Windows 7 - Hard Drive keeps blinking and I hear noise

betelgeuse4721 · 07-23-2011

Hey all,

Just got a Sager NP1830 laptop with 7 on it.

Is it normal for my hard drive indicator to blink like every second?

I also hear pretty audible hard drive activity noise even when the computer is doing nothing.

I just switched from a Mac so I'm not sure if this is normal.

Thanks,
Brady

Ivan the SoSo · 07-23-2011

Some system spec's would be helpful.....if the system runs out of ram, it will use the paging file on the hard drive, that can cause a lot of activity....It also could be the drive trying to read from bad sectors....or even a failing drive....

Britton30 · 07-23-2011

The HDD light blinking sounds OK, mine does that. Win 7 does many things in the background, indexing, organizing, software update checks, etc. Noise is not normal however.

betelgeuse4721 · 07-23-2011

It has 8gb RAM so that shouldn't be the issue -

And as far as the noise, its like that little scratchy clicky sounds I guess that hard drives make, like the heads moving and parking on the disc or something.

It sounds normal, but I seem to hear it pretty clearly . . .

That's the only troubling thing .

Computer runs like a banshee other than that though.

Britton30 · 07-23-2011

I have 8GB RAM too, Win 7 likes to use it, read and writes occur no matter how much RAM you have.
HDD clicking is not good at all. Try HDDScan to test your drive.

Here too http://www.labnol.org/software/test-hard-drive-for-problems/17430/

theog · 07-23-2011

Is this the noise your HD is making:
Normally you will not hear the HD.
‪Hard Drive Click of Death Explanation and Live Demonstration‬&rlm; - YouTube

betelgeuse4721 · 07-23-2011

Britton - thanks for the links, but still nothing
OG - it's not that prominent of a "clicking" noise, it's more like a noise if you were to say "chreka"

It goes like "chreka, chreka" small pause "chreka" then sometimes its a random pattern, othertimes it is a pattern of some sort.

I can only hear it if I turn all other sounds off in my room and it's silent. It's like the hard drive is trying to accomplish something, but it just makes the exact same "chreka" noise at random intervals.

Sheesh.

theog · 07-23-2011

I would Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

karlsnooks · 07-23-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by betelgeuse4721

Hey all,

Just got a Sager NP1830 laptop with 7 on it.

Is it normal for my hard drive indicator to blink like every second?

I also hear pretty audible hard drive activity noise even when the computer is doing nothing.

I just switched from a Mac so I'm not sure if this is normal.

Thanks,
Brady

Yes. Perfectly normal. Win 7 in indexing and keeping its index up-to-date.

betelgeuse4721 · 07-24-2011

I did the HD Diagnostic for my Hybrid Seagate 500gb 7200rpm, w/ 4gb SSD memory - and all of the test came back fine.

karl - is there a way to prohibit 7 from indexing? I like to work in silence and this hard drive noise is seriously pissing me off.

Windows 7 - Hard Drive keeps blinking and I hear noise

Hard Drive keeps blinking and I hear noise problems?