OT format disk in drive A?

Former user wrote on 8/24/2012, 2:01 PM
I have a 64 bit boot that I am playing with right now. Still primarily using 32 bit windows. When I booted the computer, it said I need to format the disk in Drive A. I have no clue what it is talking about since there is no physical Drive A.

Is this something I should worry about?

Dave T2

Comments

john_dennis wrote on 8/24/2012, 2:20 PM
Did the Windows 7 installer find any hard disks available to install into? Drive A is "always" a Floppy or other removable media. You don't want to format or install an operating system there.
JJKizak wrote on 8/24/2012, 3:15 PM
Hhhhmmm. I remember those old days with all of those Win 95 floppies.
JJK
Former user wrote on 8/24/2012, 3:27 PM
Yeah, I have Win 7 64 bit on a partition of my main drive. It is booting fine now. It just did it once, so I assume it is just some fluke in the system. I also had not upgraded to Service Pack 1 after installation. Had to wait for that to install.

Thanks
Dave T2
Chienworks wrote on 8/24/2012, 3:41 PM
It is possible to disable the assignment of A: & B: to removable drives, and this makes the primary boot hard drive become A:. Generally this is never done as it leads to a whole lotta confusion.
john_dennis wrote on 8/24/2012, 4:13 PM
"Generally this is never done as it leads to a whole lotta confusion."

Drive letters are cheap. I can afford to waste a couple to avoid that kind of confusion.
Chienworks wrote on 8/24/2012, 8:49 PM
Yep, there are 31 of them available.
dibbkd wrote on 8/24/2012, 9:26 PM
31? Are there additional drive letters in other languages? (serious question)

I only thought there were 26 possible drive letters available.
musicvid10 wrote on 8/24/2012, 9:54 PM
Dave,
You need to reassign the boot drive order in your computer BIOS.
F2 and DEL are likely candidates to get you into BIOS while booting.
Former user wrote on 8/24/2012, 10:03 PM
Musicvid,

Thanks, but I don't thin that is the issue because I didn't get the warning until I was already booted into Windows. It hasn't come up since that first time. I think something was wonky in windows.

Dave T2
Chienworks wrote on 8/24/2012, 10:07 PM
31 allowable drive letters:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _

I'm not sure that Windows recognizes those last 5, but MS-DOS is quite happy with them.
dibbkd wrote on 8/24/2012, 10:14 PM
How would you go about mapping a drive letter with [ \ ] ^ _ ?

You obviously can't do it from Explorer (it only allows A-Z), and when trying to map it with the "net use" command I get an "error 67" from the DOS prompt.
musicvid10 wrote on 8/24/2012, 10:16 PM
Dave,
At least check your BIOS.
Windows obeys that boot drive hierarchy, even if suppressed (as A and B always are). Kind of like the tail wagging the dog.
Chienworks wrote on 8/24/2012, 10:30 PM
Last time i tried it was probably back in MS-DOS 4 days. Assign allowed it, and after that you could prefix paths with those drive "letters".
Former user wrote on 8/25/2012, 7:56 AM
Checked Bios, Floppy A was enabled, but not in boot sequence nor is there anything connected. I had been playing with video cards and changed the power supply in between boots to 64 bit, so could be something in the device manager got confused.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Dave T2
john_dennis wrote on 8/25/2012, 9:23 AM
"Floppy A was enabled, but not in boot sequence nor is there anything connected."

That's what the message was likely telling you. If there is no floppy connected, you should turn it off in bios. Some bioses will stop and give you a chance to correct the configuration disparity. Typically F1 to continue, F2 to enter Bios Setup...
Former user wrote on 8/25/2012, 11:21 AM
John,

Thanks but this warning came after booting into Windows. It said it did not recognize the disk in drive A and did I want to format it.

Dave T2