Why the floppy drive makes noise?


My floppy drive makes noise. I don't know why. Can you help?


This question was answered on April 11, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

Computer floppy drive commonly make all types of noises that may be interpreted as bad noises Although this noise is commonly loud and can sound strange it is almost always a normal noise Below is a listing of some of the different times you may notice this noise.

Noise as computer boots

Each time a PC computer boots it will attempt to read the floppy disk drive to verify if a disk is in the drive and if present attempt to boot from that diskette.

Noise as computer accesses floppy

When attempting to access the floppy disk drive you should hear a noise of the drive detecting and then reading the floppy diskette

Noise when running software

Occasionally when running programs, utilities, virus scanners, games.. the computer will attempt to access the floppy drive Generally this is because the program has been written to open programs from the floppy or in the case of a virus scanner check the floppy drive to detect any computer viruses

Noise when computer shuts down

Microsoft Windows users may notice a noise coming from the floppy or the floppy being accessed when shutting the computer down This is generally caused by the Virus Protection scanning the floppy disk drive for any viruses before shutting down We highly recommend this as if a virus happened to be on a diskette within the drive and you were to boot from that diskette it is very likely the computer would become infected or that software would be erased

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Posted by olivia of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on April 11, 2003