Does your HD make the light but pretty constant clicking noise? I think there is a difference between the louder sound of the hard drive spinning down or changing directions, so to speak, and this clicking on and off which is constant. You idle the computer for more than 8 seconds, a click, you open an application, a click. Doesn't occur, for example when writing a document in order, or changing and clicking different internet sites at a quick rate, so as not to give the HD, I think, the time to park. This is only guessing on my part.
At first I thought it was linked with the touchpad tap to click, but it occurs while idling as well.