Enabling floppy disk access in Windows XP's Recovery Console

Don't let Windows XP's "Access Denied" error message deter you from copying a file from the hard disk to a floppy disk. Greg Shultz fills you in on a workaround that allows you to enable write access to a floppy disk from within Recovery Console.

Have you ever been on a troubleshooting expedition in Windows XP's Recovery Console and wanted to copy a file from the hard disk to a floppy disk? Is so, then you've encountered the "Access Denied" error message, which informs you that by default Recovery Console doesn't allow write access to removable media such as a floppy disk. However, there's a workaround that will allow you to enable write access to floppy disk from within Recovery Console.

Follow these steps to enable floppy disk access in Recovery Console:

1. Launch the Group Policy console (Gpedit.msc).
2. Click Computer Configuration, open Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies and double-click Security Options.
3. Locate and double-click the Recovery Console: Allow Floppy Copy And Access To All Drives And Folders policy setting.
4. Select the Enabled option button and click OK.
5. Exit the Group Policy console.
6. Launch Recovery Console.
7. At the command Prompt, type the following command and press [Enter]:

set allowremovablemedia = true

Note: Floppy disk access is disabled by default for security reasons and removing this restriction can be considered a breach of operating system security. As such, you may want to reverse this change at a later date.