Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to my mo

Hello. I have a question. Why is the installation procedure for Windows 7 much faster when I have my floppy disk drive connected to my motherboard then when I do not have floppy disk drive not connected to my motherboard??? I see when do not have floppy disk drive connected that at the beginning of the installation process, I get to the Windows 7 blue background screen with my mouse curser in the middle of the screen I as now having to wait at least 5 minutes before the “Install Windows” window appears. The “Install Windows” window would show up *in less than a couple of seconds* after the default Windows 7 blue background would appear when I have the floppy disk drive connected. Also when I do not have floppy disk drive connected I get the “Setup is starting…” for another 5 minutes later in the Windows 7 install process following by clicking on “Install now”. Overall the entire Windows 7 install process is much slower when there is no floppy disk drive is connected to the motherboard. Motherboard: Asus P5Q.

Questions:
1. Why is this the case?
2. Floppy disk drive technology is rather old technology therefore why would the “NEW” Windows 7 be searching for this older technology during the install process? Let’s face it; most new computers (desktop and laptops) do not have this older technology. Is install process longer with Windows 7 on the newer computers?
3. Is there a means for me to get the same or even faster Windows 7 install process WITHOUT having the floppy drive connected?

Please reply.

Thank you!

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

Thats weird...You wouldnt think it would have anything to do with it, maybe Windows 7 is looking for a rescue disk, boot disk or something and with a floppy disk in might bypass whatevers taking forever...I have no idea though.

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

It's probably looking for the floppy as was said so go into the BIOS and disable the floppy drive unless you really need it. 5min. is a long time to search for a device.:confused

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

Perhaps the Ide set up causes this-As it looks for all connectios to install
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14655
Techreport review shows


Asus has to opt for an auxiliary storage controller from Marvell to provide an IDE port. The Marvell chip also snakes a little eSATA love to the port cluster, but it isn't the only extra storage chip onboard. Asus also throws in some Silicon Image, er, silicon that has two SATA ports of its own that can be combined in RAID 0 and 1 arrays, or a combination of the two similar to Intel's Matrix RAID. What makes this RAID implementation particularly interesting is that the Silicon Image chip performs all array calculations in hardware and doesn't require any drivers. Arrays present themselves to the operating system as standard ATA devices that are, interestingly enough, connected to the Marvell chip's second Serial ATA.

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

Ouch! I missed P5Q part as I have the same board and disabling the floppy should work though I never had that issue on a default BIOS.:confused again.

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

Disabling the floppy in BIOS ought to fix this but why is it a problem? You normally would only install your OS once and that's it. :confused

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

Thank you for your replies.

Okay, many of your solutions make sense to me and several of you state to 'disable the floppy in BIOS' should be my answer to this issue. So it is the BIOS settings that are impacting Windows 7 install. Makes sense to me.

Okay, please tell me what are the steps I need to perform in BIOS for my ASUS P5Q motherboard in order to disable the floppy? I have been looking around in BIOS and I do not see this option, but I may be just overlooking it.

Please reply.

Thanks!

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

Hmm, it's right on the main page called 'Legacy Diskette A' listed with all your other drives. Hilite that, press enter and disable it, then save and exit, F10 and it will reboot.

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

Okay, I just called ASUS and I asked them about the disabling the floppy drive connector an they told me that there is none for my P5Q.

Therefore, I have to experience this s-s-s-l-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-w Windows 7 install when NOT to use the floppy drive and a 'snappy' Windows 7 install when I USE this floppy drive -- as simple as that for this particular motherboard.

I bet most of you here in this forum probably DO NOT HAVE a floppy drive connector on your motherboards (desktops) so you basically do not experience this issue anyways because Windows Vista/7 is not detecting it during YOUR installs -- therefore your installs are snappy. Those who HAVE THIS FLOPPY DRIVE CONNECTOR and DO NOT WANT TO USE IT HAVE TO experience this s-s-s-l-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-w Windows 7 install.

BOTTOM LINE: 'IF YOU HAVE IT, USE IT' (connect to a floppy drive) IF YOU CAN NOT DISABLE IT IN BIOS for a snappy Windows 7 and Vista too install!

Thanks all!

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

You may not be able to disable that drive in BIOS but surely you could change the BIOS boot order so that it does not get examined for bootable media during bootup?

 

Re: Why is the installation of Windows 7 faster when a floppy drive is connected to m

Hello. Based on the insistency of this issue from members here, I recalled ASUS Tech Support and this time I got a tech rep. that "knew" ('he') the answer to my question. YES, there is an option! Under "Main" menu, listed as "Legacy Diskette A" on my BIOS Setup Utility. The last rep. at ASUS didn't know what she was talking about. There is a means!

Answer is now solved.

Thank you for your help!!!