Windows - No Disk msg

[Zelpo]

Howdy all,

Recently reinstalled OS (XP) due to a nasty trojan crashing the OS; trying to get everything set back up. Updated windows to the max, latest drivers for the hardware. Also installed ZoneAlarm, AVG, SpySweeper, Microsoft Antispyware beta, and used Ghost 9.0 to back it all up so that I wouldn’t have to start from scratch again.

Everything appears good except that I get an annoying pop-up window:

Windows - No Disk
(X) There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive.
[Cancel] [Try Again] [Continue]

I’ll acknowledge it, but it comes back ~10 seconds later. No amount of Canceling/Trying Again/Continue will make it go away. I have no idea what prog is doing it.

Only odd thing on reinstalling everything is that for whatever reason the computer named my Zip drive to C: and my primary hard drive to E: They are on the same IDE cable, but the hdd is on the master end of the cable (black), and the Iomega is on the slave part (gray). Both drives jumpered to cable select.

Trying to change the lettering around, but I'm not having much luck finding a way in XP. Think that odd lettering scheme could have something to do with it?

Thanks

[Kov-Ice]

You can go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management and then click Disk Management. From here, it is possible to rename drive letters. I don't if you can rename your primary Windows partition or not, or if it would help for that matter. Is there a disk in the Zip drive when this happens?

[Zelpo]

Nope, that drive hasn't had a disk in it for years.

After much browsing in the hdd forum, I found that one should not install an OS with 'card readers' attached to the USB ports, as they take the C: designation while your primary hdd, for whatever reason, gets bumped down the letter designation chain. The drive letter from which your OS boots off of can not be changed. Nice.

Wish I would of known that before I spent the last two days getting this computer back to normal lol. Oh well, live & learn.

I had my HP 7550 printer plugged in during install, and it has a few card readers integrated into it. Whoops.

I think Microsofts antispyware program is what is giving me the pop up error. Looks like I either live with it, rid myself of MSASbeta, or reinstall the OS.

I'm open to other suggestions, should there be other options.

For instance, I found this on Microsofts site, but I'm a bit timid to do a lobotomy on my (sweaky clean) registry. Anyone attempted that before?

[glc]

I think it would be best to get a fresh start. Backup your data and wipe the drive. Do the reinstall with the Zip drive and all USB peripherals and card readers disconnected.