How to stop the floppy from making noises?

Question

All of a sudden, lately my 3 1/2 floppy drive makes noises upon startup (and shutdown) as if it is trying to access a disk there and there is NO disk inserted (like it wants to startup from this drive). It does not only try once but many times over again and it even happens sometimes just when i click on the start button to access anything. As far as I know, nothing has changed on my computer. It really bothers me and is annoying. Have you ever seen anything like this? / Is there anything you can tell me that will help to get rid of it doing that?

Thank You

Answer

This question was answered on February 13, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

When the pc is starting up it maybe set to read the floppy first, To stop the system from trying to boot from it, go into cmos setup and change it so it reads C: drive first then floppy etc. Some antivirus software checks the floppy drive periodically, which will cause the drive to make noise, even if there is no disk present. If you have a shortcut in your system that points to the floppy drive, this will also cause the drive to make noise. To remove shortcuts, clear any recent shortcuts you've made, also clear the documents menu (Start, Settings, Taskbar & Start Menu, Start Menu Programs, Documents Menu, Clear) which may have a link to a document on a floppy.

Author

Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on February 13, 2004