Symbol of three stacked disks to left of power button on front of CPU

[manasan3010]

Why is there a light to indicate harddisk activity?

Is it so important?

[Raj1788]

@manasan3010

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It's a pleasure assisting you in finding answers to your technical queries.

The light indicates the if the hard drive is functioning, yes it is important.

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[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@manasan3010

The hard disk activity light (or LED in newer PCs) is a carry-over from the "old days" when PCs, and drives, were a lot slower.

When folks then would launch a program, or would Browse to a website, the hard drive was involved. In the first case, it would be reading from the drive; in the second, writing to it.

Since nothing much would be seen on the desktop during this activity, vendors decided to provide this activity "indicator" on the PC -- to assure folks that their PC was still functioning.

These actually used to be on the FRONT of laptops -- so they were clearly visible.  But over time, they have been moved to the side, and even to the back.

So, as to whether or not it's "important" -- that's only if you want to see when your drive is busy.  When it is idle, the light is not blinking.