Trying to figure out what Windows is doing with an external hard drive  


  1. witefoda
    Posts : 37
    Windows 10 Pro
       New #1

    Trying to figure out what Windows is doing with an external hard drive


    It's hooked in right now until I organize and transfer over archive stuff, and there's a light on it, and it'll just randomly start blinking, and I can hear the hard drive arm activating or resting (locking?), even though File Explorer is not open and I'm doing nothing related to the drive. Right now it's constantly blinking and has been for several minutes.

    I'm not seeing how to see what Windows or whatever is doing with the drive...
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  2. Berton
    Posts : 13,170
    Win10 Version 21H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       New #2

    If that drive is making a clicking sound when you see activity it usually means it's failing or has failed. That activity is from the Voice Coil Relay trying to move the arms across the disk then snapping back to rest hence the click. I'd replace it as also possible the interface in the case that controls the drive may be the issue.
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  4. Megahertz
    Posts : 5,681
    Windows 7 HP - Windows 10 Pro - Lubuntu
       New #3

    Many operations can be running on the background. Scanning for Virus or defragmenting are some of them.
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  5. Try3
    Posts : 15,955
    Windows 10 Home x64 Version 22H2 Build 19045.3448
       New #4

    I agree with Megahertz. Defender quietly scans all external drives.

    Denis
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  7. Sandro
    Posts : 46
    Windows 10 Pro 21H1 + WSL1 Ubuntu 20.04; Linux Mint 20
       New #5

    It is possible that it is the indexing service running.
    My system is quite outdated (v1909) but you can find what is being indexed at Control Panel\Indexing Options, click on "Modify" and then click on "Show all locations".
    In my case I have an external HDD Iomega (I:\).

    Trying to figure out what Windows is doing with an external hard drive-screenshot-2021-03-21-113634.png
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  8. Pejole2165
    Posts : 920
    Windows 10 Pro
       New #6

    Also indexing, which you could turn off for that drive to see if access reduces.
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