I am on Arch Linux and I want to disable this activity indicator light on a WD hard drive. I know there is a software on Windows for doing that, but since I am on Linux, how could I do it? This light is annoying when I am in a dark room.
Why don’t you solve the problem at the root? Take it apart and rip it out.
You could always Dremel it out. First try black electrical tape.
Huh!, just Disconnect the drive from power source and it will OFF.
If the setting is saved by the drive you could set it on a windows machine and then switch it back to linux.
I’m not sure if wine for running whatever the window utility youre thinking of is would work for controlling an external device like that
If the setting doesn’t stick just stick some black electrical tape on it.
I was trying to contribute some other options since the entire thread is like 50 people saying “some electrical tape will fix it” 😅
I don’t think WINE would work, because it likely relies on a custom driver.
If you don’t have a Windows installation, booting into a WinPE LiveCD (like Sergei Strelec’s WinPE: https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/sergei_strelecs_winpe.html) and installing it in the live environment should work. Running Windows in a VM should work too, if you pass the USB drive through to the VM.
A big-ass hammer.
A true man of culture, I see 🫡
- Ductape, if it’s loose and should be stuck
- WD-40, if it’s stuck and should be loose
- Match, if it 's dark and should be lit
- Hammer, if it’s lit and should be dark.
Masking take and permanent marker or pen works too if you don’t have electical tape.
Have a friend stand in front of it
Arch users dont have friends
A friend, with a benefit.
Yeah, a light blocking friend.
My favourite answer
Tape.
Any colour I should be using?
I’m partial to clear.
Electrical
Black tape
Pretty much what I was going to say, just get a pointy thing and stab it.
.
Sorry - I couldn’t not.
Gordon Freeman?
I couldn’t not.
You could not not?
No, that’s right.
Why limit it to a specific OS? Open it up and inline a resistor, say 680 ohm or so.
Or wire a simple on-off switch. Or both ;)
Brown electrical tape, if you don’t have black electrical tape.
Did anyone suggest using black electrical tape yet?
ITT
comments stating to open up the drive and disconnect the LED: 2
comments stating to try and change the firmware: 1
comments stating to use tape or nail polish: jfc so many commentsI blame federation delays.
They were hours apart, though.
A piece of black, electrical tape
Blu tack, cheap, reusable, nondestructive, and blocks light better than tape. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_Tack
