Windows - No Disk

Here’s a tip to save you hunting for the solution to fix this “Windows no disk” problem in Windows XP (UPDATE: changing the drive letters works in Vista too), at least if it’s to do with your card reader, or CD or DVD drive.

UPDATE - summary added, history moved to end: This problem seems to be caused either by malware (virus or spyware etc), or by software following a Windows update or some other software installation or uninstallation (particularly HP, Norton or QuickTime software) trying to check for removable media that isn’t there (e.g. disc in DVD drive or card in card reader), when it shouldn’t be doing that check.

So if you get this error message, try these steps (UPDATE - in whatever order you like, bearing in mind 5 is probably a less than satisfactory last resort, but by all means try 4 before 2 if you prefer):

1. scan your computer with a virus checker and anti-spyware etc - try more than one product (e.g. there’s also NOD32 ESET), clean any infections and reboot

2. if that doesn’t work, try changing your drive letter assignments as shown in the step by step howto below - this works for lots of people

3. if that doesn’t work, try uninstalling your floppy drive as shown below - or just always keep media in all your drives, though the next two steps are preferable if they work

4. then try making your software stop looking for drives: e.g. uninstalling and reinstalling an upgraded (or latest possible) version of QuickTime; similarly with your Norton and HP software if you have any, and clearing your most recently used documents or files lists

5. last resort: make the error message go away. This doesn’t fix the problem, it addresses the symptom not the cause, so it really is a last resort if you can’t fix it any other way, but if you’re being driven mad, it’s better than nothing.

For the step by step howto for the various suggestions above, here’s the link for the rest of the article: http://www.consumingexperience.com/2007/11/windows-no-disk-exception-processing.html