Microsoft KB Archive/268084

= Error Message When You Start with More Than 2 Floppy Disk Drives =

Article ID: 268084

Article Last Modified on 1/27/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q268084



If this article does not describe the error message that you are receiving, view the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to view more articles that describe error messages:

315854 Windows 98 and Windows Me Error Message Resource Center



SYMPTOMS
When you try to start your computer, Windows may stop responding (hang), and you may receive the following error message:

While initializing device IOS: Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.



CAUSE
This issue can occur if three or more removable floppy disk drives are attached to your computer and enabled in the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). The versions of Windows that are listed earlier in this article support the use of only two removable floppy disk drives on startup. Although some computers have the ability to specify and enable more than two of these drives, when Windows starts, it is unable to support this number, and generates the error message that is listed earlier in this article.

NOTE: The three floppy drives could be a 1.44, universal serial bus (USB), and an LS-120. If only two are enabled in any combination, no error message is generated.



RESOLUTION
To work around this issue, do not connect more than two removable floppy disk drives to your computer.

Additional query words: ls 120

Keywords: kberrmsg kbhardware kbprb kbwinprotecterr KB268084

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