RE: tictech: floppy disks

From: Hand, Tony (tghand@seattleschools.org)
Date: Wed Apr 30 2003 - 15:35:02 PDT

  • Next message: Tobiason, Thomas: "RE: tictech: why it just sits there..."

    -tictech message:

    Dear Folks,

    >
    > Here's a problem we are having. Any ideas?
    >
    > We put a floppy disk into one of our new Dell student
    > computers, and it says
    > that the disk is not formatted-- would you like to format it
    > now?

    Is it just doing this on one student computer (you only mention one)? If
    so, you could have a computer with a malfunctioning floppy drive. What
    happens if you put the disk into other student computers?

    Virginia has touched on an issue that has been the source of some problems
    in my area through the years, namely: use and misuse of floppy disks. Some
    general thoughts on how one might approach floppy disk difficulties:

    I have found that floppy disks will sometimes give an error in some
    computers and not in others. Assuming that the computers themselves do not
    have problems, I usually assume that the disk is going bad when this
    happens, and make sure that I copy all the contents of the disk onto
    whichever computer I can get to work to save the data from loss.

    If, when you try to transfer files from a floppy to a computer and one of
    the files won't copy, it generally indicates a corrupted file. At that
    point, you might try Scandisk or a Norton's disk utility to repair it - but
    be prepared to spend some significant time with dubious results. Given
    these two factors, your first question to the student will probably be
    whether they have a backup and do they think an attempt at disk repair is
    important. I often let the student babysit the process of disk repair if I
    am short on time.

    We have had lots and lots of problems with students saving their only copy
    of valuable data on floppies which they then toss into their purses or
    backpacks: often with sad results. I counsel students to put their floppy
    disks in disk holders before transporting the disk, and always to save to
    the harddrive before saving to a floppy or printing.

    These days, I try to avoid floppy disks whenever possible, favoring instead
    USB flash pen drives, CD burners or shared folders from a server.

    Hope this is useful for some...

    *** tony

    Tony Hand
    tghand@seattleschools.org

    This is a
    > disk that has been used successfully in the CWS machines, and in my
    > librarian's laptop. What could be the reason that the student
    > computers
    > can't read it?
    > Thanks!
    >
    > Virginia Allemann
    > Librarian
    > Salmon Bay School (formerly COHO*NOMS)
    > (206) 252-1737
    > vaallemann@seattleschools.org
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > -end tictech message. To join, leave, or visit
    > the message archive, go to tictech on the Web:
    > http://www.earthdaybags.org/tictech/
    >
    >

    Mark Ahlness
    mlahlness@seattleschools.org
    www.earthdaybags.org/mahlness.htm
    Arbor Heights Elementary School
    www.arborheights.com

    -end tictech message. To join, leave, or visit
    the message archive, go to tictech on the Web:
    http://www.earthdaybags.org/tictech/



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