nihil -
The reason I used the term 'load' was because that was what praveendasika used to describe what I interpreted as 'copying' the information from the floppy to his hard drive. Could be I assumed wrong (wouldn't be the first time!). It isn't how I would describe the process. I probably should have asked for clarification. I DO know that you can't write to a locked floppy although . . . I did read an article once that said some virii CAN write to a locked floppy during boot up. And, before anyone blows a gasket about me not referencing the site where I found it . . . I gave my ONLY copy of the article to someone and they never emailed the URL back to me for my references (another lesson learned!). Sorry - it was a few years back when I was trying to clean a system with a nasty trojan infestation. I only found the one article saying it was possible but the author said it was done by the system accessing a CD drive first (didn't need to have a disk in the drive), then the floppy drive with the locked disk inserted. At the time, I was looking for everything I could find having to do with a boot up or Master Boot Record virus. I apologize for getting a bit off subject.

I didn't know there were floppy drives which would take a 40 pin cable or that it was possible for a floppy drive to be mistakenly ID'd as a hard drive. Interesting stuff - thanks. Again, I apologize for the earlier confusion.

V.