Change drive start up order

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Guest

I rarely use my 3.5 A: drive and so on boot up and shut down it is diskless.
Because it is does not have a floppy inside, it grinds away like a lawn
mower on start up and shut down.

I understand the boot up order of drives is A: then C: and this is
controlled by BIOS. Can someone give me instructions at how to go into BIOS
and change the order of the drives booting up so I can stop my A: from
grunting way. Do I need special software to achieve this?
 
Depending on your computer, you hit F1 or Del during the start-up screen
(before the Windows Screen) to access the BIOS.

HTH

MD
 
If that doesn't do it, there are a couple other things that might work.
First, it's possible that the last time you did have a floppy in the A:
drive, you took it out before closing the application. IF that's the case,
try putting a floppy in, close it properly, then remove the disk.

If that's not it, I had a similar thing happen, it constantly sounded like
the drive was trying to read a disk that wasn't there and for me it turned
out to be..now, here's where it gets cloudy because it's been so long. It
was either the version of Norton AV, or Zone Alarm that I had installed that
was causing it.
I uninstalled both, and reinstalled and the noise went away.
 
Tony said:
I rarely use my 3.5 A: drive and so on boot up and shut down it is
diskless.
Because it is does not have a floppy inside, it grinds away like a lawn
mower on start up and shut down.

I understand the boot up order of drives is A: then C: and this is
controlled by BIOS. Can someone give me instructions at how to go into
BIOS
and change the order of the drives booting up so I can stop my A: from
grunting way. Do I need special software to achieve this?
Click to expand...


When you first start the computer, you should see a message on a black
screen that says "Press xx for setup" or something similar. This is the key
that opens the BIOS settings screen. Different BIOS brands have different
setup screens. There will be instructions (usually at the bottom of the
screen) for the keyboard switches. You can change the drive start up order
there.
 
I've been following this thread mainly on the part of the query
"instructions at how to go into BIOS
and change the order of the drives booting"
Nobody has answered that part yet.
 
Thanks for the info.

As Johnf as sighted can anyone give a blow by blow step on how to do this.
I'm specifically after changing the disk drive order - is it a matter of just
changing the order of "A:" with "C:" somehow? once you know where to find
it?

Can you/do you need to save the current BIOS onto a floppy in case of
disaster!!!

I got XP home edition, Pent 4.
 
Tony

Just a thought:
http://www.computerhope.com/cleaning.htm#06

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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Thanks for you thread Ivee.I had thought of your idea and tried that method.
In this case was not successfull.

Gerry - good thought. I'll follow that link and use. Maintenance is
something I forget to apart from virus/adware cleaning etc.

I've had computers in the past that made different amounts of noise when
moving parts are involved. If the 3.5 drive was totally silent I would not
have posted the thread. The Commodore 64 disk drive would make a teeth
chattering sound on boot up - and wake mum and dad when I should have been
asleep :-).

By changing the order of the boot up, i'm hoping the A: drive won't be
called upon as much. I want to resist disconecting altogether. Leaving a
floppy disk in it does help but I don't want the floppy to become an
incubator for viruses that might get a hold and spread thruough the boot up
routine.
 
Tony

There will be a reason for the system checking the floppy drive first!
Don't forget you can boot from a floppy if the system will not boot. The
reason could be a safeguard connected to this option. Perhaps someone
else will chip in on this point.

You can take the point of maintaining the floppy drive further in that
the drive may need replacement.


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Depending on what machine you have determines how you get to BIOS. I have a
DELL, the del key is my way in.
Restart the pc, as the screen turns blacks press the key ( tap it
repeatedly) as the system boots to the BIOS options. You won't be able to
use your mouse, then using the keyboard up, down, left right, arrow keys,
go to BOOT highlight that tab that is located along the top of the screen.
Key down to BOOT Priority. You will see guides on the left of the screen to
assist you in navigating. That's where you change your priority. Your
floppy will be called removable drive, and is likely listed first. If you
have any further questions post back.. I'm off to work. You might consider
having your cd-rom as your 1st boot priority. Hard drive is not a good
choice, because if there is a problem and you nee to use a your os disk to
get in, you might be out of luck..that is if your BIOS is faulty. Otherwise,
you can change those priorities whenever you like, to boot from any drive.
 
Being able to use the 3.5 as a backup to reboot for problems is powerful food
for thought. I hadn't thought of that. Now I think I would sooner have a
noisey computer than a silent one. I'll have a look around the BIOS just to
learn a bit more but I'll refrain from changing just at the moment.

I was recommended another web site to do just that:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/set/index-c.html

I have learnt from you all. Appreciate you thoughts.

Regards Tony
 
You can always change it back if you ever need to boot from the floppy, but
with XP installed, you're really more likely to need to boot from CD.
 
Tony said:
Being able to use the 3.5 as a backup to reboot for problems is
powerful food for thought. I hadn't thought of that. Now I think I
would sooner have a noisey computer than a silent one. I'll have a
look around the BIOS just to learn a bit more but I'll refrain from
changing just at the moment.

I was recommended another web site to do just that:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/set/index-c.html

I have learnt from you all. Appreciate you thoughts.

Regards Tony
Click to expand...
<snipped>

The first reply from Ivee mentioned Norton AV as a possible source of the
problem. Do you have Symantec's AV program on your system? If so, there is a
setting for Norton to scan all the drives on the system and deselecting the
"A" floppy drive will stop the intermittent access.
 
I do have Norton Internet Security 2005 which has Anti Virus in it. I don't
have an intermittent access problem with the A drive when I'm net surfing or
using programs that are stored on the hard drive or running off a cd rom. The
A drive remains motionless during these periods. It just relates to start up
and shutdown.

But in light of the ability to boot up using the A drive in times of troulbe
(which I hadn't thought of), I don't won't to burn the village to save the
villagers.
 
keep in mind, that in times of trouble, you can also boot from the cd drive,
thus eliminating your active sounding, but non-active A drive.
 
Sorry i didn't see you're post earlier or have access to it. so ill just
respond to this line.

Tony said:
I do have Norton Internet Security 2005 which has Anti Virus in it. I don't
have an intermittent access problem with the A drive when I'm net surfing
or
using programs that are stored on the hard drive or running off a cd rom.
The
A drive remains motionless during these periods. It just relates to start
up
and shutdown.

But in light of the ability to boot up using the A drive in times of
troulbe
(which I hadn't thought of), I don't won't to burn the village to save the
villagers.
Click to expand...
Norton AV scans the A: drive at shutdown.( i dont know about startup)
And if there's ni diskette in it, it will try over and over and over...
Did i mention it takes to long to get a clue when the drive is empty? (over
and over and over ....)

Go to NIS' Options menu and look for System | Auto-Protect | Advanced
and disable the shutdown scan

If your A: Drive is being accessed during startup, then check your startup
entries for any culprits,
it could be indicative of the present of some unwanted pest (virii, malware,
trojan. etc.)
Of course the above is only true, if you mean the drive is accessed sometime
during xp's
startup. IF it's before then, and just after bios post, then thats normal
and can be stopped by changing the Device boot order from within your bios.
 
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