Unable to remove Floppy Drive from ESXi Virtual Machine

Problem: Removing the floppy drive and saving the VM configuration, the floppy drive would automatically appear again.

Solution: Shutdown the VM and unregister it. Manually edit the vmx file, find one or more lines similar to the below and delete them:

floppy0.startConnected = “FALSE”
floppy0.clientDevice = “TRUE”
floppy0.fileName = “vmware-null-remote-floppy”

Then add a new line :
floppy0.present = “FALSE”

Save and overwrite the old vmx file in the datastore, then re-register the VM. Your floppy drive should now be gone.