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Computers 101

Q:
I'm running out of hard drive space, should I save some of my files to floppy disks then take them off the computer?

A:
That's probably a really bad idea.

OK, before you send me a nasty e-mail, let me explain. I get five or six e-mails a week from people trying to save hard drive space by keeping his/her stuff on a floppy disk (then deleting the file from the computer). This is a really bad idea for two reasons:

1. Floppy disks are NOT reliable. You're much more likely to lose info from a floppy disk than a hard drive. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to/e-mail with who ask me how to recover lost data from a floppy disk. Data that was there has "disappeared" or become unreadable. For the most part, when that happens the information is lost forever.

2. A floppy disk only holds 1.44 meg of info. You would need almost 700 floppies to save 1 GB of information. Since most newer hard drives hold 10+ GB, you can see that saving a few files to a floppy isn't going to save a significant amount of space.

My recommendation is if you don't have enough hard drive space, get a second hard drive. Most newer computers support multiple hard drives, and they shouldn't be too expensive to install (much cheaper than the purchase price of 700 floppies). In fact, if you're comfortable with the inner workings of your computer, you can probably do it yourself (it's takes me about 15 minutes to install a drive but about 45 minutes to dig the computer out from under my desk).

In general, only use floppies to transfer information from one computer to another or as a backup. Never put an important file on one, delete it from your hard and expect it to always be there. If you are really set on saving stuff on something other than your hard drive, try using a ZIP disk. You can get a zip drive for less than $100.00 and they are more reliable than floppies (but still not as reliable as hard drives).Of couse, a CD-R or RW drive also works great.

Finally, please don't misunderstand me. Floppies are a good way to back-up important info - and you should always have your important info backed up some way or another. Just don't rely on 3.5 floppies to store your data forever.

-- Steve

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Tip of the Day

File Association Fun

Do you have file association anxiety? Do your JPEG's open up in the wrong program (say your web browser and not your imaging software)? Do you have a file type that isn't associated with any program? Well, there is a solution!

1. Open Explorer (right-click the Start button and select Explore) and head to a file you would like to either associate with another program or get associated with a program for the first time.

2. Once you get to the file, hold down your SHIFT key and right-click it. You will be presented with a menu that gives you an option to Open With.... Select that.

Oh, if you're using XP, you may not even need to hold down the shift key to get this to work. XP usually give you an Open with item on the right-click menu with a sub-menu full of options. If you want to change the association, you'll need to select the Choose Program option.

XP Open With picture:

Note - in the sample pictures, we'll re-associate a JPEG with Photoshop - it was original associated with Internet Explorer. So, in the photo below I hold the SHIFT key down and right-click a JPG file.

3. This will open up a screen where you can tell Windows what program to open that particular file with. Choose the program and make sure the little "Always use this program to open this type of file" checkbox is checked. Hit OK.

That should do it. Windows will now use the new file association when opening the file you just worked with.

--Steve

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http://www.worldstart.com/submitatip.htm

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Lexical Freenet Connected Thesaurus

This site is fabulous for anyone who needs a thesaurus, especially if you’re like me and can never find yours lying around the house. You can power search like never before.

For example, you can search by words that rhyme, words that connect, semantics, biographical, and much more. There are tons of word connection options. And for those of you in college, with literature classes there is even a Shakespeare search. Give it a try.

http://www.lexfn.com/

Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share?
Send it to Amanda at amanda@worldstart.com