A:\ is not accessible. Incorrect function

[Karljuergen]

Some time back, I began to run out of free space, and my CD-ROM, burner, and floppy drive all became inaccessible. For the A drive I got the message

A:\is not accessible. Incorrect function

I didn't realize it had to do with freespace, since there was no warning, but more or less found out by accident.
When I deleted things to create more freespace, the CDs and floppies came back to life.

This happened to me again just last week, and once again I deleted everything in sight that was deleteable. The CDs *seem* to be operational (it was on again off again for a while), but the A drive is still inaccessible.

Can't be freespace, I have over 2Gb free. How to I get XP to wake up again?

Thanks

K

 

[linney]

Does the device manager show the floppy drive as working properly?
If not it has troubleshooting and driver options.


Try going into the Device Manager and remove the floppy drive controller there. Reboot and let the system detect/reinstall the controller.

315350 - "Incorrect Function" Error Message When You Access the CD-ROM Drive, DVD-ROM Drive, or CD-RW Drive

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315350&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

324129 - HOW TO: Troubleshoot Issues That Occur When You Write Data to a CD-R or CD-RW Optical Disc in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324129&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[Karljuergen]

Device manager shows the device as functioning properly. Troubleshooter didn't suggest anything useful.

I already tried deleting the device and having it reinstal, several times. No good. I didn't try removing the controller, I can try that.

(After my earlier post I remembered that since I have dual-boot with W98 (I hardly EVER use it) I could test the drive from there to rule out physical drive damage. Worked fine.)

Will let you know the results of above attempt.

K

 

[Karljuergen]

No good. I'm afraid the links to MS Support were not relevant either. I searched the site some more to no avail.

Also just noticed the CDs are off-line again. Although, when I insert a CD, the CD inserted icon flashes on and off a few times and then disappears; but when I try to access it, nothing doing. I found the other day that if I insert a CD before I boot up, it seems to be available after boot-up.

All very strange.

 

[linney]

I wonder if this is more of a hardware problem than software. Perhaps a loose connection inside your box?

How about some details of your machine, is it a Laptop with battery problems?

Your comments about "free space" would only (i think) apply to CD writing using the inbuilt CD software, but even that should not stop the floppy from working. What information have you discovered about this?

If you have been clearing space, it is always possible you have been too aggressive and removed something vital.


Some general things to try.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

 

[Karljuergen]

I don't think it could be a loose connection in the box: a) I resolved it the first time by increasing the freespace from 400 mb to 1.2 Gb, and it didn't resurface until I started running low again. Also, the box has not been moved. And, as I say, the A:\ drive works fine from W98; and the CD drives will acknowledge and process CDs if placed in their bays before booting up. And XP actually recognizes the presence of floppies (as seen in the change of the A:\ icon) but doesn't let me access them. Definitely seems like a software problem to me.

Could be that I was too agressive with the cleanup, but I don't think likely.

The machine is a PIII-450 desktop with 20Gb in the XP (D) partition; 52x CD-ROM and Yamaha 24x burner.

I've thought of doing a Windows reinstal but am procrastinating because a) that's really time consuming b) I don't really want to lose all the updates. So I'm trying any and all other options in the mean time.

Tried the scan (interesting suggestion since it requires accessibility to the CD!) and managed to get the CD recognized (I had booted up with a CD in the bay, and when the CD is removed, 50-50 chance the new one will be); didn't find anything, but my floppy drive now seems to work!

Weird...

 

[linney]

For future reference.

Any files replaced by SFC are usually mentioned in your Event Viewer. Might be worth a look in the Event Viewer anyway incase you have other errors or clues in there.

SFC /Scannow can be made to use just the harddrive but your CD files must have been copied to the harddrive first and you must change the Source Path.

Check This Registry location.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Have a look at the Value for SourcePath and see what it says.


As to your main problem, you will often find that Windows 98 is much more tolerant of minor faults than the more complicated XP operating system.

The intermittancy of it makes it very hard to solve. You can check your RAM out (how much have you got?) via this free program which boots from a Floppy!

http://www.memtest86.com

Maybe someone can lend you another CD Writer to try in your machine. Even changing to different brand of CD might do something. Make sure the speed specifications of Cd's match your burner.

 

[Karljuergen]

Hi again

Thanks for the info. I haven't rebooted yet, so no idea whether or not the fix is stable. RAM is 384 Mb btw.

I doubt that the CD-Writer is to blame, since it, the regular CD-ROM, *and* A:\ are all exhibiting the same symptom (I omitted to check whether W98 read the CDs properly; and I also have a 5-1/4 B:\, which clicked when I tried to access it, before crapping out--unfortunately I didn't have a diskette handy to see whether it could read from that drive [am in the middle of a move, and those have been packed and sent away...])

You help much appreciated.

K

 

[Karljuergen]

Checked Event Viewer. Under System events, I found, between the start and end of "Windows File Protection" (which appears to be a log of the scan) the following error:

The System Restore filter encountered the unexpected error '0xC0000056' while processing the file 'shell32.dll.new' on the volume 'HarddiskVolume2'. It has stopped monitoring the volume.

That's the only anomaly I could see.

 

[linney]

You might want to check System Restore is still functioning, if it is not you might have to turn it off then on again to get it going.

PS. Have you thought about treating yourself to a new computer? Excuse my humor.

 

[Karljuergen]

Is the humour caused by the 5-1/4 legacy drive or the PIII (or both)?

I've thought about replacing it many times, but couldn't afford it. However, my new job as of July 1st will shortly be landing me a Toshiba Satellite laptop running at 2.2 (or is it 2.4) GHz, so I think I will be back in the modern world...

System restore seemed to have only two restore points (today and yesterday) so I turned it off and back on again.

(I still haven't rebooted from yesterday. I should do that and see whether I still have A and so on.)

 

[linney]

I wasn't having a go at your machine, only the fact that you seem to be stumbling from one fault to another, all in the middle of a "move" too.

 

[Karljuergen]

Tsok! The last time I had major problems with this (or the previous? can't remember) machine was in the middle of a move, too... It just proves that Murphy is the chief engineer of Windows and the universe in general! (can't speak for Mac, have never had one)

BTW I did a reboot earlier today, and the A:\ drive is still functional. The regular CD-ROM just recognised and autoplayed a music CD, the CDRW didn't autoplay it but showed the files and I was able to play one.

So at the moment, it seems to be more or less back to normal. Odd, because the only thing that really happened was that scan which didn't spill any messages....

So thanks a lot!

(you seem to be very active in this forum... if I'm not mistaken, you've answered some question(s) of mine before)

K

 

[Ronwill]

I have a similar problem!

No access to 'A' drive - have even replaced the drive.

Access to DVD and/or CDRW only if there is a disk in the drive at boot-up. Then if i change disks the drive becomes inaccessible again until re-boot with the selected disk.

Norton, Windows explorer and all other software recognised i have the drives, they dan't access then unless as above (except A drive - onlt time that picks up is if i have a disk in it on re-boot, then it also becomes inaccessible).

Have: XP Pro, A7A133 motherboard, ALiM1647 chipset, AMD Athlon 1.4 processor, 2 hard discs, CDRW, DVD, A drive.

Problem only recently occured, only activity was updates from Microsoft for XP - no other changes.

Any ideas? Have swopped out the drives, all worked in back-up pc....

Ron

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314060

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q314/0/96.asp&NoWebContent=1