HDD led always on when optical drive is active

While ripping a CD with EAC today using my second drive (a TSSTcorp DVD-RW), I have observed the amber light that indicates HDD activity stayed continuously lit as long as the ripping process was in progress. This isn't due to the program writing WAVs to the disk, as it doesn't happen when using the first drive (an HP CD-RW), but every time a disc is read or written to using the TSSTcorp - just as if the HDD led was also indicating DVD-RW activity.

Is that normal, or does it indicate a problem? In case it's relevant, during boot-up, the POST screen swiftly shows a message about an 80-pin cable for the secondary IDE channel not installed or something (when it's obviously there), but I've never paid it too much attention. Can get the exact wording if necessary.

Light is actually indicator of ide channel activity not just hd.

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Originally Posted by anon

While ripping a CD with EAC today using my second drive (a TSSTcorp DVD-RW), I have observed the amber light that indicates HDD activity stayed continuously lit as long as the ripping process was in progress.

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i noticed the same after switching from a pata dvd-rw to a sata dvd-rw - the hdd activity light was continuously or almost continuously lit while the new drive was either burning or reading (have no problems with it), i'd say it was because of the sata data port that reported activity of the drive via the motherboard, seems that is behaves/reports activity differently from the hard drives - could it be that this drive of yours is also a sata one?

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Originally Posted by grebetu

Light is actually indicator of ide channel activity not just hd.

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So it's alright, then? I was wondering it may be a problem, since it didn't seem to happen with the other drive... :unsure:

Or perhaps I'm wrong and it did.

Edit: yes, it did... :happy:

@slikrapid: no, both are IDE just like my two internal HDDs. Only the S: drive is SATA.

---------- Post added at 18:05 ---------- Previous post was at 17:56 ----------

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Originally Posted by anon

Or perhaps I'm wrong and it did.

Edit: yes, it did... :happy:

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Stupid me, I was copying the files to the C: drive - how could it not light up? :dry:

I tried imaging a CD to the S: drive as a test, using the first (HP) rewriter - the light remained turned off.

---------- Post added at 18:06 ---------- Previous post was at 18:05 ----------

Anyway, I don't care about the light, I just want to be sure it doesn't mean there's a problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anon

So it's alright, then? I was wondering it may be a problem, since it didn't seem to happen with the other drive... :unsure:

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LEDs are never much of an indicator of a problem, bad burning/transfer is :biggrin:

Behavior of LEDs can depend on your setup (you can test by switching optical drives to different cables) your MB and your drives. FWIW I saw tons of optical disks behaving the same way when they are connected on same IDE channel with one of the HDDs.

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Originally Posted by grebetu

you can test by switching optical drives to different cables

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You're asking for too much :biggrin: I don't feel like opening my PC case :tongue:

Apart from a few coasters in the past, I've never had any major problems with the TSST. I burnt a DVD with it yesterday correctly, and the EAC rip I made today was 100% accurate. I guess there's nothing to worry about.

Thanks for the help!