Actually it's a question about USB hard drives. I just purchased a Toshiba 200Gig USB hard drive and it has a power light on the front but it shows no activity when the drive is in use. I have several smaller USB drives and they all have activity lights on them. I know there are a lot of computer tech's on here that own a prius so I thought I would ask. The Toshibas USB drive come in 100/120/200/250Gig. If anyone has one and can tell me if the blue light on the drive is only a power light or if it also should show activity? The documentation that comes with the drive does not say and their web site does not say anything more than the pamplet that comes with the drive. Thanks for any info you might give me. Jim
I do not have this brand or specific drive, but I have two trains of thought on this subject. The first is that the external drives I have flash when there is activity. The second is that as long as the drive is working, don't worry about it. Though I suppose that if it bothers you, you should return it for another one and see if that one flashes with use.
Thaks, I just have not seen an external drive that does not indicate when there is activity and for the price it should work correctly, so I may have to return it in a few days if I don't find a definate answer.
I had an old external HD case and all it has was the power light. If its working don't worry about it. If you want a flashing light I think you can add one for a few penny's. All you need is an LED, some wire, some solder, and know where to solder the wires.
Thanks for the input. It is a sealed case so no way to add a light to it. I found someone with one and the light is mostly a power indicator, however it does blink about every 20-30 seconds while transfering files. Jim
If it's a physical disk, there may be an LED on it, inside the box. If there's any kind of ventilation hole in the case, peer in there while it's transferring and see if you can see any kind of glow from that LED [uselessly against the inside of the box, of course]. Many drives have, or at least had up until recently, a pair of pins designed to receive a little connector that goes out to the "HDD" on a computer case. . Light or no light, remember to do a proper dismount/eject/whatever before yanking the connection. The activity light may not be enough to indicate that there are some "dirty" in-memory blocks that haven't been written out yet, but proper unmounting should guarantee that it's all flushed. . _H*
I have a big external drive. Presently connected by firewire but also supporting usb. There is only a power light on the front. There seems to be no indication of activity, though if the power light blinked during activity I might not have noticed it. It's only for backups, which happen automatically, so I pay it little attention. As hobbit says, always unmount before disconnecting.
Normally, I can hear the HD so I don't even need to look the LED indicator. Yea, there are time when it is transferring sequencial blocks and I can't hear it but has to rely on the LED.
I just noticed that when my external HD is active, the power light does a little blinky dance between its top and bottom halves. When not active, the light is on solid.
