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    HDD activity indicator

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by 7leagueboot, Jun 22, 2017.

  1. 7leagueboot

    7leagueboot Notebook Consultant

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    On my previous M17x the eyes of the Alien head (start button) would flash on and off to indicate hard drive activity. On my new R4 they don't. On other machines there is usually an LED that flashes for this purpose. Can anyone tell me how to detect hard drive activity with the R4 please?
     
    7leagueboot, Jun 22, 2017
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  2. eadgar

    eadgar Notebook Consultant

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    I was wondering about the same thing. I don't think there's an indicator. The eyes are constantly on for me.

    However, I use an m2 SSD as the primary drive, maybe it does something different if the normal drive is primary.
     
    eadgar, Jun 22, 2017
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  3. 7leagueboot

    7leagueboot Notebook Consultant

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    Good point! All mine are SSD's and the eyes are always off. That said, I have several external drives connected, none of which are SSD's, and when I transfer data from one to another there is still no eye activity. Maybe mine is faulty?
     
    7leagueboot, Jun 22, 2017
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  4. ThatOldGuy

    ThatOldGuy Notebook Virtuoso

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    There is simply no need for this very old feature. AW removed it as have many others. We are not waiting around for slow spinning plates anymore, and there very little danger of loosing data by shutting down while disk is in use.
     
    ThatOldGuy, Jun 22, 2017
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  5. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    Not a thing anymore, no HDD indicator lights are on the new models.
     
    MogRules, Jun 22, 2017
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  6. 7leagueboot

    7leagueboot Notebook Consultant

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    What the activity indicator told me, especially if the eyes were lit almost solidly, was that it was better to wait before launching another program, parcticularly if trying to install something. Well, if it's not there I will just have to do without it.
     
    7leagueboot, Jun 22, 2017
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  7. ponx

    ponx Notebook Consultant

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    My system came with HDD only and was also surprised to find no activity lights like on my old m17x...

    And like others, I think it's still useful to see if Windows is relentlessly chewing the disk or not...
     
    ponx, Jun 22, 2017
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    7leagueboot likes this.