How to Disable "Floppy Seek"?

[Omar Firestone]

Hi All:

I have built an ME machine without a floppy drive. This causes
the "Install Hardware Wizard" to crash every time it searches for Drive
A. This happens whether or not the controller is disabled in BIOS. Is
there a patch (registry hack?) that will also remove Drive A from Windows?

Omar Firestone

[Jack E Martinelli]

Begin by disabling the floppy drive in the BIOS setup program.

--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Omar Firestone" > wrote in message
...
> Hi All:
>
> I have built an ME machine without a floppy drive. This causes
> the "Install Hardware Wizard" to crash every time it searches for Drive
> A. This happens whether or not the controller is disabled in BIOS. Is
> there a patch (registry hack?) that will also remove Drive A from
Windows?
>
> Omar Firestone

[Bill Leary]

"Jack E Martinelli" > wrote in message
...
> Begin by disabling the floppy drive in the BIOS setup program.

Note Omar: There's a difference in almost all BIOS between disabling the floppy
controller and disabling the floppy itself. This is to support the idea that
you might have a floppy controller installed in an ISA/PCI/whatever slot with
your floppy attached to that. You have to disable both the controller and the
floppy to really get rid of it. I had a similar problem to what you're having
on one of my kids machines when I removed the bad floppy drive and had no spare
to put back in immediately.

- Bill

> --
> Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
> Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
> Your cooperation is very appreciated.
> ------
> "Omar Firestone" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Hi All:
> >
> > I have built an ME machine without a floppy drive. This causes
> > the "Install Hardware Wizard" to crash every time it searches for Drive
> > A. This happens whether or not the controller is disabled in BIOS. Is
> > there a patch (registry hack?) that will also remove Drive A from
> Windows?

[Omar Firestone]

Thank you Jack and Bill. I have actually tried all four combinations of
Controller/Drive bios configuration and Windows continues to "see" the
phantom drive. Just as an amputee might fall attempting to stand on a
non-existent limb, the /Install Hardware Wizard/ hangs every time,
forcing a hardware reboot. Perhaps the registry key controlling this
can be modified, either manually or by a patch/applet?

Omar
©¿©¬

Bill Leary wrote:

>"Jack E Martinelli" > wrote in message
...
>
>
>>Begin by disabling the floppy drive in the BIOS setup program.
>>
>>
>
>Note Omar: There's a difference in almost all BIOS between disabling the floppy
>controller and disabling the floppy itself. This is to support the idea that
>you might have a floppy controller installed in an ISA/PCI/whatever slot with
>your floppy attached to that. You have to disable both the controller and the
>floppy to really get rid of it. I had a similar problem to what you're having
>on one of my kids machines when I removed the bad floppy drive and had no spare
>to put back in immediately.
>
> - Bill
>
>
>
>>--
>>Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
>>Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
>>
>>http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
>>Your cooperation is very appreciated.
>>------
>>"Omar Firestone" > wrote in message
...
>>
>>
>>>Hi All:
>>>
>>> I have built an ME machine without a floppy drive. This causes
>>>the "Install Hardware Wizard" to crash every time it searches for Drive
>>>A. This happens whether or not the controller is disabled in BIOS. Is
>>>there a patch (registry hack?) that will also remove Drive A from
>>>
>>>
>>Windows?
>>
>>
>
>
>
>

[Omar Firestone]

Curiously enough, Floppy A appears in Explorer (which will also hang the
machine by clicking on it) a but not in the *Device Manager* tab of
System Properties. I poked around in the Registry and found this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Config\0001\Enum\ACPI\*PNP0700\ 0\clOSFlop

with a value set to "01". Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser...

Omar
©¿©¬

Omar Firestone wrote:

> Thank you Jack and Bill. I have actually tried all four combinations
> of Controller/Drive bios configuration and Windows continues to "see"
> the phantom drive. Just as an amputee might fall attempting to stand
> on a non-existent limb, the /Install Hardware Wizard/ hangs every
> time, forcing a hardware reboot. Perhaps the registry key controlling
> this can be modified, either manually or by a patch/applet?
>
> Omar
> ©¿©¬
>
> Bill Leary wrote:
>
>> "Jack E Martinelli" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>
>>> Begin by disabling the floppy drive in the BIOS setup program.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Note Omar: There's a difference in almost all BIOS between disabling
>> the floppy
>> controller and disabling the floppy itself. This is to support the
>> idea that
>> you might have a floppy controller installed in an ISA/PCI/whatever
>> slot with
>> your floppy attached to that. You have to disable both the
>> controller and the
>> floppy to really get rid of it. I had a similar problem to what
>> you're having
>> on one of my kids machines when I removed the bad floppy drive and
>> had no spare
>> to put back in immediately.
>>
>> - Bill
>>
>>
>>
>>> --
>>> Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
>>> Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
>>>
>>> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
>>> Your cooperation is very appreciated.
>>> ------
>>> "Omar Firestone" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi All:
>>>>
>>>> I have built an ME machine without a floppy drive. This causes
>>>> the "Install Hardware Wizard" to crash every time it searches for
>>>> Drive
>>>> A. This happens whether or not the controller is disabled in
>>>> BIOS. Is
>>>> there a patch (registry hack?) that will also remove Drive A from
>>>>
>>>
>>> Windows?
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

[Bill Leary]

"Omar Firestone" > wrote in message
...
> Thank you Jack and Bill. I have actually tried all four combinations of
> Controller/Drive bios configuration and Windows continues to "see" the
> phantom drive.

That's just a bit amazing.

Did you try booting in Safe Mode and removing the drive there?

> Perhaps the registry key controlling this
> can be modified, either manually or by a patch/applet?

Perhaps, but that's outside my experience. The most I ever had to do was remove
the thing in Windows, then turn it off in BIOS.

I'll be interested to see how this gets resolved.

Hmm. I just thought of something. Do you have an IDE Iomega ZIP drive? These
things can configure themselves such that with some BIOS they'll appear as huge
A: floppies. I've had a couple do that, though on the machines this happened on
they actually worked. Not the failure you're seeing.

- Bill

[Omar Firestone]

Bill:

Removing the drive in "Safe Mode" did the trick. In Explorer it
still appears (in the right pane only!) as a "Removable Disk". I have
also heard tales of a jumpered IDC connector plugged into the MB
controller header that emulates a diskette drive. An old DOS trick, I'm
sure. Thanx again

©¿©¬

Bill Leary wrote:

>"Omar Firestone" > wrote in message
...
>
>
>>Thank you Jack and Bill. I have actually tried all four combinations of
>>Controller/Drive bios configuration and Windows continues to "see" the
>>phantom drive.
>>
>>
>
>That's just a bit amazing.
>
>Did you try booting in Safe Mode and removing the drive there?
>
>
>
>>Perhaps the registry key controlling this
>>can be modified, either manually or by a patch/applet?
>>
>>
>
>Perhaps, but that's outside my experience. The most I ever had to do was remove
>the thing in Windows, then turn it off in BIOS.
>
>I'll be interested to see how this gets resolved.
>
>Hmm. I just thought of something. Do you have an IDE Iomega ZIP drive? These
>things can configure themselves such that with some BIOS they'll appear as huge
>A: floppies. I've had a couple do that, though on the machines this happened on
>they actually worked. Not the failure you're seeing.
>
> - Bill
>
>
>
>

[Bill Leary]

"Omar Firestone" > wrote in message
...
> Removing the drive in "Safe Mode" did the trick. In Explorer it
> still appears (in the right pane only!) as a "Removable Disk".

I'm surprised it still appears even there.

But I suppose sometimes a less-than-perfect solution you can live with is better
than a perfect one you can't reach.

- Bill