• HDD activity-indicator utility

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    #503226

    Like most recent PCs, my new Toshiba laptop doesn’t have a HDD Activity Indicator LED. I think this is a useful tool and can’t understand why it’s been omitted. The marginal cost saving of not having one must be minimal, surely?

    Anyway, I’m looking for a utility that will put an indicator in the System Tray to show when the HDD is being accessed. There are a range of such solutions out there, according to Google, but I’d much rather go by recommendation than sticking a pin in a list.

    Does anyone have any experience of these utilities and can recommend a useful (and preferably free!) one?

    Thanks, in anticipation.

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    • #1537975

      I’ve not tested this but it might fit the bill, http://sourceforge.net/projects/activityindicat/

      Features

      monitor hdd
      log disk activities
      interact with LCD Smartie
      diagnose hard disk load
      check hdd status
      log file changes
      file system changes
      support keyboard lights integration
      automated log saving

      Note that some of the features will increase drive activity a little.

    • #1539034

      Majorgeeks has just listed ver. 2.0 of TrayStatus.

      TrayStatus Change Log
      v2.0 • November 4, 2015

      Change: New settings interface
      Change: Fully Windows 10 tested and compatible
      Fix: Resolved an issue where error notifications were constantly flashing in Windows 10
      Fix: Resolved an issue where only selecting WIN status didn’t let you save the settings

      https://www.binaryfortress.com/TrayStatus/ChangeLog

    • #1539285

      I use a little utility called DriveGLEAM. It shows a small icon in the system tray, for each drive that you want to turn it on for, and shows read and write activity for those drives. It can also show some other stuff, such as CPU usage, RAM usage, virtual memory usage. See a description of it at http://www.dirtcellar.net/documentation/DriveGLEAM/index.html , and you can download it from http://www.dirtcellar.net/software/drivegleam/drivegleam.php. Latest version is 1.12, and it is free. I have used it on XP and now on W7, where it runs well. I don’t know about later Windows, but it’s worth a try.

      • #1539709

        I use a little utility called DriveGLEAM. It shows a small icon in the system tray, for each drive that you want to turn it on for, and shows read and write activity for those drives. It can also show some other stuff, such as CPU usage, RAM usage, virtual memory usage. See a description of it at http://www.dirtcellar.net/documentation/DriveGLEAM/index.html , and you can download it from http://www.dirtcellar.net/software/drivegleam/drivegleam.php. Latest version is 1.12, and it is free. I have used it on XP and now on W7, where it runs well. I don’t know about later Windows, but it’s worth a try.

        I heartily second the recommendation for DriveGLEAM, based on my using it in XP for the past two or three years. I find it as essential as the guages on my car’s dashboard.

        DriveGLEAM vs. DiskLED: DriveGLEAM gives you a separate icon for up to 26 drives. The features list for DiskLED, on the other hand, suggests that it uses only one icon, displaying activity either for a single drive or for all drives as a whole.

    • #1539304

      Unsure what the value of the light is. I have it turned off on my desktop.

      Newer versions of Windows read/write to the disk (rotating or SSD) on an almost constant basis. Plus apps do the same.

      You’d do better to just use the Windows Task Manager on the Performance tab.

      • #1539464

        Unsure what the value of the light is. I have it turned off on my desktop.

        Newer versions of Windows read/write to the disk (rotating or SSD) on an almost constant basis. Plus apps do the same.

        You’d do better to just use the Windows Task Manager on the Performance tab.

        I find the light very useful during program installations or OS updates to have an indication that the process is not hung.

        Jerry

        • #1539657

          I’ve been very happy with DiskLED

          https://helgeklein.com/blog/2009/11/how-to-easily-monitor-system-performance-with-the-new-diskled-1-1/

          Ignore his hype about monitoring system performance and changing counters; it is preset to monitor the physical C: drive. You can have a simple green box icon that flashes, or an icon like the one Task Manager puts in the system tray that shows “amount” of activity.

          From his web page:

          Requirements, Gotchas and Notes

          – DiskLED does not require admin rights.
          – No installation necessary. DiskLED runs from whatever location you put it in.
          – DiskLED is much more accurate than typical hardware LEDs.
          – DiskLED looks for its configuration (INI) file in the folder where you put the executable. If it cannot find the INI file there, it uses built-in default settings. Those settings are localized (they depend on the OS language). So, if you get the following error message when starting DiskLED “InitPDH: PdhAddCounter failed with: 0xc0000bb8” and the tool only displays a red exclamation mark in the system tray: double-click that exclamation mark and select a performance counter in your system’s language.
          – If you do not see any icon (nothing happens) after starting DiskLED: if you are running Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 make sure that you have configured Explorer to show all icons in the system tray, or configure Explorer to show DiskLED’s icon.
          – DiskLED should run on any Windows client or server operating system beginning with Windows XP.

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