How big's your floppy?



  • Just been to Dell's website to download a tool for one of our servers. Now, maybe its just me as I thought floppy drives went out in the 80s, but it seems Dell's reinvented them somewhat, and increased the capacity by a few MB....







    Incidentally, the file "format" is a Windows installation .exe



  •  It's not the disk or other media that's floppy, it's the file itself.



  • Maybe they use zip drives?



  • @MeesterTurner said:

    Now, maybe its just me as I thought floppy drives went out in the 80s

    Went out in the 80s?  Huh?

    I clearly remember installing Windows 95 from floppy discs (I installed 98 from a CD though,) and I think the last time I actually saw one in use on a working system was in 2004, just before thumb drives started becoming popular.



  • @MeesterTurner said:

    Just been to Dell's website to download a tool for one of our servers. Now, maybe its just me as I thought floppy drives went out in the 80s, but it seems Dell's reinvented them somewhat, and increased the capacity by a few MB....







    Incidentally, the file "format" is a Windows installation .exe

    What's so confusing? You download the app, it writes out the included image to the floppy for you. What makes you think you can be trusted with raw floppy images?



  • @russ0519 said:

    @MeesterTurner said:
    Just been to Dell's website to download a tool for one of our servers. Now, maybe its just me as I thought floppy drives went out in the 80s, but it seems Dell's reinvented them somewhat, and increased the capacity by a few MB....



    Incidentally, the file "format" is a Windows installation .exe

    What's so confusing? You download the app, it writes out the included image to the floppy for you. What makes you think you can be trusted with raw floppy images?

     

    Obviously it's a self-extracting executable that unzips to 116 floppy images.



  • @Buffalo said:

    Obviously it's a self-extracting executable that unzips to 116 floppy images.
    Sounds like something I downloaded from Usenet once.



  • @El_Heffe said:

    @Buffalo said:

    Obviously it's a self-extracting executable that unzips to 116 floppy images.
    Sounds like something I downloaded from Usenet once.

    Or NetWare 3.12.



  • Leave @Buffalo said:

    @russ0519 said:

    @MeesterTurner said:
    Just been to Dell's website to download a tool for one of our servers. Now, maybe its just me as I thought floppy drives went out in the 80s, but it seems Dell's reinvented them somewhat, and increased the capacity by a few MB....







    Incidentally, the file "format" is a Windows installation .exe

    What's so confusing? You download the app, it writes out the included image to the floppy for you. What makes you think you can be trusted with raw floppy images?

     

    Obviously it's a self-extracting executable that unzips to 116 floppy images.

    Leave it to dell to create a 160MB program to write a 1.44MB image. But their incompetence doesn't surprise me anymore.



  • @russ0519 said:

    Leave it to dell to create a 160MB program to write a 1.44MB image.

    But.. that's not what actually happened..

    @russ0519 said:

    But their incompetence doesn't surprise me anymore.

    Really? I've always been very happy with Dell. I've had worse experiences with HP.



  • @russ0519 said:

    @MeesterTurner said:

    Incidentally, the file "format" is a Windows installation .exe

    What's so confusing?

    Maybe the fact that "floppy" is more recognised as a storage media rather than a file format.

    file: samuel_j_jackson-floppy-aint-no-file-format-i-heard-of.jpg



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @russ0519 said:
    Leave it to dell to create a 160MB program to write a 1.44MB image.

    But.. that's not what actually happened..

    What did actually happen?

    @russ0519 said:

    But their incompetence doesn't surprise me anymore.

    Really? I've always been very happy with Dell. I've had worse experiences with HP.

    Dell has been good, but the quality of support has been slowly sliding. For example, I can no longer for the life of me download drivers to Dell 1815DN. The only thing that seems to be available is the management pack for System Center.

    I did have a support call with dell about 6 months ago. The mouse wasn't working and when we ran diagnostic tools it failed the hard drive, but not the touchpad. When I told dell they told me that this is sometimes a windows problem and to do a system restore. Not only is this not true since the touchpad wasn't working in diagnostic tools, but doing a system restore would obviously delete any user data on the system. Dell didn't want at all about that, and I really worry about less knowledgeable users who will lose everything.

    Also the last laptop that I got from dell, I planned to swap out the hard drive, as I usually do. When I got the laptop, I realized that they changed the design and in order to replace the hard drive, you have to take the whole laptop apart, take out the motherboard and then replace the drive.

    This is in addition to their retarded idea of having special function keys be default instead of function keys. So if you press F2, instead of rename, it will disable wireless. That is pretty fun when you're trying to rename a file when connected over RDP. Luckily this retarded option can be disabled in the bios.



  • @russ0519 said:

    Dell has been good, but the quality of support has been slowly sliding.

    Their business support still seems pretty good but I'd imagine their consumer support sucks. Nowadays I just assume support isn't included with any consumer product I buy.

    @russ0519 said:

    When I got the laptop, I realized that they changed the design and in order to replace the hard drive, you have to take the whole laptop apart, take out the motherboard and then replace the drive.

    Yeah, they're trying to compete with Apple in the consumer space and their products are suffering for it. I checked out their consumer laptops the other day and several of them were that single-piece body design like a Macbook, making any maintenance almost impossible. They also started using those godawful keyboards like Macbooks have. However, their business laptops (specifically Latitude and Precision) are still very nice and easy to open. I think the Precisions even have a tool-less hard drive caddy.

    @russ0519 said:

    This is in addition to their retarded idea of having special function keys be default instead of function keys. So if you press F2, instead of rename, it will disable wireless. That is pretty fun when you're trying to rename a file when connected over RDP. Luckily this retarded option can be disabled in the bios.

    Yeah, that is dumb. I forgot that even existed because it's always the first thing I disable in the BIOS.



  • @russ0519 said:

    Dell has been good, but the quality of support has been slowly sliding. For example, I can no longer for the life of me download drivers to Dell 1815DN. The only thing that seems to be available is the management pack for System Center.

    I did have a support call with dell about 6 months ago. The mouse wasn't working and when we ran diagnostic tools it failed the hard drive, but not the touchpad. When I told dell they told me that this is sometimes a windows problem and to do a system restore. Not only is this not true since the touchpad wasn't working in diagnostic tools, but doing a system restore would obviously delete any user data on the system. Dell didn't want at all about that, and I really worry about less knowledgeable users who will lose everything.

    Dell support has been crap for years, at least on the consumer side. Their support script is 1) get customer name, address and service tag number, 2) transfer them to someone else who will ask for all the same information, 3) tell them to reboot, 4) if that doesn't work, tell them to reinstall Windows.

    @morbiuswilters said:

    However, their business laptops
    (specifically Latitude and Precision) are still very nice and easy to
    open. I think the Precisions even have a tool-less hard drive caddy.
    Agreed. I've had several Latitudes and never had a problem with any of them. They're built with good quality components and well designed, so they won't crap out 2 weeks after the warranty runs out like the Inspirons.



  • The critical thing is you will get what you pay for with Dells.  If you buy their dirt cheap PCs you will get a cruddy machine.  I always assume customer support will be useless, and I normally can fix my own issues so that is not normally a buying factor for me.  I personally have had 3 dell laptops and at work and college have used a number of dells and they all have had no to minimum issues (except my first laptop, but that was kind of my fault).  My first laptop was very easy to disassemble and get to key parts, and cleaning the fans on it was extremely easy.  I too have noticed that they are going more compacted laptops causing them to be like jigsaw puzzles to take apart (I have not tried to disassemble my newest Dell laptop yet, but it looks troublesome).  As for other brands one of my friends love Toshibas and says they are better than Dells despite having to constantly get some piece of hardware fixed (note he is rather harsh on his laptops, but still).



  • @Anketam said:

    If you buy their dirt cheap PCs you will get a cruddy machine.

    I've bought a few $400 laptops for friends and family. They lasted for 3 years or so, which I consider quite good.



  • @Mason Wheeler said:

    @MeesterTurner said:

    Now, maybe its just me as I thought floppy drives went out in the 80s

    Went out in the 80s?  Huh?

    I clearly remember installing Windows 95 from floppy discs (I installed 98 from a CD though,) and I think the last time I actually saw one in use on a working system was in 2004, just before thumb drives started becoming popular.

    Next time you are in New York City, stop by, and I will give you a demo of a working system that runs from single-sided, single-densidy 8" floppy.  [DEC PDP-8 w/RX-01]



  • @TheCPUWizard said:

    @Mason Wheeler said:
    @MeesterTurner said:
    Now, maybe its just me as I thought floppy drives went out in the 80s

    Went out in the 80s?  Huh?

    I clearly remember installing Windows 95 from floppy discs (I installed 98 from a CD though,) and I think the last time I actually saw one in use on a working system was in 2004, just before thumb drives started becoming popular.

    Next time you are in New York City, stop by, and I will give you a demo of a working system that runs from single-sided, single-densidy 8" floppy.  [DEC PDP-8 w/RX-01]

    You know, that sounds intriguing.  If I wasn't waaaaay across the country in Seattle, I might actually take you up on it...

     


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