My first personal computer was an Ohio Scientific C24P. I had to load BASIC into RAM using a 300 baud cassette tape. Beat that, ya youngsters!
For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
121–130 of 280 posts
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
A massive pile of legacy Windows stuff probably assumes C: is the boot volume. Windows has always had extensive backward compatibility, even if it requires tweaking to run 9x programs on XP and up. I often wonder how much better Windows could be if Microsoft were to choose to repeat OS X's innovation, which was almost completely severing backward compatibility.
> "A massive pile of legacy Windows stuff probably assumes C: is the boot volume. " Seeing as Windows has been bootable from removable drives and over networks for a long time, I sincerely doubt it.
When you read it as 'a massive pile of legacy Windows applications', which is reasonable, it's not a stretch to assume that many applications written in the last 20 years assume that the OS is on a harddisk, and on C: for that matter.
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#123Who else remembers using the square punch to put a hole in those 3 1/2" AOL disks to reformat them as HD?
My aunt did one better: she used a scissors to reformat a 5.25" disk as a 3.5" one. (Lesson learned: be excessively cautious when giving instructions.)
... so you've been doing this your entire life, eh? Guess that's why you're good at explaining thing to the technically non-inclined.
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#124Who else remembers using the square punch to put a hole in those 3 1/2" AOL disks to reformat them as HD?
Yep, or vice versa, put a bit of tape over the hole to make disks writable that weren't intended to be. Good times!
We did this on VCR tapes too. Little electrical tap over the broken tab, and bam -- you've got re-writable media!
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#125Knowing the answer and feeling somewhat nostalgic about it makes me feel old!
You can say that again. Reminds me of having to reinstall Windows 95 and swapping out 13-ish floppy disks. The good old days!
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#126I'm in my early twenties, and one of my earliest memories of computers was my Dad trying to get a book of stamps out of the floppy drive on his Amiga. Plus, who could forget installing Windows 95 from, what was it, 20 floppies? And now we buy 1Tb drives like it's nothing...
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#127Makes you wonder, when will the floppy be discarded as the icon for 'save'?
There's only a handful of apps on iOS that include a save button, and even of those that do include one, DocsToGo is the only one I can think of that uses a floppy for a save icon. It might be gone before you know it ... though I'd guess you'll still see it in Windows in 2020 or beyond ;)
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds a bit like you had a Sinclair ZX80. Been there, done that ;)
TRS-80 Model I: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80
I loved the TRS-80. We had some in my Jr High. We had an assignment to create some large ASCII art via hundreds of print statements and then print it out on the dot matrix printer.
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "A massive pile of legacy Windows stuff probably assumes C: is the boot volume. " Seeing as Windows has been bootable from removable drives and over networks for a long time, I sincerely doubt it.
When you read it as 'a massive pile of legacy Windows applications', which is reasonable, it's not a stretch to assume that many applications written in the last 20 years assume that the OS is on a harddisk, and on C: for that matter.
Prior to Windows 95 the preponderance of Windows programs were 16bit. Seeing as 16bit programs are not compatible with recent versions of Windows one can be reasonably assured that they are not in that vast pool of legacy applications.
Hand in hand with 32bit Windows came the registry, which is where most applications stored configuration information until relatively recent times.
To the best of my recollection, I have not seen an application or utility hard coded to C: since Windows 95. But I would be interested to learn of the actual examples which support your assumptions.
Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?
#130Who else remembers using the square punch to put a hole in those 3 1/2" AOL disks to reformat them as HD?
My first stab at being an entrepreneur was buying normal 3.5" disks, stamping holes in them and selling them as pristine 3.5" HD disks. Let's just say it was less successful than I'd hoped.
My first stab at being an entrepreneur was buying up used floppies for pennies slapping a blank label on them and selling them for $1 a piece. But I was a pushover so most people could bargain me down to $2-3 for a pack of five.