I have an A600 and I was using the computer and all of a sudden the HD Light is staying on.  It seems like everything is working properly (I can still access the HD, and I even copied files to it) except for the fact that the graphics mem keeps changing slightly.  I also tried doing a couple of power cycles and resets and still the light stays on.  It comes on right when the machine turns on too.  Anyone ever see this before?

I am using FFS.  I just formatted the HD today, and it seemed to be working fine.  I will try validating the HD again.

I will try validating the HD again.

You didn't understand. It validates itself, you don't need to do anthing. Just don't switch it off while it is still working, because then it will start from the beginning again when it is switched on next time.

Bye,
Thomas

Ok, so I let the drive sit there validating for about an hour and it still hadn't finished.  So I decided to install a Hitachi 20GB that I had lying around and it HD light is still lit up.  I am still able to access the HD though.  This drive was manufactured in 2002.  The older drive was an IBM made in 1997.  As long as it works I guess I'll use it.

BTW, when I added a buffered IDE interface (in my case the Elbox 4xEIDE'99) the light went off.  

Hum,
T minus 50000 hours MTBF (mean time before failure), and counting...



(BTW, that`s nearly six years)

What size is the HD in your A600. Remember that the machine is only a 68000 at 7MHz as standard, and that will take a while to validate a large disk.

Also MTBF refers to constant use, if you turn the machine off for, say, 16 hours each day then your life extends to 18 years - but also more wear happens when switching on that at any other time.

I have no techie figures here, but I remember my first A1200 drive being 80Mb, and taking hours to revalidate after this happened, even with a 68030 accelerator. Anybody have an idea of time per Mb ?? :-?