Hard drive activity light

[somebodycool]

I installed a new Seagate 14tb external hard drive, and the drive was clunking every 1-2 seconds and I determined it was caused by hwinfo. Closing hwinfo made the clunking noise go away. I thought it would be good to upgrade hwinfo and the clunking noise is largely gone after upgrading to version 804 even with the program open.

But the activity light will blink like it is being accessed by something. Is this accessing by hwinfo reducing the lifespan of the drive?

 

[Martin]

It's most likely due to health status polling (S.M.A.R.T.), and should definitely not affect the lifespan.