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Drive a: always accessed first

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by twuf

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I have a problem with newly built PC w/Win 98 SE- typical components cd-rw, dvd, etc.Everything works great. Everytime you access any drive in control panel or windows explorer the computer checks the a: drive first then opens the appropriate drive.It 'grinds' searching the a: drive and is very annoying. Is something in the registry or control panel set to do this? It happened on my factory made Dell computer a year ago but i don't remember what i did to fix it, if in fact i did anything. A PCTech told me to just leave a blank diskette in the drive. (It helps but that is not the answer). i don't think this is a BIOS issue either.?

5 replies

by gigelul

It is not a BIOS setting. Try to clear your list of recent accesed files and also TEMP folders.
A good rule is if you don't allow contents of diskette displaied on screen and remove the diskette at this time or open a file from diskette and remove it from FDD.
Hope this help

by thechas

Windows maintains a "memory" of where you access and save files. To stop the floppy seeks, you need to "purge" Windows file memory.

I adjust 3 settings on a W98 PC after all drivers are installed, and there are no "?" or "!" marks in device manager.

1. In BIOS settings, set the switch to report new floppy drives to windows to disable.
2. In System Properties / Performance / file system / floppy, uncheck the box to seek floppy drives when starting windows.
3. This is the tuffy, but will help the most for your problem.
WARNING: EDITING THE REGISTRY CAN DISABLE YOUR COMPUTER!!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!
If you are not familier with editing the registry, please back up the registry before proceeding. There are instructions postedat www.aumha.org
I search the registry for a:
I then delete the data or key that has a link to the floppy drive.
If you are careful, this is a fairly easy registry editing task.

Chas

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