Linux - How to flash the HDD usage LED?

[drizzt81]

Hi guys,

assuming that a HDD in my Linux software raid array goes bad (R-5), I am thinking that the easiest way to figure out which drive is /dev/sdx would be to flash the usage LED. Does anyone know how to do this?

 

[longblock454]

I'm not at home to test it, but I would think simply reading the drive info would flash the led. Try hitting it with hdparm -I /dev/sdx and see what happens.

 

[drizzt81]

Good idea, but that did not work. I guess I could try something like

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/dev/null

yep that works

 

[longblock454]

Wonder if that would work on a failed drive? I am guessing that is one reason you'd want to flash the activity LED?

 

[geiger]

It may be easier to record the serial number of the drive and then use the process of elimination.