Check for a floppy disk in the drive before rebooting a remote server

Submitted by Rollie Hawk on Tue, 2006-01-24 14:22.

If you ever have to reboot a server remotely, be sure to check whether or not there is a disk in the floppy drive. It's customary on a server to disable booting to floppies in the BIOS, but on a remote server that you have not personally configured, you can't be too careful.

This will help to prevent late night road trips, downtime, and frustrations that are totally unneeded.


( categories: Tips )
Rollie Hawk is a consultant, web publisher, online personality, magazine writer, web developer, network administrator, teacher, husband and father residing in southern Illinois. He graduated in 2002 from Southern Illinois University, earning his BS majoring in math with a minor in chemistry.

Rollie is a certified math teacher with endorsements in chemistry, physics, and physical science and has taught students of all age groups and abilities, ranging from grade school to the university level. In addition to math and science, he has also taught GED, job skills, and alternative high school classes (his personal favorite).

After the birth of his daughter in 2004, Rollie decided to spend more time at home. This meant leaving his teaching position and devoting his working hours exclusively to consulting, web development, and general IT work.