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For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

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Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#181

Post by dfox »

pwg wrote: post #38
bhavin wrote: post #17

One might wonder why the first two letters are for floppy and not HDD. If you follow the drive letters, going from A to higher alphabets generally give you evolution of technology (ignoring network map Z:). A: - floppy C:/D: - HDD E: - CD/DVD F: - External Storage

Because MsDos, at least in its early versions, could not dynamically assign new drive letters to newly inserted disks. So the workaround, which is still with us years later in Windows 7, was to reserve at boot time the first two letters (A/B) for drives with removable media (i.e., floppy drives, there were no usb flash dongles in those days).

And this was perfected in Windows 95 which always had drive A:\ visible in My Computer even on computers without actual floppy drive (in that case it was named "Removable drive", had generic removable drive icon and did nothing useful).

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#182

Post by kenjackson »

rapind wrote: post #139
cubicle67 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago I went back to school for a bit. One day I was sitting with my classmates, average age about 18, discussing our first computers. I mentioned I got started on a Vic 20 with a tape drive. Suggested someone, "Was that so you could listen to music while you coded?". Took some effort to convince them I wasn't pulling their leg when I told them that it was used to save programmes to

Vic20 here too. I think back like it was the golden years, but I vaguely recall some hanging during LOADING.

Ahh yes... did you have it to close to the TV, or were you too loud? I remember yelling at friends, "Man, you were talking too loud! That's why it didn't load. We gotta reload... 30 more minutes!!! Sheesh!"

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#183

Post by Vivtek »

NickPollard wrote: post #37
giu wrote: post #4

This question makes me feel old. And I'm in my early twenties.

One of my friends who teaches 11-16 year-olds recently had to explain to one of her classes what camera film was, and how it was used.

Ha! I took a Hungarian class with my daughter a couple of years ago; I think she was 8, which is why she needed me to sit in with her, given it was a college class at IU. (I should explain that her mother is Hungarian, and so this was more in the way of language practice and grammar instruction, not that my daughter is a super-genius. Although, of course, she is.)

Anyway, one of the dialog exercises was to talk about hobbies, and one of the hobbies was record collections, with a picture. She had absolutely no idea what the picture was supposed to be, until I explained to her that they were like CDs. The other students in the class exploded with laughter.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#185

Post by ANH »

NickPollard wrote: post #37
giu wrote: post #4

This question makes me feel old. And I'm in my early twenties.

One of my friends who teaches 11-16 year-olds recently had to explain to one of her classes what camera film was, and how it was used.

On a recent vacation I was photographing my nieces and nephew making funny faces. After the first shots they ran up behind me, looked at the back of the camera, and said, "Can I see?" They gave me bewildered looks when I told them it was a film camera and they'd have to wait a few weeks.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#186

Post by [deleted] »

jasonkester wrote: post #20
redthrowaway wrote: post #11

Who else remembers using the square punch to put a hole in those 3 1/2" AOL disks to reformat them as HD?

Square hole punches cost money. Scissors are already lying around the house. Sure, the results weren't pretty, but then pretty was not the stated goal. This was for 5 1/4" floppies, naturally. By the time 3 1/2" was the standard, I had a job and could simply requisition them as needed.

[deleted]

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#187

Post by Vivtek »

ja27 wrote: post #59
redthrowaway wrote: post #11

Who else remembers using the square punch to put a hole in those 3 1/2" AOL disks to reformat them as HD?

Remember punching single-sided 5 1/4" disks to make them double-sided?

I didn't have a punch. Scissors worked just as well.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#188

Post by technomancy »

jarek wrote: post #117
iwwr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB drives could use such a feature. write-lock : prevent it from beint written (and acquiring viruses) read-lock : prevent it from being read (and passing viruses), only showing the free space and being able to write only in the free space

SD cards have a write-lock. It always amazes me that it's purely physical and only a suggestion to the software.

Gotta love how the write-lock switch is positioned just perfectly so that inserting it knocks the switch into read-only position.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#189

Post by thwarted »

jdee wrote: post #138
raganwald wrote: post #116

Floppies!? Kids these days. My High School had an actual, physical computer, a Data General minicomputer. We used teletypes that printed on a continuous roll of cheap paper. The computer used removable media: 12" removable "Diablo" 5MB hard drive platters. One had four user basic on it, one had single user basic, and one was locked away with the software for grading students. Memory management was primitive: BASIC ra…

Luxury! I used to have to snip endless chads out of punched cards to represent the very zeroes and ones of the program i was writing! Thanks to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

You had zeros and ones? We only had ones, until one day someone discovered a zero when he accidentally subtracted two ones.

Re: For what are the Windows A:\ and B:\ drives used?

#190

Post by wallflower »

Also, not everyone was cool enough to have both A: and B:

And tape drives transfer speeds were 300? baud. Most people can read way faster and some can type faster.

I have many memories of working late in school labs, feeling that awful feeling when the sky outside gets light as it literally dawns on you you've been there all night, making backups on multiple floppy disks as you go...Bathed in the fluorescents

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