I have a theory that computers are sentient beings who wait right until you need them to mess up! Maybe they've been planted by aliens to watch our responses under stress (or maybe I've been watching too much of the Sci-Fi Channel!) :lol:

Anyway, right as I'm writing my massive "The Lady of the Lake in Arthurian Legend" research paper, my floppy disk drive breaks down. It wouldn't open the disk, and worse, it messed up the disk so that no other computer in the whole world will open up my paper! :rolleyes:

I took the tower to "Staples" and for $60.00 they inserted a new disk drive. But it still wouldn't work. So I took it down there again. The disk drive appears to work at "Staples" when it's hooked up to a computer, but it won't work at my house! :brickwall None of the computer gurus at there can understand it. They've never heard of this problem. :wail: Just to have one of their computer repair guys come to your house starts at $100.00. :blueeek:

And now I have lots of papers I have to write! What do I do?!?

*Eowyn resists killing her computer with her sword and freaks out, running around in circles*

:blueeek: That's so horribly frustrating! Sometimes I'm surprised we don't all throw our computers out the window on a regular basis. I'll try to send good computer vibes your way.

But I think it's so cool you're doing a paper on my namesake :grin:

I have a theory that computers are sentient beings who wait right until you need them to mess up! Maybe they've been planted by aliens to watch our responses under stress (or maybe I've been watching too much of the Sci-Fi Channel!) :lol:

Anyway, right as I'm writing my massive "The Lady of the Lake in Arthurian Legend" research paper, my floppy disk drive breaks down. It wouldn't open the disk, and worse, it messed up the disk so that no other computer in the whole world will open up my paper! :rolleyes:

I took the tower to "Staples" and for $60.00 they inserted a new disk drive. But it still wouldn't work. So I took it down there again. The disk drive appears to work at "Staples" when it's hooked up to a computer, but it won't work at my house! :brickwall None of the computer gurus at there can understand it. They've never heard of this problem. :wail: Just to have one of their computer repair guys come to your house starts at $100.00. :blueeek:

And now I have lots of papers I have to write! What do I do?!?

*Eowyn resists killing her computer with her sword and freaks out, running around in circles*


They wanted HOW MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Floppy drives are very cheap to buy here (in fact if you lived in the UK I've got one I'd happily give you) and given that fitting them is a couple of screws and two plugs...

Did it work in Staples with the same disk that doesn't work at home? I actually dont' think that diskettes are made as well as they used to be, we have lots of failing disks at work, and disks that work in one machine but not others, whereas I've got disks I used on my old Atari STe in the early 1990s that will work fine in my new p4 and in every computer I've owned in between. My advice would be to use a USB pen drive instead, they can carry a whole load more data and are far more robust and portable. You could I'm sure pick one up for a lot less than $60

Computers are indeed evil demons trapped in a mechanical body, and they delight in messing up precisely when you need to write papers! Much sympathy.

I'm surprised we don't all throw our computers out the window on a regular basis.

Y'all are not using Macs are ya...? :lol:
:cloud9:

(However, I know why the window at work is sealed shut...I have a peeecee with windoze) :silly:

Yes, it's true. They are. The god who watches over all things computer is, without a doubt, Loki. And AOL is the acronym for Allies Of Loki.

The Mac is too hard. I cannot interpret its beeps. I need an interpreter.

The PC at least TELLS me what I'm doing wrong for the most part.

Oh well, backup on multiple disks and email to yourself :rolleyes: for extra backup.

I'm risking the single thumbdrive and periodic CD backup for homework. If all else fails, stop going to work and redo all homework :wail:

Well, there are disk repair/recovery places but the prices will absolutely floor you if you thought your repair prices were high. It all depends on how desperate you are to not rebuild the data.

Y'all are not using Macs are ya...? :lol:
:cloud9:
haha!

I actually made the switch to the dark side this year as everyone in the art & design dept is required to have a laptop and the photo dept is mac biased.

Come to think of it...I have had less throw it out the window moments... :lol:

*gently removes Ewoyn's sword and gives her a glass of water*

Maybe you can find a library or an internet cafe where you can do your papers?

I always speak well of my computer, it knows everything I type ;) Actually, I work on my computer all day long and, being self-employed, it's vital that my machine and I remain on good terms. That being said, I actually have 3 computers; my main one and two backups, one of which is an old laptop. AndiS had a wonderful idea; those USB memory sticks look awesome, and I've thought about getting one to back up my files. I got bit in the rear when I accidentally knocked over an external hard drive, irreparably breaking the drive and losing a Powerpoint presentation of 50+ pages that I was working on for a client. Fortunately I had saved the presentation in a different type of file so although I had to recreate the actual powerpoint file, I had a guideline to copy. Had I properly backed it up though, I would have saved myself several hours of billable time that I had to write off. It was a hard lesson learned, but I now back up my important files onto a different drive than they are stored on in my computer. Right now I save them to another internal drive, but I think I'm going to get one of those memory sticks!

Thanks for all your advice and nice words! I went and bought some new disks (just in case the problem was old disks) but they still didn't work. I need a computer guru!

Niniane- Yes, I love the subject of my term paper, too! Poor Merlin got locked up in a crystal cave...

Beatnik Guy- No, I'm afraid I have yet to venture into the world of the Mac. Unfortunately, we only learned PCs in the communications Masters program. Now that I've graduated, I've discovered that all the jobs out there in graphics and journalism require you to work on a Mac. :rolleyes: So my education has been deficient! :twisted:

It's times like this that I wish I had been a Info tech major!

The library at school has computers, but it's so crowded that it takes an eternity to get a parking place and to get a computer. Sometimes it takes an hour or two of waiting! I got this computer so I wouldn't have to torture myself. :silly:

Thanks for all your advice and nice words! I went and bought some new disks (just in case the problem was old disks) but they still didn't work. I need a computer guru!

No you don't Eowyn, changing a floppy drive is something you can do yourself!!! The thing is held in by four screws (well mine are held in by two screws but that's because I can't be arsed to put them all back) and is connected by two cables. The worst thing you can do is to put the data cable in the wrong way up but that's not terminal and you can just turn it over to correct it. The drive won't cost that much to buy either.

Here's what looks like a good howto
http://www.windowswarrior.com/fix_floppy1.htm

Get empowered and go for it!!!!!!

Poor Merlin got locked up in a crystal cave...

awww, you know I did it out of love :lol:

(it's that Vivian you've got to watch out for :twisted: )

I wrote a whole paper, saved it, then in the course of about two seconds, deleted it, saved it, and closed the file.

I feel for you!

I would recommend getting a small USB flash drive or thumb drive, they are cheap, hold a lot more data, and are much more reliable than floppies. I haven't used a floppy to store data in years. (I have had too many floppies go bad on me to use them for anything important.) I know its a work around, but at least it fixes the problem and then later you can worry about getting your floppy drive problem worked out.

:)

Y'all are not using Macs are ya...? :lol:
:cloud9:


I was thinking just the same. :lol:
I made the switch this summer and I'm very happy with my Mac.
Have to use Windows at work though.