[RESOLVED] Remove references to missing A: drive

[shrdlu]

Hi all, .............. My daughter's (Win7) computer does not have and never had a floppy A: drive. But there are many references to such a drive. One place it does not show up is in disk management. She asked for help and I'm stumped. Can anyone provide information which will allow me to remove all references to this annoyance?

[jdc2000]

Do you have any information on where these references to an A: drive are showing up? If it never had an A: drive, then there should be recently used file or folder references to such a drive. You could try a search in the Registry for A: to see what, if anything, is found.

[falcon2000]

Try this: get into BIOS and disable the floppy drive (it may say legacy diskette.)

[shrdlu]

jdc2000, In my first post I stated that the floppy A: drive did not show in Disk Management and that was true if I arrived at DM through the Start-Search block. However when I looked again using Computer, the A: drive was there under Removable storage.

falcon2000, In the BIOS the A: floppy was shown as one of the drives but was enclosed in [ ] with a note in the right panel: "A device enclosed in parenthesis has been disabled in the corresponding type menu." In spite of the disable comment I have seen the A: reference in other places before the below action took place.

I continued looking for a solution to my daughter's problem in the Registry, Windows' search and Device Manager. In the Device Manager, the floppy drive was listed and under device status the comment was that: "This device is working properly." Moving further through the screens was a button to uninstall the floppy which I did. I don't know if this removes the the A: indications, I'll let my daughter use the computer over the weekend to see if she can get the indicators to reappear. After I send this to the forum, I'll check the Bios and Device Manager to see if the floppy is still showing. Based on what we find I'll be back with the results.

[falcon2000]

Don't forget to reboot the computer after you uninstall it in Device Manager.

[Midknyte]

If the floppy shows up even after a reboot, disable it in Device Manager (instead of uninstalling again).

[shrdlu]

falcon2000, or Midknyte, Please resubmit the link from your recent post. In my haste to get back to the forum I deleted the e-mail. When I had the forum open, the latest post was six. I could find no link for me to try. My thanks to each of you for your persistence.

[Midknyte]

#6 is the latest. What link are you talking about? I just said to go into Device Manager and disable the floppy, rather than uninstall.

[falcon2000]

Don't understand what you mean by resubmitting link. Your latest post is post #7. Before that is post #6 by Midknyte.

[shrdlu]

Midknyte and falcon2000, …..... Excuse my hastiness, you are both correct, there is no reference to a link on Post number six. My goof.

Let me summarize my efforts to the present. I have been working with Disk Management, Computer, and Device Manager. Reference to the A: floppy should not appear in Disk Management because it is for hard drives and not the removable drives. What follows applies to deleting or uninstalling the A: floppy drive of the Device Manager screen and the effect on the the floppy drive given in the Computer screen. For each case (deleting or uninstalling) the computer was shut down and then rebooted. Throughout the test series, the only time the A: floppy was not displayed on the Computer screen was when the floppy drive was disabled in Device Manager. That is where I left it. At this point I returned to the BIOS and the Floppy Drive was shown as the Third boot device enclosed in the parentheses as given in my first Post.

My daughter will use her computer over the weekend and if she can bring up the problem condition I'll pass any further information in my next Post.

[Train]

What is the make and model of that laptop?

[Train]

If you arrow down to the floppy and hit enter, you should see something like this.

[shrdlu]

Train, .............. My Daughter's computer was obtained from a computer shop so I don't know if there is a Name and Model number. We have discussed the A: floppy situation and she was not able to point to specific places where the floppy was shown, but I can vaguely recall seeing reference to it when I used her computer.

It may be that you have moved me in a different direction and helped solve the problem. In previous Posts when I discussed entering the BIOS, I was always using the BOOT tab. Your illustration as part of Post #12 shows the floppy high-lighted under the main tab. When I went back to the BIOS and used the main tab with the up-down arrow I was able to get to a condition where the high-lighted floppy showed The A: drive as disabled. Now when I open Device Manager or Computer there is not reference to the floppy. To me this is encouraging. I feel as though The condition of my Daughter's computer has been improved but I'll wait for comments from those of you who have contributed. Thank you Train for your help.

[falcon2000]

In previous Posts when I discussed entering the BIOS, I was always using the BOOT tab ... When I went back to the BIOS and used the main tab with the up-down arrow I was able to get to a condition where the high-lighted floppy showed The A: drive as disabled. Now when I open Device Manager or Computer there is not reference to the floppy.

I should have been more specific when I told you to check the BIOS. The entry in the BOOT tab is only used to enable or disable booting from a floppy disk in Drive A. The entry in the MAIN tab is to enable or disable a floppy drive itself from being used in the computer. So, you have done it right now and hopefully this will get rid of the phantom Drive A.

[Train]

Looks like you got it right. But do not forget how you did it as a BAD shutdown can cause the BIOS to revert back and that A drive will probably show back up. Does not happen often, but happens enough that have to bring it up.