"The hard drive LED is always going to be flashing ?"
-try unplugging the sata cd\dvd if you have one and see if it stops flashing , it does on my system.
I went to a usb external one to free up a intel sata port , didn't like the non intel sata ports.
MVF WC ||3770k-KL370||HAF932||AX1200||580 sli -EK||
3XMCR320\w655 EK[basement]||w655 EK[HAF932] ||
8gb Trident 2400||Samsung S27A850D||Win7HP-64||SAMSUNG 840PRO 256|||| G15,G13||G9x
PC sound>forte analog>Yamaha 765>4xPSB alpha B1>alpha C1>10" sub