Hard Drive Light on Case Is Red

EpicSurvivor

EpicSurvivor

Member
Hi guys, I know this is a hit or miss thing, but honestly I am new about computer stuff. But yesterday my friend came over from School, and helped me do better cable management on my Computer. We took the PSU and basically rerouted all the cabling.

This morning I noticed that the Hard Drive light next to the power button on my case (Just to clarify) was RED when I first powered on the PC.

The computer Booted with No problem, and is working fine, except that it seems that its taking longer to load all my Desktop apps, and is taking it longer to run programs.

The Hard Drive Light is Flashing RED still.

I know that there are bunch of FREE HHD diagnostic tools out there, but I am not sure what do I need to use, or what do I need to do.

Any ideas on what I should do or what program I should start of by using?


2013_03_24_11_27_23_274.jpg
 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Is it flashing or steady lit all the time? It is possible you reversed the hdd led connection to the motherboard. That would cause this sort of issue. Just pull the connection up and turn it clockwise/counter clockwise 180 degrees and reinsert.
 
The_Other_One

The_Other_One

VIP Member
HD headers on your motherboard have two wires, + and -. Unless this case has additional wires to allow you to pick/change your color, the color will be consistent. I'd look at the wires going to the header and confirm everything is plugged in correctly...

Also, were the SATA cables moved around? If so, are you sure they were plugged into the same ports? Sometimes if you change SATA ports the PC will basically re-initialize the drive and that can slow things down for a little bit. Oooor, if cables were moved, confirm the correct drives are plugged into SATA6 ports.
 
EpicSurvivor

EpicSurvivor

Member
johnb35 said:
Is it flashing or steady lit all the time? It is possible you reversed the hdd led connection to the motherboard. That would cause this sort of issue. Just pull the connection up and turn it clockwise/counter clockwise 180 degrees and reinsert.
Click to expand...

I will try this right now.

Twiki said:
Check your data cables? You might have skewered one on your drive.
Click to expand...

Not that I can see.

The_Other_One said:
HD headers on your motherboard have two wires, + and -. Unless this case has additional wires to allow you to pick/change your color, the color will be consistent. I'd look at the wires going to the header and confirm everything is plugged in correctly...

Also, were the SATA cables moved around? If so, are you sure they were plugged into the same ports? Sometimes if you change SATA ports the PC will basically re-initialize the drive and that can slow things down for a little bit. Oooor, if cables were moved, confirm the correct drives are plugged into SATA6 ports.
Click to expand...

Yes we disconnected everything from the PSU! yesterday, and we took the PSU out for cleaning and then we rewired the whole computer. We made it looks 2 times better than before, but anyway, that's not important right now. I will look into all you guys suggestions right now. I am going to restart so I can run Error-Checking, and that tends to take an hour or so.

By the way, before I do that, I want to mention that I haven't had ANY issues after powering the Computer this morning. Yes the red light is still on, and when I first started the Computer, everything was very Slow and Freezing, and it took longer to load all my stuff. But after that I haven't had any issues. Being that its Sunday, I was playing some Games and didn't have no problems at all.

I will report here in an hour or so.
 
EpicSurvivor

EpicSurvivor

Member
I am really not sure. I might have to wait for my friend to come over next time. :(
I really am new. I have question, just b.c the hard srive light on my case is red, it dont nessesarily mean that there is something wrong with my HDD correct?


Because when we first built it....i didnt even have any HDD led on my case lol. So what i am trying to say is that the red led.... all it could be is its simply that we didt plug the LED things right. Could this be a possibility? Or does it really mean that there is something wrong with my HDD?



The disk check scan is still runing so i am on my phone (Droid3) right now. I will report back with you guys here when the disk check completes
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Usually the hdd light on all the time or not on at all is because the + and - connections on the hdd led connection is reversed. Disconnect the hard drive and see if the light is still on. If so, then its the connection.
 
EpicSurvivor

EpicSurvivor

Member
No access to side panel

johnb35 said:
Usually the hdd light on all the time or not on at all is because the + and - connections on the hdd led connection is reversed. Disconnect the hard drive and see if the light is still on. If so, then its the connection.
Click to expand...

Truth is.... I can easily do that, but the most difficult part for me would be having to put the side panel back on, because i Have to take it off to get to my HDD connection, and its like really hard to put back on. I have a Rosewill Blackhawk case, so cable management is limited overall, but a Modular PSU would help fix that issue lol.
 
Twiki

Twiki

Active Member
You said your system is working fine so let it go and wait for your friend. I'm pretty sure the drive light is on the power led pins.
 
EpicSurvivor

EpicSurvivor

Member
Twiki said:
You said your system is working fine so let it go and wait for your friend. I'm pretty sure the drive light is on the power led pins.
Click to expand...


No, I could do it, I am pretty sure it is what Johnb35 said. Its just so hard putting the side panel again, that I might just leave it as is, if I have no problems. Other than just having the wrong color light. I will fix it eventually but after yesterdays struggle trying to put the side panel back ON i am just going to leave it as is :cool:
 
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EpicSurvivor

EpicSurvivor

Member
Disk_Error_Check_FAIL.jpg
johnb35 said:
If that's the case, why is the power led light on???? Can't have 2 connections on the same pins.
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The power LED light is on because the Computer is on lol:p. I don't understand sorry.


Well I do know that I used the Windows "Error-Checking" Utility and I didn't get an after diagnosis report, but the times I did watch the progress I didn't see any errors come up on the screen.

But I ran this diagnosis from Seagate and I got Disk Error Check Fail message, which would mean that the RED light is correct and that there is something wrong with the HDD. I am sorry about the confusion, since I never had the HDD light ON at all, sicne I had this PC, I figured that it was because we didn't plug something in correctly yesterday.
 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
EpicSurvivor said:
The power LED light is on because the Computer is on lol:p. I don't understand sorry.
Click to expand...

I was quoting Twiki, not you. He is saying the hard drive led connection is attached to the power led connection. Yet, both power and hdd activitiy lights are on. So his theory is wrong.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Looks like you will have to remove the bad hard drive and see what happens with the hard drive light.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
EpicSurvivor said:
The power LED light is on because the Computer is on lol:p. I don't understand sorry.


Well I do know that I used the Windows "Error-Checking" Utility and I didn't get an after diagnosis report, but the times I did watch the progress I didn't see any errors come up on the screen.

But I ran this diagnosis from Seagate and I got Disk Error Check Fail message, which would mean that the RED light is correct and that there is something wrong with the HDD. I am sorry about the confusion, since I never had the HDD light ON at all, sicne I had this PC, I figured that it was because we didn't plug something in correctly yesterday.
Click to expand...

Your hard drive is dying. You're going to need to replace the drive.

And as far as the HDD light, all HDD activity lights are red. The light does not indicate anything other than activity.
 
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EpicSurvivor

EpicSurvivor

Member
voyagerfan99 said:
Your hard drive is dying. You're going to need to replace the drive.

And as far as the HDD light, all HDD activity lights are red. The light does not indicate anything other than activity.
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I don't mean to sound like a smarta**, but wouldn't the HDD light be Colored according the the HDD condition? Say Green/Blue=Working Red/Yello=Error...etc.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
EpicSurvivor said:
I don't mean to sound like a smarta**, but wouldn't the HDD light be Colored according the the HDD condition? Say Green/Blue=Working Red/Yello=Error...etc.
Click to expand...

Nope, that light is only for hard drive activity, lets you know when the hard drive is actually writing or reading data. Has nothing to with the health of the hard drive.
 
Twiki

Twiki

Active Member
Ah, I missed that so yeah, the HDD may be going bad. Could explain why that led stayed lit.
 
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