Every now and then when I am sitting at my Windows XP system, an annoying error message just pops up out of nowhere. The title bar is a seemingly random four-digit hexadecimal value followed by “qttask.exe – No Disk”. The text of the message says “There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive XX:.” At the bottom is the typical Cancel, Try Again, and Continue buttons.
The most annoying thing is that none of the button choices do anything to actual remove the error. The error message cycles back and forth showing an error message first for drive XX:, then for drive YY:, back and forth, over and over, at least 16 times.
Yes, that’s right — 16 times!!
That’s when I decided to do something about it.
But before I destroyed it, I had to find out more about it.
The qttask.exe program is a simple program that lets Apple’s QuickTime software (often bundled with iTunes) show up in the Windows taskbar. To me, the taskbar only needs to store the system’s volume control and be a place where I get a visual indication when I get mail. To hëll with everything else!
You’ll find solutions all over the ‘net that tell you (1) which registry entry to edit to stop qttask; (2) what option in the Control Panel to set; (3) to deselect the checkbox within the QuickTime software that says to display the control in the toolbar; (4) to remove and reinstall. None of that advice really matters or works. You think simply deselecting the checkbox will actually stop it from running in stealth mode?! Ha! Sooner or later, just like that bad apple MSN Messenger (that uses Microsoft’s own questionable sticky tactics), qttask will also eventually pop back.
The solution: Use the Task Manager to end the qttask process. Rename the qttask.exe file in your QuickTime directory to something else; you can even delete it as it is not used to play or view any QuickTime-associated data. Reboot. Simple!
Thanks for the help Richard. I’ve finally gotten rid of the qttask message. I uninstalled the program. QuickTime have no business creating a program which gives such a bad error message (cannot find disc!). Really sloppy, and REALLY annoying. I decided to completely uninstall and use a more professionally written program to view movies. Cheers!
I too have encountered this problem on more than one occasion. I was lucky enough to find your ‘fixes,’ however; I would have to agree with Mike (above) that it should not be ‘on the market’ as free or otherwise until a fix is issued by Apple. I visited their website and left a nasty Feedback note regarding that. I, too, am uninstalling as I type and will not use their products again! The more comments that they receive maybe they will accomplish something.
There’s a program out there called QuickTime Alternative. Google knows where to find it. It lets you use windows media player to see quicktime movies. When you’re at it, you might as well get rid of RealPlayer or it’s more evil succesor RealOne. RealAlternative lets you see Real Media files without need for the spyware called RealPlayer.
Thank you so much. I finally have a stress-free computer. Really do follow the first point. It seemed a bit unclear the explination – Just find the Quicktime folder in your program files folder and find the fle qttask and then rename to something like qqtask1. Thanxs again guys!
My instruction to “simply rename the qttask.exe file in your QuickTime directory to something else” stands since not everyone installs QuickTime into their Program Files directory. I sure don’t. But I’m glad the solution worked for you! Cheers! – RDL
I too got rid of Qttask.exe which has actually stopped the message popping up at random. clearing the recent history in quicktime also helps but after a while the error comes back after watching a few movies when actualy launchin quicktime. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just once but it’s about 16 times at once.
Thanks Richard. I tried the renaming strategy and the annoying message is gone (It has been one week now!)
I developed this same annoying problem after udating my Quicktime on XP Pro. I renamed the qttask.exe to qttask1.exe as suggested,rebooted and it worked like a charm. Thanks so much for all the info.
Same problem-same simple solution- you are awesome!
I echo the thanks above. Worked great for me as well!
Hey, thanks for the fix. Here’s everything Apple has on this problem: “Your search for All Documents containing qttask.exe returned no results. Please search again or try our Guided Search.”
Renaming or deleting Qttask.exe did nothing to fix the annoying popup box on my system. I did what one user suggested above… go to file/open recent and clear menu. That did the trick. I have also found a program called Media Player Classic that works great with .mov files and pretty much all other video files. Get it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli
Getting rid of QTtask and removing it from my msconfig startup did not fix this problem, only clearing the recent files did it. Yes, I had rebooted and everything, I’ve done this pretty thoroughly. Getting rid of qttask seemed to temporarily curb the problem, but it came back and the file was still gone. As I said, clearing my recent files was the only way around the problem. I guess we all had played a movie file from a cd rom recently.
I did not have this problem but used exactly the same mechanism to stop that dratted M$ messenger.
You’re fix worked for me too, and I’m so greatful. Just got an e-mail from my daughter: “The error I get when I open AIM is AIM.EXE-No Disk There is no disk in the drive. Please inert a disk into driveDeviceHarddisk1DR34 then I hit cancel and it says the same but DR36, then DR37. ” I’m going to have her try your fix – Have you heard of this one also? Sounds like the same thing.
Have renamed qttask.exe, deleted it and still get the no disk error message. takes forever to get rid of it. sometimes quicktime pops up but can’t run it as an hourglass keeps turning over it. So can’t clear its memory. Help! Pete
I had a windows system file that was also named qttask. just do a search of qttask and you should find it.
Hi. This annoys me too. Good to find another approach to disabling “quiet” programs. Hey RDL. In an earlier comment you said, “My instruction to “simply rename the qttask.exe file in your QuickTime directory to something else” stands as not everyone installs QuickTime into their Program Files directory. I sure don’t. But I’m glad the solution worked for you! Cheers! – RDL You said “I sure don’t” I was wondering where, if not in program files, you do install quicktime, and what is the benefit of not installing it in program files? Thanks. hammer.
here’s Apple’s solution: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93687&sessionID=anonymous|486180&kbhost=kbase.info.apple.com%3a80%2f
Use this sequence. Quicktime, File, Open recent, Clear menu. Then Click Start, Run, type: MSCONFIG In the window Choose: Task Schedular and uncheck, click apply. Then choose: Startup and uncheck ‘qttask’ click apply. This will resolve the problem.
amendment to my previous solution: Use this sequence. Quicktime, File, Open recent, Clear menu. Then Click Start, Run, type: MSCONFIG In the window Choose: Services, Task Schedular and uncheck, click apply. Then choose: Startup and uncheck ‘qttask’ click apply. This will resolve the problem.
RE: Quicktime 6.xx No-disk error with WinXP sp1 Fix Open quicktime: ‘keep clicking cancel in that error window until it closes’ Use this sequence: File, Open recent, Clear menu. Then Click Start, Run, type: MSCONFIG In the window Choose: Services, Task Schedular and uncheck, click apply. In the same window choose: Startup and uncheck ‘qttask’ click apply. Restart computer. This will resolve the problem. Unfortunately task schedular will not be available automatically for other tasks, you will have to do this manually. The error window will return as soon as you view .mov files on other drives if you don’t use this sequence. NB: Do not change qttask.exe file names as others have suggested. I paid for quicktime pro. I’m sure Apple can add a fix for this problem soon and give me a discount on a new 17 inch powerbook. Neil
That OPEN RECENT >CLEAR MENU fixed my quicktime re-occuring Insert Disk message. Thanks to the RDL!
I really appreciated the comments about QuickTime Alternative and RealAlternative that let you see those formats in Windows Media Player. However… I have a problem with WMP that keeps me wedded to those other players. At some point during the movie, the WMP screen goes black, though I can still hear the sound. If I replay the clip, it goes black at the same place. I’ve googled myself silly and haven’t been able to find a reference to this problem. Has anyone heard of this? Is there a solution??
Here is the soluton.. 1) Be shure to “Clear Menu” in “Open Recent” from the File Menu in Quicktime Player 2) Open the (hidden) folder: “C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataQuickTime” 2) Right-click on the file: “QuickTimeFavorites.qtr”, choose “Properties” 4) Enable checkmark on “Read-only” in Attributes, click “OK” 5) No more recent file list in Quicktime 😉 6) Good Luck!