Windows - no disk error message help please

[happyhero]

Hi can anybody help me please, I keep getting this message every time I boot my PC,

WINDOWS - No Disk

There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive.

I have read loads about it on the net but cant seem to get a clear cure. It varies where people get it and how often but mine is every time I boot up and once it comes up you cant do anything until you accept the message by clicking continue.

I recently uninstalled Norton Internet Security which actually uninstalled quite well despite what you hear but then this message started coming up, so I think it may be related.

I have played about with msconfig but cant pin it down and I cannot find any stray Norton bits in the startup bit of msconfig.

Anyone any ideas please, I'm pulling my hair out by now and I can't afford to?

 

[Igorian]

Does the machine actually boot or does this message appear after Windows has started?

Does it appear in a dialog box? If so, any other information supplied, such as box title?

Did it start immediately after removing Norton?

Can you provide as much detail of your system as possible?

 

[happyhero]

Hi yes it boots quite a way in before this comes up, in fact most of the way, but to open email or IE you have to accept it first.

No box title only what I have said above already.

Yes I would guess it started immediately after removing Norton. Sometimes I leave my PC on for a day or two and therefore dont always spot something like this until I restart a day or two later.

I have a Medion PC with all those camera card slots, running XP home with the SP2 download a while back now. It has the HD drive partition from new into C D and E drives, this was to enable you to easily restore the PC to how it was when new.

Just a thought, is there a way I could boot up step by step once Windows is open so that I could see what brings the message up?

 

[Softus]

You say that you played about with msconfig.

Did you disable all startup items? If so, did the message still appear?

If not, then did you then use a systematic process of disabling/enabling startup items until you homed in on the problem item?

If not then what did you use msconfig for?

 

[Igorian]

Ok, one thing with Norton products, is that they don't uninstall well. Norton have a removal tool, which you can download from their site. It will get rid of any junk the installer leaves behind. It might be worth trying this, although I have not encountered the problem that you describe.

 

[happyhero]

You say that you played about with msconfig.

Did you disable all startup items? If so, did the message still appear?

If not, then did you then use a systematic process of disabling/enabling startup items until you homed in on the problem item?

If not then what did you use msconfig for?

Hi Softus and cheers for your input. Yes I don't know if I missed anything but I went through the items and it didn't seem to pin it down. I thought I had found it when I disabled "dit.exe" and the problem disappeared but then read on the internet that this was a needed process that identified drives or something similar, so when I put it back in it kept happening again. Will msconfig definitely pin it down, I'm thinking of going through it again to be sure.

Also Igorian, cheers for your advice, I have now downloaded and run the Norton removal tool but this did not succeed in getting rid of the problem.

 

[Igorian]

Ok, what spyware applications have you tried?

 

[Softus]

I thought I had found it when I disabled "dit.exe" and the problem disappeared but then read on the internet that this was a needed process that identified drives or something similar, so when I put it back in it kept happening again.

So what were/are the arguments being supplied to dit.exe?

Will msconfig definitely pin it down, I'm thinking of going through it again to be sure.

Not definitely, but in your case it sounds as though you already have [pineed it down].

 

[happyhero]

I use webroot for spyware as regular protection on my PC


See this link for typical info about dit.exe

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/startup/dit.exe/Dit.php

 

[Igorian]

It says it runs at startup. Are you familiar with regedit? Have a look at this key and see if there is a reference to dit.exe:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>MICROSOFT>WINDOWS>CURRENT VERSION>RUN. If so, export it (in case you do need it) and then delete the reference to dit.exe and then restart.

An alternative would be to download and run Hijack This and post a report for us to look at.

 

[happyhero]

It says it runs at startup. Are you familiar with regedit? Have a look at this key and see if there is a reference to dit.exe:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>MICROSOFT>WINDOWS>CURRENT VERSION>RUN. If so, export it (in case you do need it) and then delete the reference to dit.exe and then restart.

An alternative would be to download and run Hijack This and post a report for us to look at.

Cheers for your help Igorian, yes I am ok with regedit. I have looked in the registry as you directed but there is not a mention of it there.

It sounds as though you are directing me to remove dit.exe are you sure this is ok, because when you look this up on the net there are loads of references saying it is required and you must keep it?

It appears that something on my PC is looking for something on a drive, so wont removing dit.exe which looks for drives, just mask whats going on, ie what if another item is looking and causing this problem and I then remove dit.exe to stop it looking?

Also if I remove dit.exe and its there for a reason, it makes me wonder what wont happen that should in the future because its gone.

Hope I'm making sense here.

I can try to remove it by hunting in the registry which I am able to do.

Why are you happy to remove it when the net tells you you need it?

Also isn't Hijack for spyware, I have a strong suspicion that my problem is not spyware but a problem left from the removal of Norton?

 

[Igorian]

From what I have read, it's related to a card reader device. If you have such a beast, it might be worth re-installing the software/driver for this or seeing if there is a setting to disable augto read of the drive.

 

[happyhero]

From what I have read, it's related to a card reader device. If you have such a beast, it might be worth re-installing the software/driver for this or seeing if there is a setting to disable augto read of the drive.

Hi Igorian, right this is what I have done. I didn't think it was dit.exe so I thought I would try something. I unchecked all items in msconfig except dit.exe and I had no problem until I got to the last two items which both individually seemed to cause the problem strangely enough. I tried one and then the other independently.

The last two I had left were SKYPE and a file related to detecting my flatbed scanner, so I thought bingo, didn't know why it should be these but at least I found something but then something happened to spoil it.

Just as I thought I had it solved after a very carefully carried out process, ie not rushed, I then started the PC again for some reason and it came up even with the two suspect lines in msconfig unchecked.

Time to bang my head on the desk, what the hell is going on? It took ages to go through msconfig and now it seems for nothing. Please come up with something, I'm at a loss now what to try next.

 

[empip]

Shots in the dark ... Could be related.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q282470


Useful utilities from Sysinternals .. Recently acquired by M$.

Autoruns ... will allow one to prevent progs loading and restore with ease... As with most utilities here, requires minimal installation, just run the unzipped prog.. ...To view a location or entry in Explorer or Regedit chose Jump To in the Entry menu or double-click on the entry or location's line in the display...
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx
Process Explorer can run in unison.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx
This does not solve your problem but the tools (and others at the site) are very useful...

Elsewhere saw this with regard to an HP computer :-
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/11/29/497983.aspx
Note the comments.
If that doesn't help then Try this .... Lots of posts on the subject but no definitive answer it would seem.

 

[happyhero]

Cheers for the help empip. I have downloaded autoruns and got it running but I need some help with how to use it if possible please, to locate my problem.