconds to see if a CD has been inserted Try going into the Device Manager Bring up the properties for the CD-ROM Uncheck the "Auto insert notification" box, and reboot If you are running Adaptec Direct CD, supposedly this messes it up, but doesn't everything mess-up that program?

I have had PC's which do this, and some which never have Anymore, I've determined it doesn't really hurt anything on a clean system, so I check into the above, then ignore the issue.

However, over the years, I have asked this very same question, myself, of many PC guru's and network administrators, searched the Internet, and explored the phenomenon many times If none of the above applies, the most satisfactory answer I have found is:

"It's a Mystery from God."

RG

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Posted by Robert of Mesa Community College on January 15, 2003

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