Unused external disk led blinking

[effemmeffe]

I have an usb external powered hard disk connected to my pi and even if the disk is not in use i.e. there is no pi activity that uses that disk I still see the disk led blinking at ~1 second rate. What colud it be that keeps the disk busy? What should I check? All my tv and movie sources are on another disk right now.

[IriDium]

I'm pretty sure this is normal activity - it shows that the USB drive is connected. To check the actual activity, install something like, nmon and check the usage. I'm sure it will be zero activity and nothing to be concerned about.

[effemmeffe]

Thanks. I'm not concerned, the only problem is that the hd is behind the tv and I see the blue led blinking while I watch a movie and I'd rather try to turn it off via software than by putting something in front of it if possible...

[josch]

As I know, the LEDs on external hard disks are controlled by their firmwares. So, if you don't
have a custom firmware or an appropriate option that comes with your hard disk, you won't
be able to disable any LED on it.

My tip:
If you don't want to destroy the annoying LED, then just use a small piece of some thick tape, to tape the light shut.

[f1vefour]

I don't know if this is still an issue but the splash daemon used to cause this to happen.

[mk01]

@f1vefour

in March-2013

[effemmeffe]

Actually it's still an issue, every information about it would be helpful. I'll check what is the splash daemon.

[mk01]

@effemmeffe

believe me. it is not related.
back in 2013 splash daemon and control process communicated via mmaped file opened on SDcard (root partition). so each byte transfer between them (although mem-to-mem), was generating workload at storage subsystem and even cpu load via constant interrupts handling .

not even was that fixed (still back in 2013), but current splash daemon process IS a different software, using different way - net socks.

[IriDium]

(18th Dec, 2014 02:19 AM)effemmeffe Wrote:  Actually it's still an issue, every information about it would be helpful. I'll check what is the splash daemon.

I've used plenty of USB drives WD, Seagate and have not had this issue. Yes the light stays on when connected but only flashes when in use.

It sounds to me, that something is accessing the disk.

1) Install nmon (sudo apt-get install -y nmon) then #nmon. Press D. With the RPi idle check the output on /dev/sdyxx. Where y is your external drive.

If there is activity, then check "top" for any process that is using /dev/sdyxx

If nothing, install iotop and check the output.

I've a feeling it is an addon that is causing the problem - if there is one

BTW: What external HDD are you using?

[effemmeffe]

@mk01 I thougth you were referring to the date of my old message when you wrote 2013, I didn't checked the actual date.

[mk01]