Any ideas what would cause my system to suddenly need a disk in drive a: before some programs can run? The programs are on my HD or expansion drive so drive a: isn't needed.

This just started happening.

I am assuming that your drive A is a floppy drive. That is a very strange error and considering that it just started occurring leads me to the fact that something has been messed up. Have you tried re-installing any of the programs to see if that fixes things? Also, a bit more info on your system might help.

Homer6,
What are the programs that require a disk in a: ? Do these programs install completely to your hard drive or are some files left on the floppy?

This also happens when you play some Old Dos Based games and they creste a Pif file, read this link to see if it helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216752

Which programs?

First, thank you all for responding.

Where to start? Ummm...I'm running Windows XP Professional SP3, Pentium III, and have 512 MB of RAM.

I went to the Microsoft support link given and tried their suggestion. Guess I could go through all 764 files found with the .lnk extension, but after looking at a few I don't think any of those files are the problem because they were all on the HD well before yesterday. And working fine.

I've not uninstalled/reinstalled any programs to see if that was the fix because there wasn't a specific program involved.

Keep in mind this happened Sunday, yesterday, only yesterday, not Saturday, nor any day previous, and funny, not today. Yet.

It first happened when I tried to open Opera, a program that is stored on the HD, with a .exe copy on my expansion drive. A program downloaded onto my system. Not loaded from the 3.5 drive.

It also happened with BFG Game Manager, another program stored on the HD and a .exe stored on my expansion drive. Game Manager is another one that was downloaded from BFG site and not loaded from the 3.5 drive.

I no longer have/use any programs that were loaded from the 3.5 drive. It's used mainly for backing up sound files, saved files, or as of late, not used at all.

The other thing I noticed, when the disk not in drive a: error message appeared, a specific disk was not required. That's right, a specific disk was not required.

I started BFG Game Manager to play the first Drawn game; error: disk not in drive a:. I could click the top right close X enough times and the error message would close. Only to reappear a few seconds later. Okay, I decided, I'll accommodate the error message and throw a disk into drive a:. So, I inserted on of my 3.5 disks with saved sound files on it. From that point on everything was fine.

Now we're at today, Monday. Opera and BFG Game Manager both opened without the disk not in drive a: error message appearing. The 3.5 drive activated once but without the error message appearing. I guess I should note that it's setup in the BIOS to scan both the DVD and 3.5 drive on bootup; looking at both for a bootable file. If nothing is found then bootup proceeds from the HD. And no, I've not been into the BIOS for quite some time.

Because the system appears to be OK today, I'm wondering if what I encountered was a hiccup in the system because of to much work in too few of time. I've had that happen before.

Whatever it was, is, I'll have to keep an eye on it as it doesn't appear to be up and about so far today. So far, but the day is young.

That's very strange - but could have been a random hiccup.

I remembered I plugged in my flash drive, when helping someone with a flash drive question. So I plugged it in just a few moments ago. Ejected it, because a message said it wasn't ejected properly last time, everything seems fine.

Perhaps because the flash drive supposedly wasn't ejected properly yesterday that caused a glitch which started the no disk in drive a: error. I wouldn't think so, but anything is possible I guess.

Edit: Oh this is rich. I had just submitted this post when the "error: no disk in drive a:" message appeared. Love it. I'm going to reboot and see it that doesn't straighten things out. Then I'm going to insert, and eject, my flash drive and see if the message returns.

Homers6,

Since you don't use it anymore, I suggest to disconnect the drive a: altogether, I have actually done so in an XP I have.

mcc, I have given it some thought. I wouldn't have to disconnect the drive, just disable it by going into device manager. My only concern with this choice is that whatever is wanting to access the 3.5 drive will then report the drive missing. Thus opening another can of worms.

I did install and reject my flash drive, and still got the error message. However, after I rebooted the system the 3.5 drive activated but no error message occurred.

So I have come to the conclusion that it's just a coincident the message appears when the flash drive is installed. The flash drive is not involved with the problem.

I'm to the point I believe a setting is to blame, but where it might be is anyone's guess. I believe it to be a setting because it doesn't matter what disk is inserted into the 3.5 drive. My stored sound files disk doesn't have any bootable programs on it and it will satisfy a disk in the 3.5 drive.

Microsoft doesn't have an answer to this problem, I've checked. My next move will be to Google this problem and see what comes up.

Did you try to do a system restore, for before where the problem began ?

No, Cathy, I haven't done a system restore. I've loaded some things since it started and don't want to reload those things; not that I couldn't, just might not have the time.

I Googled the problem of "no disk in drive" and found a lot of listings. Surprising enough, even this thread.

Many people are having the same problem with getting error messages about no disk in the drive, mostly CD-ROM. Some people with Win 7 receive the message upon bootup, some when trying to use Sypbot, some other programs, but people have tracked the problem to a recent security update Microsoft released.

About 2 weeks ago I decided to go ahead and install the pesky update that keep coming up on my windows updater. Besides an authenticator program to check if you're using an authentic office product, it also included a security update. Phhh, security update, why not, I reasoned.

Well, I believe my problem started right then, but never showed up on screen because I had not installed my flash drive. It showed up in the Event Log, but for some reason the actual message never appeared on screen. Until the question of flash drives came up and I checked mine as a reference to what I was going to say.

After the flash drive was installed, and removed, something got the go ahead and started displaying the "no disk in drive" error message on screen. Getting rid of the message is only a matter of rebooting my system. But getting rid of the problem means undoing whatever the security update messed with.

However all is not lost. Microsoft has a fix that requires going to START>right click My Computer>choose Manage>choose Disk Management and choosing the offending drive. All you do then is to change the letter designation of that drive. Which is fine if your problem in on a CD-ROM drive, which my isn't.

Another fix mentioned on one site was to get into the Registry, go to a specific location, and change the value found there. No, No, No...not something this guy is even going to try.

Something I may end up trying, which mcc mentioned, is going into Device Manager and disabling the 3.5 drive. I don't know if this will cause other problems but until MS comes out with a permanent fix it may be my only option. Other than keeping a disk in the drive. Or not using my flash drive.

If you knew which program was trying to access the drive it would help narrow it down. I've seen AntiVirus software do this on occasion.

If you're feeling really adventurous you might want to try installing something like Process Monitor and letting it run in the background. It keeps track of all open file handles (and who owns them).

Another option would be searching the registry. Run REGEDIT and search for all items that contain a value of "A:".

Is that USB stick formatted or does it contain a setup program that's trying to install something?

I've toyed with the idea of installing Process Monitor, it's downloaded, but didn't have the whereforall to sit down and do it.

Yes, the flash drive is formatted, it came that way. I plug it in, it's recognized, it installs the software for itself, and I use it just like an HD.

As I said in my previous post, the overall consensus of the people on the sites I visited is that something in MS's latest security update is the problem. Because they didn't experience problems until the update was installed.

If the security update is indeed the problem would process monitor be able to find it?

It would.

Do you recall which update was applied when the issue first started? You can remove the update under Add/Delete Programs to see if it resolves the problem and then reapply it later. To see them, click View Installed Updates.

No, I don't remember which update was installed when the problem first started. Though I did see security updates were installed for Office 2007, but I don't have Office 2007 on this computer. So it got removed. Perhaps this was the problem but only time will tell.

The other security updates listed were Windows components for XP, which I do have. All the updates were for components that are installed, and were for some time.

I'll keep an eye on the system and see how it goes.

UPDATE: Removing the security updates for the non-existing Office 2007 on my computer didn't stop the 3.5 drive from activating.

So here's the 64 dollar question. How do I use Process Monitor to find out which process is wanting a disk in the 3.5 drive? I've run Process Monitor and watched the numbers on the screen change, I've watch the pretty spikes displayed on the graphs, but haven't seen anything that refers to finding a loose cannon.