Random Drive "A" access

[Terry_CPU]

After shortly installing Windows ME, my computer started to check drive "A" (following every boot up for about 10 seconds)after appearance of the desktop. The computer would also access the drive randomly. I do not have the "Check floppy" checked in the startup sequence. I tried a clean boot and the problem does go away. There is not antivirus software on the computer. What's next??

[daverme]

Go into Control Panel and look for a thing called FindFast. The icon should be a pair of binoculars. This is probably the culprit. Someody else on SysOpt had the exact same problem and had to delete the .exe to make it go away.

[slydog]

Terry, look on your desk top, recycle bin, or desk top folders for a MS/DOS shortcut (it will look different than a ordinary icon), if you find one or more delete them & your clicking will probably go away. Usually the constant clicking is caused by an MS/DOS shortcut that is looking for the A drive (been there!) I found mine in the recycle bin with a "find all files" search.

[captpete]

Indexing Service can also cause this. It constantly monitors the contents of your drives so that searches can go faster. Disable it and see what happens. Go to Search on the Start Menu and you can click on Indexing Services and disable it.

[darkmallard]

I agree with daverme, FindFast (MS Office) and QuickFinder (WordPerfect) scan the drives regularly and are often the cause of this. You should not need to delete any executable to make it go away. Just remove the icon from the Startup group and remove any MS Office (or WordPerfect) startup applications:

1. Right-click on START > select OPEN > double-click PROGRAMS > STARTUP > move (or delete) any icons out of the Startup folder

2. Start > Run > MSCONFIG. Click on the STARTUP tab, and UNcheck everything that refers to MS Office: one is called "FindFast" and another is called "Office Startup"

3. You can also safely uncheck EVERYTHING under Startup (if you decide later that you want something to startup automatically again, just come back and re-check it)

4. Restart the computer.

[n0n4me]

if you want to know for sure go to http://www.sysinternals.com/ utilities and get Filemon it will let you what's accessing your a drive.

[Terry_CPU]

Thanks for all the help. I tried all of the suggestions but the drive still run for about 10 second after the desktop appears. I though for sure that a clean bootup through "msconfig" would steer me in the right direction but no such luck. The problem is not fatal but I think it is time to reinstall the system. After all it is the first version of ME.

[jmatt]

Stop Windows from accessing
the floppy drive

Q My computer frequently accesses the floppy drive when there is no reason for it to do so. Do you know how 1 can stop this from happening?

A Unfortunately , there's no one cause or cure for this common annoyance . But here are a few potential remedies .
1. At some point, you may have told Windows to check for something drivers or on the A: drive - and never told it to stop looking . Correcting this is easy : the next time Windows accesses your Windows gives me an error message , floppy drive , pop a disk into the drive . Double-click the icon for drive A: then close the window , double-click on the C: icon , remove the floppy disk.
2. Your anti-virus software may be configured to scan drive A: automatically, whether there is a disk in the drive or not . To check Norton AntiVirus , for example, click the Options button . On the Scanner tab , click the Advanced button . Uncheck All removable drives .
Click OK twice .
3. Something on your recent documents list makes Windows check A:. Don't bother to track down the perpetrator - just wipe out everything in that folder ( you won't lose any data ). To do this , right-click the taskbar , select Properties , click the StartMenu Programs tab , click Clear in the Documents menu box , and then click OK .
4. Desktop shortcuts pointing to a file or program on A: can also trigger this pointless access . The fix: select Desktop in Windows Explorer , and select Start-Find-Files or Folders . In the Named field, enter *.Ink, *.pif
Then, for the Containing Text field , enter a: and click Find Now . Delete all of the shortcuts you find , or at least move them either off the Explorer Desktop or out of the Start menu .
5. If you use Microsoft Office97, the FindFast utility could be causing the problem . To find out , select Start-Settings-Control Panel , then double-click the FindFast icon . Once the applet is up , see whether drive A: is on the list of indexes . If it is , highlight it and-select Index-Delete Index . Click OK twice , and then close FindFast and the Control Panel .

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Also at , http://www.annoyances.org/cgi-bin/ce-showtopic/005_037

[Terry_CPU]

Thank you..all for all suport. Jmatt's answer #3 did the trick.