I DON'T HAVE A FLOPPY DRIVE!!!!

[Lord Evermore]

Obviously this isn't really a GH thing, but we all know that I'd never get an answer anywhere else.

I'm trying to set up a dedicated Unreal Tournament server. I got Windows installed and got my Ethernet card working, haven't gone any farther yet.

When I set up the system, I didn't figure I'd need a floppy drive, since I can make a bootable CD just as easily and it can hold any files I need. So I disabled the floppy controller in the BIOS and set it to NONE for what type of drive should be drive A.

While trying to install the Ethernet drivers, the system kept locking up for long periods, then would start responding again. Finally I realized it was searching for a floppy drive, since Windows just can't stand to look anywhere but A: for driver files.

So I looked at the Device Manager, and the floppy controller of course had a big exclamation point on it since it was disabled (you'd think that it being DISABLED would be a tipoff that I don't CARE that it's not working and don't need to see a warning). So then I look at My Computer...and there's an A drive! Listed as a 5-1/4" floppy drive. I looked back at Device Mangler, and there's nothing but my hard drive listed under Disk Drives.

So I reboot and enable the floppy controller in the BIOS, and reboot, Windows recognizes it and it no longer warns me about being disabled. But there's STILL a freaking A: drive listed! So anytime Windows goes to look for a driver, it tries to search a non-existant drive (not just doesn't have a disk inserted, it just isn't THERE), and it takes like 45 seconds to time out and skip it.

So what the hell do I do to get rid of that? Or at least to make Windows realize that even if it's listed, it's not responding so hurry the hell up and let me find the drivers that are on the hard drive.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I just needed to rant. As soon as I went and searched Microsoft's knowledge base I found the answer.

The answer?



<< This behavior is by design. >>



MSDOS somehow always creates a drive A, which I suppose is reasonable since it doesn't have any hardware detection capabilities, but you'd think that Win98 would be able to recognize that there ISN'T ONE THERE and just kind of ignore what DOS is saying.

 

[Gunbuster]

One of the reasons I love Win2K, no floppy fantom icon

 

[Lord Evermore]

I bet it's there somewhere, lurking. Sort of like how WinME doesn't have DOS... 🙂

Have you ever tried to just type a: at a command prompt? 🙂

 

[LevcoS]

You ought to be able to stop it searching the imaginary drive by going into regedit, searching for &quot;InstallLocationsMRU&quot; and either removing the A drive listing or (preferably) removing the MRU corresponding to the A drive from the search order. The key you need is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\InstallLocationsMRU and mine looks like this:
&quot;a&quot;=&quot;C:\\WINDOWS\\catroot&quot;
&quot;b&quot;=&quot;H:\\&quot;
&quot;c&quot;=&quot;A:\\&quot;
&quot;d&quot;=&quot;D:\\need for new machine\\98lite\\&quot;
&quot;e&quot;=&quot;H:\\AtiDrive&quot;
&quot;MRUList&quot;=&quot;bdeac&quot;

so to remove the A drive from search order, I would change MRUList to &quot;bdea&quot; and/or change the &quot;c: key to reflect some directory other than A:\\

Good luck! And remember not to blame me if you foul things up using regedit... And of course to make a backup of the registry before you change ANYTHING.

LevcoS

 

[R0b0tN1k]

Just slap a cheap drive in there. You'll need it eventually, whether you like it or not.

 

[andrey]

I agree with Robotnik 🙂 or ........










get an iMAc. Doesn't even come with a floppy drive 🙂

 

[Lord Evermore]

Why would I need a floppy drive? I can make a boot CD easily, with many more files than I can get on a floppy. Anything that comes on a floppy I can put on a CD using my other machine. As long as the system remains CD bootable and I can put any files onto the boot CD, I've no need of a floppy.

The only reason there isn't a floppy though is that I didn't feel like tearing apart one of the many many computers we have in a closet here. Not because I don't feel like buying one.

 

[Smbu]

You need one if you are trying to flash your mobo bios, unless you have an Asus board w/the Windows flash utility, which I use on my CUSL2 and have had no problems with.

 

[Gunbuster]

Smbu you can flash from a bootable cd