Floppy works at home but not at library

[Leenie]

Okay this is a weird one and maybe this isn't the right forum but here goes. A lady was in the library here last night with a floppy that had her resume on it in Word format. She had just worked on it a couple of hours earlier at home and her office and came to the library to print it. However when she tried to access the floppy (on 4 different pcs here) she got the message that the disk wasn't even formatted. She swore the disk was fine. She went home and was able to access the file and work on it and save it and came back to try and print it and the same thing happened. Can anyone think of a reason why she could access the floppy at home, the office and Kinko's but not on our pcs here?

Thanks.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
One comes to mind..She has a MAC and Kinko's are Windows..
Or,maybe, her home PC is old and formats in low density,which may not be recognized by newer drives..





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[Leenie]

She swears it's not a mac. She says it's Pentium I and ours are Pentium IV's so I guess your second idea is correct. I guess her work pc is also old and that's why she can access the files there too. I'm not sure why Kinko's can access the files because I would have thought they would have all new equipment.
Thanks.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Drives differ in their capability and some may be more flexible in the formats they can read..This is all just a guess, however, so an actual examination of the Floppy's properties is warranted..After she inserts in in a drive that can use it, ask her to right-click and check the properties...




To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[Leenie]

And what should she look for? Under the general tab or somewhere else in properties?

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[PalmTest]

When you format a floppy on a PC in the library and give it to the lady, can she access the floppy at her home?
An alternative could be to use a USB memory stick instead of a floppy.

 

[Leenie]

I didn't try giving her one of our formatted floppies as I didn't realize she was going to come right back to the library. Would she have been able to use a Pentium IV formatted floppy on a Pentium I?

Currently it is not our policy to allow memory sticks, but we may in the future.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[Enkrypted]

It could be a restriction of some sort. I know the libraries in my area are locked down as far as that is concerned to keep people from loading stuff onto the computers that they shouldn't be.

One idea is if you have internet access, she migh tbe able to e-mail it to a yahoo account or something and retrieve it there.

Enkrypted
A+

 

[Leenie]

I tried it on my pc which is completely wide open and couldn't access it there either. After I went home last night it occurred to me as well that I could have told her to email it to at hotmail account and then come back and access it that way, but 1, I don't know if she has internet access at home and 2, I didn't realize she was going to come back right away.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[JacksonGuy]

Floppy drives have different read heads in them which can cause them to work in one but not another. This is one of the reasons that they are very unreliable. If the read heads of the floppy drive do not come close to the read heads on the ither drive it will cause them not to read each other. As far I know there is nothing that you can do to fix that problem, thus as was recomended use a USB memory drive.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi, When the right-click is showing the properties, in the General tab, what is the size and File System shown..





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[Leenie]

Okay, I will ask her next time she comes in. I just looked at one of my Pentium IV formatted floppies and it says 1.38 MB and file system FAT. What will hers say do you think?

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[Turkbear]

Hi, Hard to tell..
By the way, the Processor ( Pentium 4 or whatever ) is not related to what floppy drive hardware, drivers or formatting is involved..These are manufacturer specific and will vary even between systems from the same company.

Use the Device Manager to see what the actual Floppy drive in your PC is..








To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[gmmastros]

Turkbear,

You suggested in a previous thread that not all floppies are created equally. This might explain why the computer at Kinko's can read the floppy, but not at the Library.

I suppose, since we are talking about public access to a computer, it would be best to offer the widest range of accessibility. Are there any specs regarding floppy drives that someone should look for.

Since floppies are inexpensive, it might make sense for our librarian friend to purchase a floppy drive that will read most (if not all) floppies. I suspect that Leenie is not really interested in this one particular case, but is concerned about a repeat occurance from another patron.

-George

Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause. - Fortune cookie wisdom

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Way beyond my level of expertise...Sorry...

Perhaps some hardware guru reading this may know..





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[dkediger]

Yes - Alignment differences between floppy drives will produce problems like this.

In the past - and when dealing with floppies that's been a long time now - Teac/Toshiba/Panasonic brand floppy drives seemed the most "universal."

If the computers in question are whitebox clones, chances are very good that the floppy drives are pretty cheap generic brands.

Look at these, if you need sources for good drives:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=380122

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=407105

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=313110

 

[linney]

Floppy Disk is Not Accessible, Not Formatted, or Not Recognized by Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...ticles/q140/0/60.asp&NoWebContent=1#appliesto

Very Strange... Floppy not readable in XP????
thread779-453058

http://oalinfo.tamu.edu/faq/faq_print.asp?faqID=25

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...ia+Descriptor+Byte%22%2Bformat%2Bwindows%2Bxp

 

[Leenie]

Thank you all for your expertise. I am very happy to at least find out what the problem was. Hopefully the patron will return and I can explain it to her as well as she was very confused/annoyed/frustrated.

We may have to insist patrons use our disks formatted here and/or look into the Teac/Toshiba/Panasonic brand floppy drives for future pc purchases.

Thanks again everybody.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[micker377]

If she comes back, ask her what OS she is using at home. Some floppys formatted on XP can't be read on other computers, and vice versa (something about a missing bit on one of them).

 

[MiggyD]

I recently started working for a library (part-parttime) as their IT. We have AD and the public is logged on as with group policies in effect.

If possible, check out the AD's GP for your [public]'s profile and locate "disable floppy access" and set to "not configured". I'm not currently there, but can check tomorrow and give you the pathway, if you are still interested.

--MiggyD

--> It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's an OS update patch! Ahh!! <--