Continuous attempts to access floppy drive

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Hi —
My XP64 sp2 keeps trying to access the internal floppy drive, even when there is no floppy disk in it. Every ten seconds the drive light comes on for about three seconds and I can hear the head move.

I replaced the drive, in hopes that that was the problem. Nope, still keeps doing it.

Any help fixing this will be appreciated.
Thank you.
— Keith :huh:

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I had that problem awhile back.

It was caused by a drive meter I had installed that kept checking the floppy drive.

While this may not be the cause of your problem it’s worth checking to see if you have any drive utilities running that check your drives.

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Keith,

I’d also update to XP SP-3. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RetiredGeek —
It is my understanding that there is NO sp3 for XP64.
But, thanks for the effort anyway.
— Keith

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Banyarola —
Thanks for the disable suggestion. I just did that. However, I have a lousy memory, so would like to get a ‘real’ fix soon, before I forget that it is disabled.

Thanks again.
— Keith

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Cindysdad, being the floppy is hardly ever used any more you can open DEVICE MANAGER and find the floppy and disable it..

It’s easy enough to enable it again when you need it.

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Banyarola and others —
I have Process Explorer, Process Monitor, What’s MY Computer Doing, and Windows Task Manager. But insufficient knowledge to find which process might be causing the problem.

A search for a program containing name ‘meter’ in C:windows produced on batmeter.dll and wbatmeter.dll.

I would appreciate any more ideas someone might have.
Thanks for the help.
— Keith

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Go to Control panel,hardware and sound/Device manager…

From there you can find the floppy, it’ll probably be under Floppy Drives

Then you Right click on the drive and you will see the DISABLE option.

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Don’t worry…You’ll remember first time you try to use it !!

Like I said in my earlier post, in my case there was a drive monitoring program that kept trying to access it.

One way to find out is re-enable it, put a blank disk in it and then see if it keeps running.
If it stops then you’ll know for sure something is trying to access the drive when there is no disk in it so it keeps trying looking for a disk..

Here’s a little something I do to help me remember one time fixes like this…
I write an email message with the problem and the solution and then save it to my drafts folder..

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Try going to MSconfig, click on the startup tab and then on the disable all button. Reboot. If the problem goes away, you know its one of the Startup items. Use a process of elimination to determine which one is the culprit.

Jerry

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A faint bell is ringing in my mind regarding autorun/autoplay being enabled on floppy drives which would exhibit this behaviour.

This is all I’ve found so far

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967715

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There are several possible solutions to this problem here. Among them…..

“there may be a document in your recent history folder (Start >> Documents) that was once on a diskette. Here are the steps to clear the document history file Windows uses:

[*]Click Start
[*]Click Settings
[*]Click Taskbar
[*]In the Documents area, click Clear
[*]Click OK”

Microsoft Office’s Find Fast utility may be running and trying to index your FDD. Remove it from the Startup group, or in Control Panel, look for Find Fast and disable it from starting. Find Fast installs automatically with Office and can be a resource hog as well!

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I say open the computer, disconnect the flopppy’s power cable, and leave it be. .,:B):

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Did you install a program from a diskette? If so, that program may now be running in the background and may be trying to access a file on that diskette.

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Problem Solved (for now). What I did:

Took Banyarola’s suggestion and disabled floppy drive. Fearing that by the next time I wanted to use it, I would have forgotten that it was disabled, I labled and empty floppy disk stating that the drive was disabled, with instructions on how to enable it again. Then put the disk in the drive, where I would be sure to find it, when the appropriate time comes.

Thank you, all, for your suggestions.
— Keith

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Good way to get around the problem. :^_^:

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I few years ago I had this problem and it turned out that I had installed a program from a floppy and upon bootup my computer acted the same because the “Icon” the program and placed on my desktop looked for the floppy drive probably for it’s phone home interface. Changed it to C drive and it went away.

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I had the problem months ago, and after trying every fix I could find, including a purpose-designed executable, gave up as well and disabled the floppy drive in BIOS (I never use it any more anyway).

It’s possible that this is just one of those XP bugs that Microsoft can’t be bothered fixing because they’d prefer customers buy a new OS from them.

Speaking of a new operating system, unless you’re planning on a whole new computer soon I’d strongly suggest you join me in buying Windows 7 around October when prices lower just prior to the crappy-for-desktops-and-laptops Windows 8 being released to the general public. It’s your last chance to buy Win7 before XP becomes unsupported, unpatched and hence permanently insecure for online use in April 2014. So now is a very good time to be running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (which will help guide you in knowing which devices Win7 will support, though a full multiboot installation is actually preferable). Windows 7 Pro is the one to buy I reckon as it includes XP Mode. Both Pro and Home Premium will run securely until 2020 – not bad value for only $100-and-something for the OEM version (including the 64-bit version).

Asus N53SM & N53SN 64-bit laptops (Win7 Pro & Win10 Pro 64-bit multiboots), venerable HP Pavilion t760 32-bit desktop (XP & Win7 Pro multiboot), Oracle VirtualBox VM's: XP & Win7 32-bit, XP Mode, aged Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2019s (8" & 10.1"), Blu-ray burners, digital cameras, ext. HDDs (latest 5TB!), AnyDVD, Easeus ToDo Backup Home, Waterfox, more. Me: Aussie card-carrying Windows geek.

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Disable un used drives in bios (or cmos as us old timers say). Changes made in Windows most often just make the changes in the motherboard bios for you. Sometimes booting into bios and doing it there yourself is just easier.

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