G
Guest
Guest
Archived from groups: comp.sys.intel,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 09:58:34 -0500, keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:
>On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 21:52:58 +0200, cquirke (MVP Win9x) wrote:
>> On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 22:21:56 -0500, keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:
>>>Optical *and* cordless is even better.
>> Cordless and ball is really tragic - I had a client who spent up on
>> exactly that; geez, the shop must have been happy. I'd rather live
>> with a cord than have to add batteries
I also get fed up with dragging mouse cord, but I just snag it under
the monitor's foot to stop it escaping over the back of the desk!
>>>I'm not even sure why a put a floppy drive in this system
>One can boot a PC off a CDROM, so where's the beef?
It's inefficient to keeop an av on CDR updated for field work (this is
where bootable or reachable USB stick is better).
CD-ROM's also not a great place to do BIOS flash from, if this changes
the status of the UIDE interface.
>> More to the point, the NT installation procedure still prompts for
>> boot-needed drivers (S-ATA, RAID, SCSI etc.) off diskette. Until BIOS
>> support for USB is solid enough, I can't see a fix, as the optical drive
>> may well be on the same controller you are trying to drive.
>Again, CDROM.
If the boot HD's on a fancy interface that needs special drivers,
guess what interface the CD-ROM's likely to be on too?
>> Once USB sticks are as cheap as 1.44M (they are already for laptops, but
>> that's because laptop 1.44M are so costly) then we may see the shift -
>> but there's another gotcha to be fixed first.
>Dunno, a friend snagged a 256MB USB stick from Staples for $10. Last I
>checked that was pretty close to a floppy drive's cost and a tad larger.
Prices here are dropping, with regular specials, but nothing as cheaop
as that. Best is typically 128M at R 150 or so, which is about $25.
>> If a USB stick is bootable (as would be more often the case if we ditch
>> 1.44M) and is in the PC on boot or when OS is installed, it sometimes
>> scrambles drive letter allocation.
>SMOP. But again, don't all systems have CDROM drives? DOn't 90% of the
>new ones (where floppys could be eliminated) have CD-R or CD-R/W drives?
As I say; it's in transition. At present I still find 1.44M useful
for various maintenance tasks, including av, and obviously so when
dealing with older PCs (here, we see right back to DOS 3.3)
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Trsut me, I won't make a mistake!
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 09:58:34 -0500, keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:
>On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 21:52:58 +0200, cquirke (MVP Win9x) wrote:
>> On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 22:21:56 -0500, keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:
>>>Optical *and* cordless is even better.
>> Cordless and ball is really tragic - I had a client who spent up on
>> exactly that; geez, the shop must have been happy. I'd rather live
>> with a cord than have to add batteries
I also get fed up with dragging mouse cord, but I just snag it under
the monitor's foot to stop it escaping over the back of the desk!
>>>I'm not even sure why a put a floppy drive in this system
>One can boot a PC off a CDROM, so where's the beef?
It's inefficient to keeop an av on CDR updated for field work (this is
where bootable or reachable USB stick is better).
CD-ROM's also not a great place to do BIOS flash from, if this changes
the status of the UIDE interface.
>> More to the point, the NT installation procedure still prompts for
>> boot-needed drivers (S-ATA, RAID, SCSI etc.) off diskette. Until BIOS
>> support for USB is solid enough, I can't see a fix, as the optical drive
>> may well be on the same controller you are trying to drive.
>Again, CDROM.
If the boot HD's on a fancy interface that needs special drivers,
guess what interface the CD-ROM's likely to be on too?
>> Once USB sticks are as cheap as 1.44M (they are already for laptops, but
>> that's because laptop 1.44M are so costly) then we may see the shift -
>> but there's another gotcha to be fixed first.
>Dunno, a friend snagged a 256MB USB stick from Staples for $10. Last I
>checked that was pretty close to a floppy drive's cost and a tad larger.
Prices here are dropping, with regular specials, but nothing as cheaop
as that. Best is typically 128M at R 150 or so, which is about $25.
>> If a USB stick is bootable (as would be more often the case if we ditch
>> 1.44M) and is in the PC on boot or when OS is installed, it sometimes
>> scrambles drive letter allocation.
>SMOP. But again, don't all systems have CDROM drives? DOn't 90% of the
>new ones (where floppys could be eliminated) have CD-R or CD-R/W drives?
As I say; it's in transition. At present I still find 1.44M useful
for various maintenance tasks, including av, and obviously so when
dealing with older PCs (here, we see right back to DOS 3.3)
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Trsut me, I won't make a mistake!
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -