On Apr 29, 5:56 pm, Stan Hilliard
wrote:
This started in the last few days. The empty floppy drive (A grinds
away for about 10 seconds at startup. What could have caused this and
how can I stop it?

Information will be appreciated.
Stan Hilliard
OS=Win98SE

Just to get another cause posted, I offer this knowing the solution
has been already found:

Q272242 - Floppy Drive Is Accessed When You Open My Computer
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=272242

This one affected me some months ago and I really had to search to
find the cause. "Open My Computer" is not what I normally do, I
instead go straight for Windows Explorer and then had to endure 15
seconds of thump - thump - thump. How my NoDriveTypeAutoRun value got
changed is still a mystery, but it had and was driving me nuts.