h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My PC is old enough to still have a slot for floppy disks, albeit the small one, nit the very first, large ones. I don't have any disks I could put into the slot, though.

Our old computer had a slot for floppies, but the newer one doesn't. I bought a travel drive to download my pictures on. I want to get another one for the genealogy pages I have on the computer. I could put it all on one, but would rather separate the data.

I actually got the floppy so I could use the library computers. Normally I'd use a USB memory stick, but they don't have easy access to the USB ports.

Say, I wonder if my old uni still has computers with 5 1/4" floppy drives.

I have and old compaq portible (size of a small electric sewing maching) which still works and has twin 5.25 inch floppy, the old DOS 3.2 operating system, and a games disk too! its circa 1987!

I've got a ZX Spectrum, which must be early 80s. Haven't used it in a while mind. I've also got a Spectrum +3, with its 3" disk drive (sadly knackered).

I sometimes wish I still had an older PC, or rather, an older windows version, all the games I liked t play can't be installed on XP
On the other hand, I don't have the time to play games anyway

"If it's any consolation, you certainly aren't the first person to do that. It doesn't happen as often as it used to, however. For one thing, many of th epeople who lose their diskettes in the computers are afraid to ever come back. I do have a rather fierce over the glasses glare and no one does the disgusted librarian deep sigh better than I do" [Hypatia]

I thought you were going to say that patients don't lose their diskettes in the computers because computers don't come with A-Drives any more. The computer I am sitting at in my home does not have an A-Drive.

"Bel - quite apart from the possible reactions of librarians if I were to dismantle a PC in full view of the front desk, they keep the PCs in cages, making access tricky (some of them have bars almost in front of the disc drives), and I didn't have a screwdriver on me anyhow." [Bagpuss]

Poor Bagpuss! I hope you understand that the PC's are kept in cages because modern-day computers are too evil to be allowed to run around loose. Librarians are protecting the public by keeping the computers fettered

"We don't have our PCs in cages, Bel. But we do frown upon the patrons dismantling them. We have some patrons I'd like to put in cages." [Hypatia]

And well you might, Hypatia! Many of our patrons are more technologically savvy than I am. If we could somehow trap these patrons and make them work on the computers until they ran properly, we would all be better off!

Bel - Try dosbox for playing old games: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

It's free and I found it useful for Police Quest II.

I wonder if they've got my disk out yet.

It will probably be trapped in there til the end of time, Bagpuss .

Thanks for the link Bagpuss
The games I'm talking of don't run in DOS, they ran on Win 98, but don't run on Win XP.

Win 98 is what I had on my old computer at home, until it crashed and went belly-up a few weeks ago. I now have a computer with XP. It's faster than the old one--so far.

We had Win 98 for a very long time - practically virus free and running fine, but you can't get any updates for it anymore, so the hubby eventually installed XP

It was that way with my previous car, too: perfect blend of gas mileage, convenience, and ease of driving, but the manufacturer wasn't making enough money from making it, so they discontinued it

Yes, it's a shame, really. We can't get the software our scanner would need to run on XP - it's too old, and it was cheap back then when we bought it.

We had to buy a new scanner that was compatible with Win XP. The printer we have worked fine with it, but the scanner didn't.

We used our scanner seldom anyway, so we haven't bought a new one.

I really don't like the new one very well. We still have the old one hooked to the old computer so I can go to the basement when I need to scan something.

Well?

Did the floppy turn up?

I'm on Windows 98. It is being run on a computer which was found in a bin. Update, schmupdate....

zdt