Why should drive be always ready on NT4

I have just constructed a box using P4-1500 running NT4 using Asus motherboard. When I boot, the os stops at the A: drive (floppy disk) and prompts for a disk and running, i.e. it wants the drive ready. No amount of pormpting will cause it to abort.During normal activity, it also expects the floppy drive to have a disk in and be ready, which can be a bit of a pain. What option is there to alleviate this?