Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

boginjr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–37 of 37 posts

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#31

Post by b112 »

b112 wrote: post #21
zabzonk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Dad had a floppy on his C64 and it was terribly unreliable, but (once again) less unreliable than the cassette deck that I was stuck with. He loved gadgets, but really only used it to play "Hunchback" and similar games. I often thought "Shall I hit him over the head with a hammer and steal it, so I can create some truly brilliant software?", but I never did.

I wonder about these posts citing c64 and Amiga floppy reliability issues. Was around both for 10 to 15 years, in computer clubs, ran a punter bbs, worked repairing/selling amigas for years, reliability was awesome, unless one had the rare a bad drive. Were you lot running 1541s, 71s? Were you living under power lines, beside a power station, and your mom loved fridge magnets? :P

Hmm.

I wonder why the dichotomy. Where I was, it seems the inverse.

Data points re: 1541 reliability:

* all were early adopters, but moved to the Amiga within a year of A500 release. So there is an end-time bracket here.

* I had a VIC20, was an early C64 adopter, and most people I knew were too. So, a start time bracket.

* all drives were bought in Canada

I'm thinking, maybe source plant for drives, PLUS, maybe earlier bought drives were more robust/more expensively made. Fewer cost saving measures?

So hard to tell now. :/

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#32

Post by mbalyuzi »

zabzonk wrote: post #4

I seriously got into computing in 1979, working for the Microbiology Department at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, using Research Machines 380Zs, equipped with both 8 and 5.25 inch floppy drives. Here are a few of my observations on the beasts: - They required quite a lot of strength to open and particularly to close - some of our students were scared they were going to break them (and the cost a lot b…

Ha, I pretty much got into computing around then as a kid when my dad would bring one of those very same QEC 380Zs home for the summer vacation. Or a Commodore PET, with the built-in tape drive.

Loved the mad clicking between the floppy drives when copying files around with pip.

Memories...

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#33

Post by louwrentius »

airhead969 wrote: post #18
louwrentius wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Dutch, we always talked about 'diskettes', when talking about the rigid 3.5" disks. The large 5.25" were called floppies. Diskettes were called floppies too sometimes, but never the other way around. I'm from the time frame in which I never saw 8 inch floppies. The 5.25" were on the way out, many PCs had both 1.44 and 1.2 MB drives for a while. /rambling

8" were very floppy. ;-) We, in Silicon Valley, used "floppies" to mean "5.25 or 3.5 inch disks." (Confusing, yes?) And, we used "disks" to mean "any type of storage media, fixed or removable." Also, "diskettes" meant "the formal name of 3.5 inch floppies." I think this is the same nomenclature.

Yes, I think it's mostly the same with more emphasis in NL on the 'diskettes' but that's about it.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#34

Post by louwrentius »

p_l wrote: post #22
louwrentius wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Dutch, we always talked about 'diskettes', when talking about the rigid 3.5" disks. The large 5.25" were called floppies. Diskettes were called floppies too sometimes, but never the other way around. I'm from the time frame in which I never saw 8 inch floppies. The 5.25" were on the way out, many PCs had both 1.44 and 1.2 MB drives for a while. /rambling

At least in Poland, the PC culture seems to have ended up calling both 5.25" and 3.5" "dyskietka" (lit. "diskette"). "Disk" tended to be encountered in "official" names used by OS software (so, "disk A:" etc.) but at least I never encountered "disk" to refer to anything other than hard drive since ~1992 or so.

Exactly the same for The Netherlands. A diskette/floppy was never a disk. Only hard drives were called disks.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#35

Post by zabzonk »

mbalyuzi wrote: post #32
zabzonk wrote: post #4

I seriously got into computing in 1979, working for the Microbiology Department at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, using Research Machines 380Zs, equipped with both 8 and 5.25 inch floppy drives. Here are a few of my observations on the beasts: - They required quite a lot of strength to open and particularly to close - some of our students were scared they were going to break them (and the cost a lot b…

Ha, I pretty much got into computing around then as a kid when my dad would bring one of those very same QEC 380Zs home for the summer vacation. Or a Commodore PET, with the built-in tape drive. Loved the mad clicking between the floppy drives when copying files around with pip. Memories...

Would that have been Hushank (sp?) Balyuzi? I remember him well.

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#36

Post by mbalyuzi »

zabzonk wrote: post #35
mbalyuzi wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, I pretty much got into computing around then as a kid when my dad would bring one of those very same QEC 380Zs home for the summer vacation. Or a Commodore PET, with the built-in tape drive. Loved the mad clicking between the floppy drives when copying files around with pip. Memories...

Would that have been Hushank (sp?) Balyuzi? I remember him well.

Yup

Re: Using 8-inch diskette drives with a PC

#37

Post by zabzonk »

mbalyuzi wrote: post #36
zabzonk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would that have been Hushank (sp?) Balyuzi? I remember him well.

Yup

Oh well, if he still around (I'm nearly not - heart) please remember me to him (he may well not remember - we didn't work very closely together) - I'm Neil Butterworth, used to work with Dr. Mick Bazin.
Post reply on HN