Funny, after a clean reinstall of Me (launched from a 98 cdrom) it tells me that I have a 5 1/4 drive, but I haven't even a 3''... and the 5 1/4 is impossible to remove, it appears that it automatically replaces it at start-up. Anybody got an idea on this?

what your saying makes no since at all. windows only detects cdrom and hard drives. not the size, are you talking about your bios? anyway, try device manager and see what going on for your cdroms.

I've never been able to install windows without a floppy drive. That's what happens to me when I try. I never found a way to stop this even after searching the net. some expert advise http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q205859 a drive being listed and not actually there can cause big time problem. like freezing when trying to access it. best advise sorry to say get a floppy drive or at least something that acts as one. TheGorx TheGorx - Windows Help

you might try here http://www.onecomputerguy.com/registry_tips.htm#hiding_drives but I think I might have tried that once before. but good luck anyway.

Wow, thank you TheGorx - your link to Microsoft helped me to understand what's happening. Well, seems that nothing else can be done. This non-existant drive does not cause any trouble appart that when I click on it it takes ages to get the response 'drive a unavailable', so I will let it be (I tried to connect an old floppy drive but the bios didn't recognize it, it is probably defect). many thanks for your help!

make sure the floppy cable is on correctly also I had one motherboard that I had to select the type of drive/size manually in the bios for some reason, it did not auto detect it. but it worked fine after but I think windows still showed a 5 1/4 drive at first.