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Thread: individual hdd activity led

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    individual hdd activity led

    Guys, is there a way to make/mod an individual hdd activity led?
    Like each HDD would have it's own activity led? Is it easy to do or s there sth you can buy?
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    Pork & Beans Powerup Phage's Avatar
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    Re: individual hdd activity led

    Hmmmm. I don't think you can do individual ones AFAIK. The LEDs are driven by a single connector on the MoBo when the system accesses the Storage.
    Happy to stand corrected though.
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    Re: individual hdd activity led

    It used to be possible with ATA, but seeing as SATA is serial, it's not possible through a cable splice.

    The only avenues are either a RAID controller or HBA with individual headers for activity LEDs, or a SAS/SATA drive cage with individual LEDs/headers built into it. Not really worth the money unless you want some of the other benefits of such products.
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    Re: individual hdd activity led

    SATA power pin 11 may be used for drive activity but the same pin may also be used for Staggered Spin Up (SSU) or nothing at all. The implementation is optional, so you would need to check the specifics of the drive.

    In theory, connect the cathode (-) of an LED to 5V and the anode (+) to pin 11 and if it is implemented you should get drive activity. If it's not implemented, you might just damage something

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    Re: individual hdd activity led

    I've looked into this a while back and unfortunately the answer is No-ish
    As steve said a, raid controller card that has multiple output pins is the only read way to do it and you're looking at around £100 at the lowest.
    However be careful as not all controllers cards have multiple led outputs, the cheap cards only have a single activity output like a motherboard does.
    I looked into the sata power cord mod as matts-uk said it's too variable between drives and most drives seem to not bother with it at all.

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