Hard Drive Constantly Running

I've had a couple or hard drive failures in recent years and I can't help but think its caused by the drive simply wearing out prematurely as a result of constantly clicking on/off. Even in the middle of night it doesn't stop. I've read that its the result of "systems services" doing god-only-knows what I've opened task manager and observed myriad things happening. Could be witchcraft for all I know. But I do know that you can't run mechanical devices like that in a non-stop on/off mode for long periods and expect it to last long. Its like operating a taxi in NYC - frequent rebuilds due to stop-start driving.

Bottom line: I think Windows is killing hard drives. My question is whether there is anything we can do do mitigate this? Is it really necessary that windows is always doing something (even with internet cable disconnected)?

should add that my machine is only weeks old and the drives are all but empty, so whatever is going on Windows is doing it.

The list is too long to see the whole thing at once and it only "groups by type" no actual sort. As near as I can tell its divided between background and windows processes, which covers most of the list and not very illuminating. Naturally, its pretty quiet right now but still flashing about every 10 seconds. What's running jumps around so much that I can't get any general idea of what's going on - just seems entirely random.

I was hacked once and my computer was being used for some nefarious purpose (highjacking) and I discovered it through Task Manager identifying the specific component(s) being used because it was confined to only a couple, not the start up of random services like I now see, so highjacking is definitely not the cause this time.
Probably about 50% of the activity is from Service Hosts, which I understand there's nothing to be done about that, The remainder is scattered. Unfortunately, right now its quieter than normal.

QUESTION: When the machine hasn't been used for a couple hours, short of an AV firing up or an auto-save, shouldn't the drive light remain off. What do you consider acceptable. I understand Everyone's machine is different, but near constant flashing seems like trouble to me.