Do you think we will get back drive a: and b:

[Metspitzer]

I am glad floppies are dead, but why can't we have drive letters a:
and b: back?

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Metspitzer.

"Metspitzer" wrote in message

I am glad floppies are dead, but why can't we have drive letters a: and b:
back?

They are here already! ;<)

Just use Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) to assign those letters to whichever
volume you choose (primary partition, logical drive in an extended
partition, optical drive, USB drive....).

My Drive A: is an external 3 TB drive; Drive B: is a USB thumb drive that
holds some backup files.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I am glad floppies are dead, but why can't we have drive letters a:
and b: back?

You can manually assign those letters to anything you like, through Disk
Management.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Metspitzer]

Hi, Metspitzer.

"Metspitzer" wrote in message


They are here already! ;<) That was fast

Just use Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) to assign those letters to whichever
volume you choose (primary partition, logical drive in an extended
partition, optical drive, USB drive....).

My Drive A: is an external 3 TB drive; Drive B: is a USB thumb drive that
holds some backup files.

RC

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

I am glad floppies are dead, but why can't we have drive letters a:
and b: back?

Why are you glad? No-one's forcing you to use them.

What happens if you, say, plug in a USB floppy drive? (In XP, a: just
appears.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Intelligence isn't complete without the full picture and the full picture is
all about doubt. Otherwise, you go the way of George Bush. - baroness Eliza
Manningham-Buller (former head of MI5), Radio Times 3-9 September 2011.

 

[Ken Blake]

I am glad floppies are dead, but why can't we have drive letters a:
and b: back?

See RC White's reply, but note that floppies aren't really dead. Most
(all?) brand-name computers these days come without floppy drives, but
if you build your own computer, or have one custom-built for you, you
*can* have a floppy drive if you want one.

I have a floppy drive on my custom-built computer, but to tell the
truth, I've never used it. This will almost certainly be the last
computer I'll have a floppy drive in.

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

See RC White's reply, but note that floppies aren't really dead. Most
(all?) brand-name computers these days come without floppy drives,
but if you build your own computer, or have one custom-built for you,
you *can* have a floppy drive if you want one.

I have a floppy drive on my custom-built computer, but to tell the
truth, I've never used it. This will almost certainly be the last
computer I'll have a floppy drive in.

I skipped the floppy drive, this time, but I have a USB external floppy,
just in case. After initial testing, I haven't had it out of the box.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Ken.

Yeah, floppy DRIVES are dead. But what about these hundreds of DISKETTES in
my office? :>(

There are both 5.25" and 3.5"; some are single-sided and in some ancient
format that nothing now will read. But there is a LOT of my history there,
which is now "lost in space" because I did not transfer it all to newer
media back when I easily could have.

I still have a combination floppy drive: it has two slots for inserting
either size diskette, and it still worked when I removed it from my former
computer. But my new mobo doesn't even have a floppy disk controller or an
FDD connector.

My old Tandy 2000 HD computer is still in my closet. It was my first
computer to run Windows (1.0, I think) after years of TRS-80 and TRSDOS.
Cost me $2,385 in 1985 - with many updates and add-ons after that. It came
with a humongous 20 MB HD and 2 floppy drives. I replaced at least one of
those floppies with a SyQuest removable cartridge hard disk - and now those
cartridges are unreadable, too.

All that is progress...I guess. ;^}

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Ken Blake" wrote in message

I am glad floppies are dead, but why can't we have drive letters a:
and b: back?

See RC White's reply, but note that floppies aren't really dead. Most
(all?) brand-name computers these days come without floppy drives, but
if you build your own computer, or have one custom-built for you, you
*can* have a floppy drive if you want one.

I have a floppy drive on my custom-built computer, but to tell the
truth, I've never used it. This will almost certainly be the last
computer I'll have a floppy drive in.

 

[James Silverton]

Hi, Ken.

Yeah, floppy DRIVES are dead. But what about these hundreds of DISKETTES
in my office? :>(

There are both 5.25" and 3.5"; some are single-sided and in some ancient
format that nothing now will read. But there is a LOT of my history
there, which is now "lost in space" because I did not transfer it all to
newer media back when I easily could have.

I still have a combination floppy drive: it has two slots for inserting
either size diskette, and it still worked when I removed it from my
former computer. But my new mobo doesn't even have a floppy disk
controller or an FDD connector.

My old Tandy 2000 HD computer is still in my closet. It was my first
computer to run Windows (1.0, I think) after years of TRS-80 and TRSDOS.
Cost me $2,385 in 1985 - with many updates and add-ons after that. It
came with a humongous 20 MB HD and 2 floppy drives. I replaced at least
one of those floppies with a SyQuest removable cartridge hard disk - and
now those cartridges are unreadable, too.

All that is progress...I guess. ;^}

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


in message



See RC White's reply, but note that floppies aren't really dead. Most
(all?) brand-name computers these days come without floppy drives, but
if you build your own computer, or have one custom-built for you, you
*can* have a floppy drive if you want one.

I have a floppy drive on my custom-built computer, but to tell the
truth, I've never used it. This will almost certainly be the last
computer I'll have a floppy drive in.

You *can* buy USB plugin drives for CD's and floppies (3 1/2, I've not
seen 5 inch). They are not even very expensive but I would start
transferring essential files soon before the media deteriorate.

 

[Paul]

Why are you glad? No-one's forcing you to use them.

What happens if you, say, plug in a USB floppy drive? (In XP, a: just
appears.)

What can interfere with that, is if a floppy controller is on the motherboard
and is still enabled (even with no floppy drive plugged in). You have to go into
the BIOS and disable it. I had that problem on a machine, when I was
using a USB floppy, and absolutely needed it to be a:.

Paul

 

[Metspitzer]

Hi, Ken.

Yeah, floppy DRIVES are dead. But what about these hundreds of DISKETTES in
my office? :>(

There are both 5.25" and 3.5"; some are single-sided and in some ancient
format that nothing now will read. But there is a LOT of my history there,
which is now "lost in space" because I did not transfer it all to newer
media back when I easily could have.

I still have a combination floppy drive: it has two slots for inserting
either size diskette, and it still worked when I removed it from my former
computer. But my new mobo doesn't even have a floppy disk controller or an
FDD connector.

My old Tandy 2000 HD computer is still in my closet. It was my first
computer to run Windows (1.0, I think) after years of TRS-80 and TRSDOS.
Cost me $2,385 in 1985 - with many updates and add-ons after that. It came
with a humongous 20 MB HD and 2 floppy drives. I replaced at least one of
those floppies with a SyQuest removable cartridge hard disk - and now those
cartridges are unreadable, too.

My first IBM compatible computer was a Tandy. I don't remember the
model. It had DOS built in. DOS at the time was 3.3 but the Tandy
machine only had something like 2.1. I always thought putting the OS
on a chip was a very good idea. The main advantage would have been to
be able to boot to 2.1 if the hard drive failed.

You would think that Windows could be put on a chip. In a way, I have
mine on a chip as I use a SDD drive. I always wanted a virgin copy of
Win 7 so if and when it gets unusable, I could start over without
having to re install the OS.

The Tandy had a external full height 60M hard drive. It was the size
of a loaf of bread and it was heavy. If I still had that thing, I
would like to compare it to a flash drive.

 

[Char Jackson]

You *can* buy USB plugin drives for CD's and floppies (3 1/2, I've not
seen 5 inch). They are not even very expensive but I would start
transferring essential files soon before the media deteriorate.

How essential can they be if they haven't been accessed in all these
years?

The trash can is right over there...-->

 

[Char Jackson]

See RC White's reply, but note that floppies aren't really dead. Most
(all?) brand-name computers these days come without floppy drives, but
if you build your own computer, or have one custom-built for you, you
*can* have a floppy drive if you want one.

I have a floppy drive on my custom-built computer, but to tell the
truth, I've never used it. This will almost certainly be the last
computer I'll have a floppy drive in.

I dumped my floppy drive around 1998-99. Even then, it had been years
since I had used it.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

You *can* buy USB plugin drives for CD's and floppies (3 1/2, I've not
seen 5 inch). They are not even very expensive but I would start
transferring essential files soon before the media deteriorate.

Another issue that is just as critical as the media degrading is that
as I understand it, the only manufacturer that made a critical part of
the floppy drive (read/write head as I recall) no longer makes them, so
the drives that are in the distribution channel are all that there ever
will be.

 

[Ken Blake]

Hi, Ken.

Yeah, floppy DRIVES are dead.

But what about these hundreds of DISKETTES in
my office? :>(

And that is the reason I have a floppy drive on my computer. So I can
read those old diskettes if I need to. But I haven't looked at one in
several years now.

There are both 5.25" and 3.5"; some are single-sided and in some ancient
format that nothing now will read. But there is a LOT of my history there,
which is now "lost in space" because I did not transfer it all to newer
media back when I easily could have.

I dumped all my 5.25s many years ago.

I still have a combination floppy drive: it has two slots for inserting
either size diskette, and it still worked when I removed it from my former
computer. But my new mobo doesn't even have a floppy disk controller or an
FDD connector.

I guess I'm lucky in that my motherboard has one.

My old Tandy 2000 HD computer is still in my closet. It was my first
computer to run Windows (1.0, I think) after years of TRS-80 and TRSDOS.
Cost me $2,385 in 1985 - with many updates and add-ons after that. It came
with a humongous 20 MB HD and 2 floppy drives.

My first computer was an IBM XT clone, back in 1987. It too had a 20MB
hard drive, but only one floppy drive. I never ran Windows 1.0. 2.0
was the first version I used, and I didn't use that very much.

 

[Ken Blake]

I dumped my floppy drive around 1998-99. Even then, it had been years
since I had used it.

I used mine much more recently than that, but I can't remember exactly
when or for what.

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

I used mine much more recently than that, but I can't remember
exactly when or for what.

I had one on my last computer which I mostly used to boot to DOS so I
could run some programs in real mode.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Hi, Ken.

Yeah, floppy DRIVES are dead.

Not quite, according to me. <g>
Ditto.
[]

I still have a combination floppy drive: it has two slots for inserting
either size diskette, and it still worked when I removed it from my former
computer. But my new mobo doesn't even have a floppy disk controller or an
FDD connector.

I have one of those two-slot drives in my desktop machine - it has moved
from machine to machine. I think the last time I used the 5.25" one was
to transfer some discs for work, who no longer had any suitable drives,
but that could be 10 or more years ago; I've used the 3.5" more
recently, but I think still not for some years. Nevertheless, I don't
imagine I'll discard the drive - I don't need the slot for anything, and
if nothing else it's now a curiosity!
[]
For interest: I still use (3.5") floppies on an almost daily basis at
work! It is for transferring log files from the (Windows 95-based, but
built into a rack of test equipment) system we use for testing some
actually quite advanced aeronautical equipment (the equipment itself
contains three computers, and a SSD). The test equipment works well
enough, and would be a pain to replace (we have several of these racks),
so we don't.

At the other end of the same room, they work on stuff for VC-10s - now
that _is_ old technology! (1950s I think: it has lots of lovely little
cogs and mechanisms ... no, Wiki says 1962. Still, it's old!) There are
still a few of the old things still flying. (9.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Everything you've learned in school as `obvious' becomes less and less obvious
as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the
universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute
continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.
-R. Buckminster Fuller, engineer, designer, and architect (1895-1983)

 

[DanS]

Hi, Ken.

Yeah, floppy DRIVES are dead. But what about these
hundreds of DISKETTES in my office? :>(

There are both 5.25" and 3.5"; some are single-sided and in
some ancient format that nothing now will read.

I'd venture a guess that at least 1/2 aren't even accessible w/o using some kind of
recovery s/w on them.

 

[Leon Manfredi]

I'd venture a guess that at least 1/2 aren't even accessible w/o using some kind of
recovery s/w on them.

Wonder if they will work with Ubuntu???
Have a disc coming, to put on an extra box...