Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

A: Drive is Periodically being Accessed

0 helpful
13 replies

by fzabin 1 view

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

The problem I am having is that my computer is attempting to access my a: drive for no apparent reason.

The system I have the problem with is a Sony PCG-F180. This problem began approximately one month ago when a floppy became stuck in the a: drive. Once the floppy was removed, my computer began to periodically access the a: drive. I have owned my system for a year and have never had this happen until this floppy incident.

I work in the legal field. The noise is very distracting to the proceedings at hand. When the noise begins, everyone stops speaking to ask me if I'm having a problem. I also record the spoken word with an audiosync program. The audiosync program is interrupted everytime the a: drive is accessed (not to mention my computer slows down.)

The tech that removed the floppy told me the a: drive was being accessed because I had too many programs running in my icon tray, although all the same programs were running before the a: drive began accessing and before the floppy incident. He told me to remove the programs from the icon tray as well as to delete my History and Temporary Files and that would solve all my problems. Well, I have done so. Yet the problem continues still.

Any suggestions will begreatly appreciated.

13 replies

by fzabin

Received message, "Directory Listing Denied. The Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed." I then attempted to locate my problem but did not find a solution. Thanks anyway.

by cajundon

Click on Start, then Run. Type in msconfig.exe and click OK. Click the Start Up Tab. See if you have amy program checked that is starting from your A: drive. To remove it from starting, click on the check mark and it will be unchecked. Click on OK to save the setting. Reboot the computer and see if that solves the problem.

Good luck and have a great day.

Don Thibodaux, Independent Computer Technology Consultant.

by fzabin

There are no programs listed that are starting from the a: drive. Thanks anyway.

by nigel o gorman

Simple, but VERY annoying! - I had this problem and it was a PATH=A:\ statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT & AUTOEXEC.NT on my NT workstation. I removed this and it stopped accessing the drive. Give it a try!

by cindy - extraordinary brat

I had a user with the same problem, last year. I tried 3 things, and I don't remember which one fixed it, but one of them did.
1. Empty the directory c:\windows\recent (there are sometimes files in there that point to a file from a: and those items are all shortcuts, and are actively being checked if you have an "active" desktop)
2. Change the floppy drive, or just pretend to. Remove the cable from the drive and boot without it. You will have to F1 to continue your boot. Go to control panel/system and remove any ! that refer to your floppy drive. Turn off the pc, reconnect your drive again.
3. Get a blank diskette and keep it in the floppy drive all the time. To avoid taking it in and out - change the boot sequence of your cmos to c:-a: or c:-cdrom: instead of a: first.
4. Another culprit may be your antivirus software. I don't know what you were installing when the floppy thing started. But some antivirus softwares check the floppy regularly. Turn that off too.

Good Luck,
Cindy

by fzabin

Thank you for your suggestions. I did empty c:\windows\recent. But that did not solve the problem.

I did not try putting in a floppy or changing my boot sequence.

My system is using Dr. Solomon's
Anti-Virus. I did disable it on startup. I actually wasn't installing anything at the time of my floppy incident. I was in the process of copying an ASCII file onto the floppy.

by lump_16

Try removeing your MS Office startup bar if you have it running.

There's somehting with the FindFast program that accesses the a: drive periodically.

I had this problem awhile ago, I don't think it was the findfast program but it was one of the suggestions I recieved.

Good Luck,
Brian Wright
Starving Computer Science student
Terra Communtiy College
Fremont, Ohio

by fzabin

I do not have an MS Office startup bar running. However, I did remove the FindFast as well as several others on startup. The problem stopped. I then started enabling the programs one at a time. It seems to be FindFast that is causing the problem. Thank you for your suggestions.

by the gun doctor

Go to Start, Programs, Startup and remove "Find Fast" so that it will not load on starting your machine. Reboot and see if this helps. Find fast is some sort of search agent that allows MS Office to locate MS Office files (word, access, etc) with ease, but it must constantly search for these types of files. Without find fast you shouldn't have anymore "ghost access" on A:
Good Luck
Scott

by fzabin

I did remove FindFast as well as several others on startup. I then noticed the problem was gone. One at a time I started enabling the programs on startup and found that it is the FindFast that is causing this problem. It seems that my floppy incident simply may have been a coincidence. Just curious, though, as to why all of a sudden this became a problem when it never had been in the past. Thanks for your help.

This discussion is closed to new replies.