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OK, it may not be the floppy drive itself, but...

Every time I boot Windows (doesn't happen in Linux) my floppy drive light comes on and starts buzzing. It happens about 2-3 times before it finally stops. I'm thinking it's virus-related, but is it a virus trying to infect it or my AV app trying to scan it? (BTW, neither one should be happening) Ctrl+alt+delete doesn't show anything unusual, but in case it helps:

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  • Explorer
  • Mxtask (looked this up, it's part of VCom AV)
  • TeaTimer (part of Spybot)
  • Hidserv
  • Systray
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by mmiikkee12

Dani AI

Generated

Brief expert summary: because the drive spins only while Windows is loading and the behavior persisted after you removed the trojan, this is far more likely to be a Windows startup program/driver or a shell extension polling A: than a dying drive. Hardware problems usually show up at BIOS/POST or from other OS boots; a Windows-only symptom points at software.

Quick triage (in order)

  • Boot Safe Mode (use the F8/boot options on Windows 9x/ME). If the drive stays quiet, a startup item is the culprit.
  • Do a selective startup with msconfig (Start -> Run -> msconfig) and disable nonessential entries. Re-enable items one at a time until the access returns to find the offender.
  • Inspect Startup items and the Run keys in the registry (export a copy first). Also check the Start Menu Startup folder for shortcuts that reference A:.
  • Use Autoruns to see every thing that starts with Windows, and use Process Explorer’s handle search to locate any process touching A: — that will tell you which program is probing the drive. Autoruns (Sysinternals) · Process Explorer (Sysinternals)

Other checks and cautions

  • Look in AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS for any A: references or environment variables pointing to A:. Some older utilities and scripts still reference A: explicitly.
  • If disabling software doesn’t stop it, temporarily disable resident scanners/antivirus while you test (do this offline and take care—back up data first).
  • Before editing the registry or deleting files, export keys or make a full backup. If the cause remains elusive, an offline scanner or clean OS reinstall is the safest cleanup path.

Note to : since you already removed malware, focus on startup inspection and Autoruns/Process Explorer to quickly identify which process is accessing the floppy.

Member Avatar for mmiikkee12

I just had an excellent idea... run my AV app with definitions from this year...
It's already found a trojan horse, I'm waiting to see if there's anything else.

Also, I keep seeing odd-looking messages on my screen for a fraction of a second while shutting down. Sometimes it's an orange message in the middle of the screen (I think this is the "it's now safe..." screen) and sometimes there's a little gray bar at the top with some black text in it, but both go too fast for me to read. Is it a virus, or my eyes going bad?

Member Avatar for mmiikkee12

Removed the Trojan, it still tries to access the floppy drive at boot.

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