Accessing the floppy drive .
Q My computer frequently accesses the floppy drive when there is no reason for it to do so.
Do you know how 1 can stop this from happening?
A Unfortunately , there's no one cause or cure for this common annoyance . But here are a few
potential remedies .
1. At some point, you may have told Windows to check for something drivers or on the A:
drive - and never told it to stop looking . Correcting this is easy : the next time Windows
accesses your Windows gives me an error message , floppy drive , pop a disk into the drive .
Double-click the icon for drive A: then close the window , double-click on the C: icon , remove
the floppy disk.
2. Your anti-virus software may be configured to scan drive A: automatically, whether there
is a disk in the drive or not . To check Norton AntiVirus , for example, click the Options
button . On the Scanner tab , click the Advanced button . Uncheck All removable drives .
Click OK twice .
3. Something on your recent documents list makes Windows check A:. Don't bother to track
down the perpetrator - just wipe out everything in that folder ( you won't lose any data ). To
do this , right-click the taskbar , select Properties , click the StartMenu Programs tab , click
Clear in the Documents menu box , and then click OK .
4. Desktop shortcuts pointing to a file or program on A: can also trigger this pointless
access . The fix: select Desktop in Windows Explorer , and select Start-Find-Files or Folders .
In the Named field, enter *.Ink, *.pif
Then, for the Containing Text field , enter a: and click Find Now . Delete all of the shortcuts
you find , or at least move them either off the Explorer Desktop or out of the Start menu .
5. If you use Microsoft Office97, the FindFast utility could be causing the problem . To
find out , select Start-Settings-Control Panel , then double-click the FindFast icon . Once the
applet is up , see whether drive A: is on the list of indexes . If it is , highlight it
and-select Index-Delete Index . Click OK twice , and then close FindFast and the Control Panel .
6. Right Click My Computer, select Properties.
Hit Performance tab, then hit File System.
Floppy Disk Tab - uncheck "search for new floppy drives etc...."
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