Forum Archive Home -> Computer -> Floppy diskette seek failure????

Floppy diskette seek failure????

aruwin posted 2008 Sep 29 06:16

After recovering from corrupted or missing system32 by the recovery console,my PC worked fine.Even now,my PC is running as usual and it seems as though there was no problem at all with system32.But after shutting it down,and then switching it on again,I get some message like this: ......"floppy diskette seek failure" there are 2 options,F1 to continue and F2 to set up utility.I just pressed F1 and the PC run as usual. Nothing seems wrong but it really annoys me that I keep getting that message whenever I swtich on my PC.How do I fix this and what does that message mean?

mpack posted 2008 Sep 29 07:22

Do you even have a floppy drive in that PC? In your attempts to fix the other problem, did anything involve the use of a bootable floppy, or were you only using the XP CD? At a guess, something has been added to your boot sequence which is trying to run an app with a default path that references the floppy drive. You could try running "sysedit" looking for references to A: or B: the files it shows you, you could also search the registry for same.

aruwin posted 2008 Sep 29 07:40

mpack : Do you even have a floppy drive in that PC? In your attempts to fix the other problem, did anything involve the use of a bootable floppy, or were you only using the XP CD? At a guess, something has been added to your boot sequence which is trying to run an app with a default path that references the floppy drive. You could try running "sysedit" looking for references to A: or B: the files it shows you, you could also search the registry for same. I dont think I have a flopppy drive in my PC.I'm not even sure what it is too.I was only fixing it using the XP CD.

mpack posted 2008 Sep 29 07:47

You don't know what a floppy drive is? ... jeez I must be getting old. :-( A floppy drive takes old 3.5 inch (9cm) square plaster diskettes. If you have it, it will be on the front of your PC (or the side of your laptop), consisting of a 9cm wide slot and a button you push to eject the disk. Obviously if your PC has no floppy drive then any reference to A: or B: will result in a error message of some kind. As I said before, you should look for any references to drives A: or B: in your sysedit files (config.sys, autoexec.bat), and the registry.

aruwin posted 2008 Sep 29 07:58

mpack : You don't know what a floppy drive is? ... jeez I must be getting old. :-( A floppy drive takes old 3.5 inch (9cm) square plaster diskettes. If you have it, it will be on the front of your PC (or the side of your laptop), consisting of a 9cm wide slot and a button you push to eject the disk. Obviously if your PC has no floppy drive then any reference to A: or B: will result in a error message of some kind. As I said before, you should look for any references to drives A: or B: in your sysedit files (config.sys, autoexec.bat), and the registry. Yeah,I'm kinda stupid when it comes to computer terms,not that I dont really know what it is.And nope,I dont have a floppy disc.So how do I fix this??And how do I look for the references you mentioned?[/quote]

mpack posted 2008 Sep 29 09:05

aruwin : how do I look for the references you mentioned? Click start menu, choose "run..." then type "sysedit" and click ok. Then just look with your eyes for any mention of "A:" or "B:" in the four files it shows. If found, then edit the line to remove that reference. Sorry, I can't tell you what to edit - you need to know what you are doing. Or if you find any such reference you could post the offending line(s) here. To edit registry, click start menu, choose "run..." then type "regedit" and click ok. Do a case-insensitive search for "a:" or "b:". Decide what to do if and when you find it. Be aware that messing with your system files can screw up your PC again. You might be better advised to get a more knowledgeable friend to do these things for you. No message on this site can possibly tell you everything you might find.

SingSing posted 2008 Sep 29 09:08

Disable floppy drive in your motherboard BIOS setup.

aruwin posted 2008 Sep 29 19:27

mpack : aruwin : how do I look for the references you mentioned? Click start menu, choose "run..." then type "sysedit" and click ok. Then just look with your eyes for any mention of "A:" or "B:" in the four files it shows. If found, then edit the line to remove that reference. Sorry, I can't tell you what to edit - you need to know what you are doing. Or if you find any such reference you could post the offending line(s) here. I haven't tried this yet but do you think I should disable floppy drive like SingSing said?And can you tell me what's causing this?

redwudz posted 2008 Sep 29 19:56

What SingSing said. Disable your floppy, generally in the first BIOS screen. But your programs shouldn't be looking for a non-existent floppy anyway. I would also check the BIOS to see what the first boot device is. It should be your C: hard drive. Floppy is generally set by default as the first boot device by the motherboard drivers. Change it to your C: boot drive. Usually this is not a problem. If you have no floppy, the OS just looks to the first bootable drive.

aruwin posted 2008 Oct 01 11:20

redwudz : What SingSing said. Disable your floppy, generally in the first BIOS screen. But your programs shouldn't be looking for a non-existent floppy anyway. I would also check the BIOS to see what the first boot device is. It should be your C: hard drive. Floppy is generally set by default as the first boot device by the motherboard drivers. Change it to your C: boot drive. Usually this is not a problem. If you have no floppy, the OS just looks to the first bootable drive. I think I should tell you that I'm really computer-stupid.Can you tell me the steps to disable floppy and everything that you just said?? :oops:

mpack posted 2008 Oct 01 12:31

IMHO, "disabling the floppy drive" is a waste of time, even if the BIOS provided such an option. It would not prevent apps from attempting to access the drive, nor prevent the BIOS or Windows from giving you an error message when the drive isn't found. In a very smart BIOS it may remove the floppy from the boot order, but even that isn't guaranteed. Changing the boot order directly is worthwhile: but having read the other thread, I don't understand how the BIOS settings got changed to the wrong order in the first place. Or if the boot order was changed by the OP then the OP must already know how to change it back. However... There is no standard way to access the BIOS settings. On many PCs you press the DEL key as soon as you see the BIOS start screen, but there's no guarantee of that. Also, bear in mind that you can trash your PC by making ininformed changes to BIOS settings, so basically you enter that area at your own risk. As I said before, I suggest you get a more knowledgable friend to check these things. The checks I mentioned earlier were intended to be simple "first things" you could do before needing to think about the BIOS - I still recommend that you do them.

Ai Haibara posted 2008 Oct 01 15:10

mpack : You don't know what a floppy drive is? ... jeez I must be getting old. :-( A floppy drive takes old 3.5 inch (9cm) square plaster diskettes. Heh, I'm probably pointing out how old I am as well - but that's not the only type of floppy drive out there. I still have a 5" floppy drive and a number of disks I should've backed up by now, in storage, for example. :D Then again, all my old C64 5" disks seem to be okay, for the most part... :)

Nelson37 posted 2008 Oct 01 16:36

It's not Windows, it's BIOS, mpack is totally wrong. Bet the farm. The OP may or may not notice that this messge pops up before there is any evidence whatsoever of Windows starting to load. Press F2 when prompted, disable floppy, check boot order for reference to floppy, done.

aruwin posted 2008 Oct 01 21:43

Nelson37 : It's not Windows, it's BIOS, mpack is totally wrong. Bet the farm. The OP may or may not notice that this messge pops up before there is any evidence whatsoever of Windows starting to load. Press F2 when prompted, disable floppy, check boot order for reference to floppy, done. Ok,I'll try that.But are you sure it's really safe to do that??And,another stupid question...what is OP?

Ai Haibara posted 2008 Oct 01 22:41

OP = original poster, or the person who started the thread. In this case, that would be you, aruwin. :) There shouldn't be much harm in modifying the floppy drive settings under BIOS, as long as you don't alter anything else. But if you're really unsure about modifying BIOS settings, it might indeed be better to have someone else look at it for you.

Nelson37 posted 2008 Oct 02 17:10

As long as you are careful not to change anything else, no harm at all. All you are doing is telling the PC there is no floppy drive present, whether there is or not one actually there does not matter. It should drop from the boot order automatically when disabled, but I'd check it anyway. There may also be a "floppy drive seek at startup" which should be disabled. Don't forget to select "Save and Exit" when done.

aruwin posted 2008 Oct 02 21:22

:D Yay,I have disabled floppy and it worked!!!Thanks to all of you who have replied me.Thank you so much!

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