Free HDD LED

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Ascend4nt
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Free HDD LED

#1 Post by Ascend4nt »

Free HDD LED

This software does just what you think - shows blinking LED's for your hard drives with any detected activity. It has a few extras, the one I like in particular is its ability to flash the Scroll Lock LED when there is activity.

Image

Website: http://www.myportablesoftware.com/freehddled.aspx
Download: http://www.myportablesoftware.com/free_hdd_led.zip

This software classifies itself as donationware but does say the software can be used (forever) free of charge. It does put an ugly 'Donate' button on the LED window, but it can be minimized to a tray icon.

I've tested it and can verify it writes the settings to a portable INI file. I did not bother checking whether it writes anywhere else.

The reason I was looking for something like this is that my current case doesn't have an HDD LED so I needed some indicator of what was going on. I personally think the program uses too much memory, so I may just code something using performance counters..

Oh, and there's a few other portable software programs at the site:
  • Free TvDB
    Free MovieDB

    Free HDD LED
    Free USB Guard

    Free File Wiper
    Free File Camouflage

    Free Clipboard Manager

    Free Message Encrypter

    My CPU Monitor
    My Memory Monitor
    My HDD Speed
    My Network Speed

    My Startup Delayer
    My Screen Capture
    My Watermark

    My Daily Wallpaper
    My Daily Space Wallpaper

    Shuffle Music Player

    Fast Shutdown
    Fast User Switch

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guinness
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Re: Free HDD LED

#2 Post by guinness »

Ascend4nt wrote:I personally think the program uses too much memory, so I may just code something using performance counters..
Well you pretty much have all the work done anyway :mrgreen:

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Ascend4nt
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Re: Free HDD LED

#3 Post by Ascend4nt »

guinness wrote:Well you pretty much have all the work done anyway :mrgreen:
Haha, true. The only annoying thing is I'd rather have it as an executable, and AutoIt executables are too fat and bloated for me. I'm pondering if its worth writing the performance counters modules in C++, or better yet, use this nice in-between language I've come to appreciate: FreeBASIC.

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Ascend4nt
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Re: Free HDD LED

#4 Post by Ascend4nt »

Huh, found some free portable HDD LED indicator software, one of which is already in the TPFC database! I'll list them here for reference for anyone that comes across this thread or searches on Hard Drive Activity or LED indicator.

FloatLED:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=867

That one is just a floating list of rectangles with indicators for each drive. The database doesn't reflect it, but the last version is 1.12.

DiskLED:
http://www.sepago.de/e/research-develop ... ds/diskled

This one is a Performance Counters based indicator, and can actually track most any performance counter activity. However, its a bit more confusing to work with, and as far as I can tell, you can't use both read/write activity. It's also just a tray-LED.

Hard Disk Indicator
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS- ... ator.shtml

This last one is an old-school program with a simple interface and also a tray-only blinking light.

BTW, I decided to just pay $4 for an actual hard drive activity indicator cable, with an LED on the end, to stick in my case. Ebay to the rescue!

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SYSTEM
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Re: Free HDD LED

#5 Post by SYSTEM »

Ascend4nt wrote: FloatLED:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=867

That one is just a floating list of rectangles with indicators for each drive. The database doesn't reflect it, but the last version is 1.12.
Thanks. Entry updated. :)

BTW, I just love the changelogs. :mrgreen: Here is an exceprt:
FloatLED Changelog wrote: It says that “DRIVE_REMOVABLE” can either be; “The drive has removable media; for example, a floppy drive, “thumb drive, or flash card reader.” **THIS IS WRONG LOGIC**. M$ _SHOULD_, and I cannot stress this much enough, ** S H O U L D ** , make a new flag at the bottom of the list indicating, real thumb drive, or flash card reader. They should leave the old-school flag of a real HARD MOUNTED FLOPPY SPINNING device in its own category. This makes no sense at all, and this is a SERIOUS logic flaw in all of the Window’s OS’s. It goes against its own specification. Anyway, adding some more code to FloatLED took care of filtering out Floppy from Flash Based assigned devices that has no media in it, and it do remind me of how Microsoft program their OS’s, layers of stuff that filters out its own layers based on the previous layers going back to the origin of the layers and back to end and reverse, re-do, re-check...no wonder why we need QuadCore these days to take care of these small little things that M$ can’t seem to get their head around and do it logically correct instead of working with code from the 70’s and adapting.
My YouTube channel | Release date of my 13th playlist: August 24, 2020

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guinness
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Re: Free HDD LED

#6 Post by guinness »

- No skinned windows (typical of designers thinking they have created the “next big thing” within (GUI) design and layout)
I'm glad it's not just me.

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I am Baas
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Re: Free HDD LED

#7 Post by I am Baas »


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guinness
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Re: Free HDD LED

#8 Post by guinness »

I am Baas wrote:Am I late to the party? http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 160#p47160
Yes, but you're forgiven with that little gem.

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Midas
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Re: Free HDD LED

#9 Post by Midas »

The party's over -- fireworks are on the blink... :mrgreen:

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