Strange Floppy Behavior

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil Ginsberg
  • Start date Start date
N

Neil Ginsberg

I have a situation with my PC where my floppy drive starts going without
anything done by me. It will go for about 30 seconds, as though someone or
something were trying to read from it or write to it. It happens
sporadically, sometimes in the middle of the night.

I am running Windows XP Home, and I have Norton Personal Firewall running
with a dial-up connection. The floppy drive phenomenon only happens when I'm
connected to the Internet, and if I tell Norton Personal Firewall to "Block
all Internet traffic", the floppy drive activity immediately stops.

So, clearly, this is something from outside my machine doing what to it, I
do not know. But, obviously, something's going on, and I'd like to find out
what. I've tried looking at Task Manager processes when it happens, to see
if I notice any unusual processes, but I haven't seen any.

Is there a way I can determine what is causing this?

Thanks!

Neil
 
Quoth the raven Neil Ginsberg:

You have multi-posted this message. Please cross-post if necessary,
but don't multi-post. Thanks.
http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/unice.htm#xpost
I have a situation with my PC where my floppy drive starts going
without anything done by me. It will go for about 30 seconds, as
though someone or something were trying to read from it or write to
it. It happens sporadically, sometimes in the middle of the night.

I am running Windows XP Home, and I have Norton Personal Firewall
running with a dial-up connection. The floppy drive phenomenon only
happens when I'm connected to the Internet, and if I tell Norton
Personal Firewall to "Block all Internet traffic", the floppy drive
activity immediately stops.

So, clearly, this is something from outside my machine doing what
to it, I do not know. But, obviously, something's going on, and I'd
like to find out what. I've tried looking at Task Manager
processes when it happens, to see if I notice any unusual
processes, but I haven't seen any.

Is there a way I can determine what is causing this?
Click to expand...

You haven't stated what other steps you may have already taken, so why
don't you start by looking for trojans, spyware and the like. Run the
first three programs listed here, and report back.

http://home.rochester.rr.com/bshagnasty/tips.html#spyware
 
So you're saying that this is a trivial thing that someone or something is
accessing my floppy drive through the Internet, and I should just forget
about it and get laid? Is that your suggestion?
 
I have run Norton Antivirus and Ad-Aware.


Beauregard T. Shagnasty said:
Quoth the raven Neil Ginsberg:

You have multi-posted this message. Please cross-post if necessary,
but don't multi-post. Thanks.
http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/unice.htm#xpost


You haven't stated what other steps you may have already taken, so why
don't you start by looking for trojans, spyware and the like. Run the
first three programs listed here, and report back.

http://home.rochester.rr.com/bshagnasty/tips.html#spyware
Click to expand...
 
Who said that it is a virus or a hacker.

You are ASSUMING this and is most likely a faux conclusion.

Dave





| So you're saying that this is a trivial thing that someone or something is
| accessing my floppy drive through the Internet, and I should just forget
| about it and get laid? Is that your suggestion?
|
| | > Buy some Viagra.
| > | >>I have a situation with my PC where my floppy drive starts going without
| >>anything done by me. It will go for about 30 seconds, as though someone or
| >>something were trying to read from it or write to it. It happens
| >>sporadically, sometimes in the middle of the night.
| >>
| >> I am running Windows XP Home, and I have Norton Personal Firewall running
| >> with a dial-up connection. The floppy drive phenomenon only happens when
| >> I'm connected to the Internet, and if I tell Norton Personal Firewall to
| >> "Block all Internet traffic", the floppy drive activity immediately
| >> stops.
| >>
| >> So, clearly, this is something from outside my machine doing what to it,
| >> I do not know. But, obviously, something's going on, and I'd like to find
| >> out what. I've tried looking at Task Manager processes when it happens,
| >> to see if I notice any unusual processes, but I haven't seen any.
| >>
| >> Is there a way I can determine what is causing this?
| >>
| >> Thanks!
| >>
| >> Neil
| >>
| >
| >
|
|
 
On that special day, Neil Ginsberg, ([email protected]) said...
my floppy drive starts going without
anything done by me. It will go for about 30 seconds, as though someone or
something were trying to read from it or write to it.
Click to expand...

Anti-Virus scanners do this, to make sure there is nothing inserted with
an (outdated) boot sector virus on it. How are your AV settings?

Maybe your AV "wakes up", because your firewall noticed something, and
started it usual routine.

I cannot imagine why anybody from the net should be interested in the
contents of a drive which is usually empty, and only in very rare cases
used.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)
 
Neil Ginsberg said:
I have a situation with my PC where my floppy drive starts going without
anything done by me. It will go for about 30 seconds, as though someone or
something were trying to read from it or write to it. It happens
sporadically, sometimes in the middle of the night.

I am running Windows XP Home, and I have Norton Personal Firewall running
with a dial-up connection. The floppy drive phenomenon only happens when I'm
connected to the Internet, and if I tell Norton Personal Firewall to "Block
all Internet traffic", the floppy drive activity immediately stops.

So, clearly, this is something from outside my machine doing what to it, I
do not know. But, obviously, something's going on, and I'd like to find out
what. I've tried looking at Task Manager processes when it happens, to see
if I notice any unusual processes, but I haven't seen any.

Is there a way I can determine what is causing this?

Thanks!

Neil
Click to expand...

Make sure Norton isn't set to check the Floppy on shutdown.

Try looking under Options,AutoProtect, Advanced in Norton System Works.
Also, try inserting a floppy disk and looking at its contents in Explorer. Then
switch to another drive.
Sometimes if a floppy is used to install a program and then is removed before
switching to another drive, that program may try to access the floppy drive (or
something like that, I seem to recall).
 
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