Constantly getting "No disk in drive error" on clean XP Pro Install

[shawnman]

This is driving me nuts

When any user logs on they get the error message "Userinit.exe - No disk in drive" with the options to <Continue> <Restart> <Cancel>. Also when I try to lauch almost any app i get a "No disk in drive" error and then the app will launch after hitting cancel.

I have searched Google Groups and there are a few threads where other people have this exact problem - however i didnt find a solution to it there.

This is 2nd clean install of XP Pro today with the exact same problem.

System specs:

MSI K7N420 Pro
Athlon XP 1800+
512 MB Crucial DDR
Seagate Barracuda IV 80 GB
Maxtor 60 GB
12/10/32 Plextor CDRW
Onboard nForce audio/LAN
Lucent WinModem

If anyone has encountered and solved this issue or has any ideas at all they would be greatly appreciated

Thanks.
Shawn

 

[shawnman]

Ok I seem to have solved this problem - I am posting this solution here for other who might have this problem in the future

It turned out that the A: drive somehow ended up in the Path Enviromental Variable. However it didnt show up when I looked at the Env Vars in Windows. It only appeared when I opened a command prompt and typed the SET keyword.

I then determined that it must have been getting that a: in the Path var because of autoexec.bat file somewhere. Well since this is a dual boot system I first looked at my Win9x install on the c: drive - sure enough it had a very messed autoexec.bat - so i totally wiped everything inside of c:\autoexec.bat and rebooted and the problem appears to be fixed now.

I have no idea why Windows XP, which is on drive e: is even looking at c:\autoexec.bat but it does and thats what was screwing everything up....

Oh well glad I got this fixed..... now time for some sleep

 

[Slikkster]

Well, you beat me to the punch. I was going to suggest you look exactly where you ended up. Here's an older NT-based page that probably is very similar to XP:

No Disk In Drive Troubleshooting

Glad you found it, though...those types of things are annoying, to say the least.