Problem - Help!

quad_red

Hey all,
Got a paniced call from home down the country last night. My sister is doing her thesis. And despite telling her hundreds of times etc that she should get a USB key disc thingy, she is still wholly dependant on floppies.

Yesterday, she was using the computer, backed her stuff up and turned the comp off. But the floppy won't come out of the drive - it's stuck.

So now windows can't be started cos the pc is trying to boot from this 'non-system' disc. The message to remove the floppy cannot be heeded cos the disc is stuck.

Options:
1) Open the case and disconnect the floppy drive - Not an option. Neither my dad nor sister are capable of anything like that.
2) ???

Anyone have any ideas? It's my girlfriends birthday this weekend and I'll be in the major bad books if I had to drive 5 hours down the country etc to fix a broken floppy.

In the end, the floppy is not too important. If it has to be broken etc only one nights work is lost. But she has to get access to the pc asap to continue her work.

Indeed, if that happens I'll be the one with the broken floppy drive.

Cheers
QUad

MunsterCycling

If you have the option in the bios then move the floppy down the boot order ie. move the HD above it in the boot list.

Should be able to talk them through that on the phone. Have they tried using an opened paper clip to push on the emergency eject tab in the drive? How is it getting stuck?

Save yourself some worry and hastle and buy the sister a USB stick, will get you brownie points too. Most important work should be backed up in multiple places so if she has a gmail acc (if not PM me) then mail all her work to herself every night (obviously only the changed docs) then she can continue at any machine with net access and have multiple backups.

MC


PS If you want to PM me their location I might be local to them, could go over and sort it for her.

quad_red

MunsterCycling wrote:

If you have the option in the bios then move the floppy down the boot order ie. move the HD above it in the boot list.

Should be able to talk them through that on the phone. Have they tried using an opened paper clip to push on the emergency eject tab in the drive? How is it getting stuck?

Save yourself some worry and hastle and buy the sister a USB stick, will get you brownie points too. Most important work should be backed up in multiple places so if she has a gmail acc (if not PM me) then mail all her work to herself every night (obviously only the changed docs) then she can continue at any machine with net access and have multiple backups.

MC


PS If you want to PM me their location I might be local to them, could go over and sort it for her.

Dude, you're a legend! Talked them through it. Emergency over.

MunsterCycling

Now for the online backup...

quad_red

Not a chance.

Got my dad to get her a USB drive today but they still have dial up at home. I could give her a gmail address but the hassle of uploading everything over dial up (and she has ALOT of ****) is a 100% guarantee that she won't do it.

What can you do? I've waxed on about backing up for months. :rolleyes:

spurious

This is called 'active learning' - methinks she will have grasped the importance of backing up now far better than she could by just being told to do it.

Glad it all worked out OK.

quad_red

spurious wrote:

This is called 'active learning' - methinks she will have grasped the importance of backing up now far better than she could by just being told to do it.

Glad it all worked out OK.

Active Learning. I like that.

I don't think I'm even going to bother fixing the floppy drive. Better to force them onto more reliable mediums. Less crap for me to deal with.