Recently I switched to Carbonite on two machines at home. After installing the software and starting the backup, I noticed that frequently something would be accessing the floppy drive (or at least trying). Googling around a little bit revealed that this was one of Carbonite’s “features”.

The two suggestions that kept coming up during my search were:

  • Insert a floppy, and Carbonite will learn that that drive is a floppy drive
    • Sorry, that didn’t work
  • Disconnect the floppy drive
    • Wait, and then open case when the drive needs to be used? Bad idea!!

There is a third option: disable the floppy drive in Windows.

If you open My Computer, you’ll see something similar to this:

Carbonite floppy

Notice the 3 1/2 Floppy - that’s the one making all the noise. But not for long!

Right-click on the icon, and select Properties from the drop-down menu. Click on the Hardware tab and select the Floppy disk drive.

Carbonite floppy properties

Click on the Properties button.

Carbonite floppy do not use

On the bottom of the screen is a drop-down box. Click on the drop-down arrow and change the selection to “Do not use this device (disable)”. Click OK.

Carbonite floppy no A-drive

Click OK on the screen with the 3 1/2 inch Floppy properties, and return to the My Computer screen. Your Floppy Drive A: should be gone, and with it the seeking Carbonite tries to do on it!