[comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware] Software looks at external 5.25" dirve unexpectedly

teexmmo@ioe.lon.ac.uk (Matthew Moore) (03/06/91)

We have a slight problem on some PS/2's with external 5.25" drives
(IBM 4869's, connected via expansion card, driven by IBM driver
$fdd5.sys).

The problem is that various proprietary software attempts to look at
the external drive, whether it is in the PATH, or not.
If there is a disk in the drive, the software is happy, if not, some
will hang, others will invoke the critical error handler (Abort, retry
fail).

What is that makes these programs inspect the external drive and what
can we do to stop it?

(PS/2's : various model 50's and 70's
 Software : Drawperfect, Wordperfect, Recognita, .....
 drives : IBM 4869's )