The LED on my hard drive stays on... all the time!!!

Good evening!

There is an easy but lengthy solution: dichotomy.
First, open msconfig in a command prompt or via Windows + R to see what I'm talking about!
Safe Mode corresponds to clicking "Diagnostic Startup" in the General tab.
In the Services tab, check half of the services.
Restart.
If the problem is not present, it's in the other half. Check half of the remaining boxes and repeat
If the problem is present, check half of the boxes you have checked and so on

You should find the troublesome service.

I advise you to note them down: there may be several.

If pure Diagnostic Startup doesn't prevent the problem, it's bad news

Simpler solution: take as many screenshots as possible in the services list so that I can see them all. Generally, 3 are enough.
Save each screenshot as a png in Paint, save them and post them on noelshack (you’re allowed a maximum of 4 captures)
the 4th will serve for the Startup tab list in the Task Manager ;-)

Also check what’s in C:\Users\YOUR LOGIN\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Have a good (long) evening :-D

Luc

--
Daily life can quickly get you hooked and make you lose at video games!
A people sacrificing its freedom for more security loses both.

Hi Luc, first of all, happy new year to you and good health.
Next, thank you for being kind enough to reply to me. I'm sorry for my delayed response,
but
I couldn't do it before.
I will take a good look at all your advice and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you again.

Re hello Luc, before going deeper, I want to clarify: I may have expressed myself poorly, but I have already booted my PC in "safe mode with networking," and that resolves the issue I have, and the LED starts blinking again from time to time if needed.
Does that help with your reasoning?
Thanks again.
Patrick.
P.S.: Otherwise, I counted 174 services, which would mean checking 87. Which ones? From 1 to 87? From the end to the middle going back? Won't that affect the PC reboot?
Thanks.

Good evening Luc, I just disabled all the services, I kept the non-"stopped" Microsoft services and restarted the PC.
Same result, the LED is still continuously lit. So I checked everything again in msconfig.exe, and restarted to keep you updated.
What should I do now? Thank you...

Sorry, but I don't have a "Startup" tab in the task manager. So I can't disable all the programs!?!?

So I didn't disable the programs in the "Startup" tab that I couldn't find.
Then I deleted the contents of this directory:
C:\Users\YOUR LOGIN\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
There were only 2 program shortcuts.
I restarted: the LED was still continuously lit.
Finally, I sorted the running processes by decreasing order of usage ("Memory (working set)") and the one that consumes the most is Firefox.exe with 158,340 K, then Firefox.exe 157,612 K, then Firefox.exe 117,920 K.
There you go, if I haven't made a mistake and have followed your instructions correctly.

but I see that I must have a problem with Windows Explorer because it keeps freezing.
I always get "(not responding)" and my PC freezes.
It's annoying, I want to throw it out the window.
Please help me...thank you

Good evening Luc, I no longer have any comments or help from you. Is there a problem?
You are the only one advising and helping me. I have replied to what you asked me.
I hope you will continue to give me advice so that I can get out of this issue.
Thank you in advance. Patrick.

Good evening Luc, I don't know why I haven't received any responses or news from you. I don't understand, but I am writing to let you know
that I have identified the service that causes the LED to remain fixed. The quest was long, tedious, and painful. It is the service "Store Network Interface Service" from the manufacturer Microsoft Corporation.
Can you tell me what I should do with this?? How can I fix my issue? Has this helped you?
Please let me know. I am counting on you. Thank you in advance.

Hello Luc, thank you for your response.
Small issue, when I open services.msc I cannot find Network Store Interface Service so I cannot continue with the indicated procedure. !!!! ??????
Thank you.

Sorry Luc, I'm an idiot, I searched in English while it's in French on my computer, of course.
I found the service, it starts automatically.
I'm going to go into regedit as the tutorial says and I'll get back to you.
I think that when we stop this service we lose internet...to be continued...

Well, sorry Luc, but I've seen all the ways to stop this service.
In any case, if I stop it, as I've already told you, I lose internet!!??
I had already done the system via msconfig and when I restarted, the LED no longer had the issue, but I have no more network and/or internet. So we're going in circles. I don't understand what happened since everything worked well before. But still... thank you if you have any extra insight for me.

Luc, I have 4 GB of RAM. That’s information already.

1) Then you tell me, "in an elevated command prompt, type: sfc /scannow"
"elevated command prompt" – what does that mean? Where do I need to type this? Sorry, I apologize for not knowing.??

2)"Also, try to see if you have a restore point somewhere": what does that mean? What should I do?

3) However, I can confirm that I often get "Not Responding", "Windows Explorer is not responding and must restart". My PC freezes and either I have to wait, or I force quit what’s stuck in "Windows Task Manager/Applications/Tasks and Status/End Task".

And I can confirm that I have quite high memory usage between 2.63 GB and 3.67 GB.

Here are my observations and requests.
But in any case, when you say: "but nothing seems to stand out concerning high HDD usage", it is clear and certain that my LED stays on if this service is enabled. Thank you for your involvement in any case.

Before reading the topic and applying the hotfix, I need to tell you that I ran the scannow in the meantime, which resulted in nothing. I'm attaching the image.

The other image is of the message that keeps coming back.
I will look at the topic and apply the hotfix and get back to you...Thanks again.

Here you go, Luc, I have it in the... back... here’s the screenshot of what I get when applying the hotfix:
Windows Update standalone installer
“The update is not applicable to your computer”

And damn it!! I really believed it. I’m super disappointed by this, I don’t understand.

Good night, see you later. Thanks.

Hello and thank you gentlemen,
I am at your disposal for any manipulations if needed...
Right now, I have to step out, I will check back this evening, late afternoon.
I will be with you this evening... Thank you again...

Luc and/or Lekaloyeb,
I am listening if you can provide me with your help with a solution.
Thank you in advance.

I really don't feel like formatting my partition where Windows is and reinstalling all the software I have.
What I don't understand is that it's definitely due to something, right? This issue didn't just fall out of the sky?
This memory leak, isn’t there a way to fix it?
There must have been a cause to get to this point! Because my computer works quite well otherwise.
Except that the HDD LED is always on and sometimes I have issues with "not responding" or the Windows Explorer restarting.
Do you know anyone around you or on this forum who might provide another solution?? And LeKayoleb might have a solution since you said: "But if you're willing to guide him through the disk testing manipulations, SMART analysis and all that... go for it, you never know."
I would like to try everything rather than format the partition, especially since I don't quite remember the procedure anyway. You can understand me because you know what's at stake!?!?!?
That would be nice, thank you, to you, to all of you.
P.S.: Especially since I've read here and there that even after a reinstallation (formatting) the problems can come back a while later. Also, in the worst case, can the repair of Windows do something? Because it's lighter and less burdensome; we don't have to reinstall everything, right? Thank you.

Good evening Luc,
thank you for advising me again. You didn't comment on the idea of repairing Windows or even installing a SP2 for Windows 7? What do you think? Could it bring us anything?

Otherwise, I've installed SpeedFan. What does it provide me? How should I interpret the results? Do I need to give you information about the results?
Does it fix something?
Thank you.