cannot save files to flippy disk

[VAquero]

A lot of our users are having problem saving files to floppy. They can drag
& drop from Explorer but just can save to floppy directly, what is your
thought ? We are running W2K and Office XP and I have seen this problem on
different models of PC.
Patches are up to date and anti virus comes up clean.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Your computers are trying to give you some good advice. One should *never*
work directly with a file that's on a floppy. This is the #1 cause of
document corruption. That's because Word (assuming that's what you're
talking about) creates temporary files -- often many many times larger than
the original file -- in which pieces of the document are stored. If Word
runs out of space on the floppy... bam! Instant corruption. If you remove a
floppy before the document is fully closed... bam! Instant corruption.

The only safe thing is to use Windows Explorer to copy the files to your
hard drive, work with the files on your hard drive, then close them. Then
use Windows Explorer to copy them back to the floppy.

 

[VAquero]

Herb, I totally agree with you on the issue of reliability. Personally I
think they should stop shipping PC with floppy drive altogether. On the
W2k systems, the system will just locks up when user try to save to floppy
disk directly. The files are in 20-40k range and the same files/floppy has
no problem in XP+Office2003 systems.

 

[JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP]]

I'll tell you what - when you get your next computer, send me that floppy
drive. I'm not ready to toss them completely yet. And I have CD burners, DVD
burners, portable hard drive, jump drive, and several different flash memory
devices.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

 

[ECCit]

VAquero,
Did you ever determine the cause of your problem? I am experiencing the
same symptoms on about 40 PCs now after they were updated with Windows
Updates.

 

[Bob I]

DON'T work directly with floppy and it won't be an issue and you will
prevent data loss due to floppy failure.

 

[scayford]

There's more info on this bug here:

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=6423226#post6423226

and here:

http://msmvps.com/bradley/archive/2005/07/23.aspx