Need to Know How to Compress Data on Floppy Disk
Rosie
I have been writing my family history since 1999. The computer I had when I started this history did not have a CD-RW, but it had a floppy diskette drive. I used a floppy disk for my history. I had Windows 98 on my 4 year old computer which I replaced last month. The new computer has XP Home on it. This Monday, I worked some on my history and and when I was finished, I clicked on the "Save" icon in MS Works. I received the message that the computer could not save my work in the location I had picked. This was Drive A. The message said that there was not enough room on the disk. II closed out MS Works and went to My Computer and right clicked on the properties of Drive A and in the pie chart I saw that the disk was not even half full. I was going to compress this data anyway, thinking that I would have more space. I looked for the button which said Compress under Properties. There is no such button in XP Home I discovered. There was in Windows 98. I know, because I used it many times. I would like to know how I can compress the data that I have already put onto this floppy disk.
Scott Ehardt
- make a new folder on your desktop (let's call it Compressed)
- open Windows Explorer and copy the contents into Compressed
- right-click on Compressed and go to "Send To" -> "Compressed (Zipped)
Folder"
This will create a zipped folder using WinXP's built-in zipping program
Alternately you can just right-click and compress the data while it is on
the floppy disk assuming there is enough free space for the original data
and the compressed data to fit.
That said, make sure you also save your data on your computer's hard drive,
or multiple floppies, or anywhere to prevent complete data loss should that
floppy fail.
--
Scott Ehardt
http://www.scehardt.com
"Rosie" <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6EC50C3D-5704-429D...@microsoft.com...
DE
Do NOT SAVE ORIGINAL DATA TO A FLOPPY DISK.
All it takes is a speck of dust, a stray magnetic field, or any of a dozen
other trivial things to cause complete loss of data on the disk.
*Always* save to the hard drive first & then copy to the diskette.
-- DE
Lem
> Hi DE,
> I did not know this about floppy disks. Would it be better if I put the history on CD? I have a CD-RW on my new computer and I could easily do this. What do you think?
Yes, although a CD-R (write once) is probably more stable. Whichever version of CD you choose, make sure that you "make readable on other drives" if that option is presented
by your CD burning software. Just to make sure, you might want to find another computer with a CDROM drive (it doesn't have to be a writeable drive) and confirm that it will
read the CDs that you create. And if you're really paranoid (and with 4 years of family history you might be) periodically make an extra CD and keep it somewhere other than
in your house.
Pavel
the ZIP feature of Windows XP to compress files on the floppy.
--
Pavel
"Rosie" <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4D2ED1DE-19A1-491A...@microsoft.com...
> Hi Scott,
> How do I right click and compress the data while it is still on the
floppy? This is what I am trying to find out how to do. I could do this in
98, because there was button called "Compess" in the Properties of 98's
Drive A. There is no such button in the Properties of XP's Drive A. Where
do I go to right click on the data that is on the floppy? I missed this
part of your answer when I read it earlier this month. Please let me hear
from you.
Steve Nielsen
The floppy disk actually WAS full (or more full) when the document was
open in your word processor because the program creates a temporary
(hidden) copy of the file on the source disk (in this case the floppy)
and (if all goes well) deletes the temp file when the document is closed.
Steve