XP startup looking for floppy

[Gracie]

hello wonderful ones ( the sun just came out so I am feeling exhuberant  ;D )

a few days ago I ran Hardware Info on this XP Pro machine, from a floppy. I forgot to take the disk out of the drive, and next time I started  the machine it asked for it to be removed so it  could continue the boot, which I did.  Since then, every time it boots, we get  almost to the point where it requires your password, and an error message comes up saying  there is 'no disk' , meaning the floppy, and I have to press 'retry', 'cancel' or 'continue'  to get on  with the load.

It is a minor irritation but I would like to correct it . I tried running HWInfo again, cleaned the registry, fiddled around, but it is still coming up - any ideas how I might  fix it please?

[query]

Try clearing the my documents menu (right- click on start, choose properties,  customize, and then clear).  Also check the startup items (msconfig).

[Gracie]

thanks Q, I had checked msconfig but not startup menu - I will reboot and come back with result

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no, only difference was the message came up after the password screen instead of before it. Bother bother... what would look to see what was in Drive A  at that stage I wonder. Is it registry? Can't be BIOS - I haven't changed the boot sequence and anyway we are almost into desktop when this happens. Ho hum..

[ingeborgdot]

Try shutting down your machine and let it sit for 15 seconds.  Restart and see what happens.

[Gracie]

thanks Inge. Tried  a restart from cold early on without joy, however, I am pleased to say that the problem has now gone away.

I still don't know what caused it.  I found out that  others  have had similar experiences, not always with drive A, but otherwise the same. All sorts of suggestions were made - uninstalling Quick Time, checking for a virus, removing floppy drive and controller from device manager, none of which solved it for me, but THIS one did..

put your OS disk ( XP Pro for me) in the disk drive
go to start-run
type in sfc/ scannow

let Windows check the original files

sorted!

It took a while and I went away, and when I came back the job was done and the problem gone.

[Chandler]

It sounds like Windows XP wasn't happy with some files, so automatically invoked system file protection, but as it couldn't find the Windows CD it tried the floppy.

[Gracie]

aahhh, maybe... :)