Saving files to Floppy Drive on network, it is possible?

[enosim79]

Hi, I am going to explain my problem.
I have two PC, I will call them Pc1 and Pc2.
Both have Windows 2000 Pro as Operating System.
Pc1 have no floppy drive and no usb ports but it is on same network with Pc2. Pc2 have a floppy drive.
On Pc1 I have a software that provides the saving of its output on a flpppy disk.
My question is: is there a registry key (on Windows 2000 over Pc1) that it is possible modify to redirect the saving files to floppy drive or even better to hard disk of of Pc2.

I hope I was been sufficiently clear.
Many thanks to anyone who will want to give me some useful information about my problem.
enosim79.

 

[vacunita]

I would think that would depend entirely on the software you are using.

Whether it can be redirected to save to a different location that is not a floppy drive.



If you have no a: drive (assuming of course that's where the software wants to save) you could create a Network Drive under A:\ that points to whatever location you want that is shared on Pc2

http://www.ohlone.edu/org/infotech/wireless/mapdrive2000.html

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[enosim79]

Dear Vacunita,
thank for support and for the suggestion that I appreciate and to which I had not actually thought.
However I would submit to you a further problem. In fact the drive a: on PC1 already exists.
In practice the unit is damaged and I am not able to replace it, then I return to my initial hypothesis:
could I redirect saved on the unit a: in any other network device by editing the registry?
Thanks again for your support

 

[rclarke250]

My question is why can't you replace the drive? If anything, why can't you move the working drive to the machine that has a non working FDD? It's like a 10 minute fix.

 

[vacunita]

could I redirect saved on the unit a: in any other network device by editing the registry?

Not sure whether such a change can be made through the registry.

rcalrke makes an excelent point. Adding a functional disk drive is quite simple. And may be easier that trying to override the A: location.

You could try to go to Drive Management and change the drive Letter for the non working floppy drive to something else, and then use the A:\ letter for your other location.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323967

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[flyboytim]

Just use the subst command to direct the output to a folder, for instance, for a folder on the n: drive, where n is a network drive.

subst A: N:\folder

Start your program with a batch file

program.bat

subst A: N:\folder
Program.exe

 

[guitarzan]

I'm pretty sure that subst and Drive Management will not work for floppies. I believe the letter is set in Bios, sand your choices are A: and B: (could be wrong though). And I'm assuming the OP is accessing the machine remotely, so changing a drive or changing bios settings may not be possible.

Registry keys are a possibility (google shows some examples), but I have no clue what keys to change and what would yield good results.

 

[flyboytim]

The BIOS establishes low level connections to devices, which are handled by interrupts and drivers to interface with the OS. The BIOS has no concept of drive letter assignments, which are essentially Microsoft/IBM PC standards. They are not found in Macs or Linux, even when dual booting on the same hardware as Windows.

In DOS, the drive letters pointed to Floppy A: Floppy B: Hard drive C:, and any other drives up to Z:. For compatibility, non-DOS based Windows kept the A-Z drive volume assignment system. It has been many years since Floppy drives have been routinely installed on PCs, they probably died out completely with Windows XP.

In NT and all subsequent Windows systems with NTFS, drive assignments are made in the registry, and can be quite arbitrary. In Device Manager it is possible to disable the floppy disk controller, and Drive A: will disappear from Windows Explorer, and even the Command console, even if the device is physically present.

Any of the 26 drive letters are available to real or virtual drive volumes, from network mappings to USB thumbdrives or internet cloud storage if wished.

Subst is an old fashioned, but usually foolproof method of mapping a virtual drive letter. It can be done even more simply by mapping a drive in a network using Windows Explorer, but I recall that Windows networking was sometimes less than friendly in the past, with Usernames and passwords sometimes being tricky in Windows 2000 and XP, even more so with mixed Windows versions on a workgroup peer to peer network.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z9hrr25sol2988t/2knetmapA.png